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4. Musical analysis

Overview of "Ommadawn":

1. Bars 1 (0:00) - 33 Tune A, a "soft" melodious tune, played on harp. The tune is repeated 4 times. In bar 34 there's a 4 bar transition to the next tune.
2. Bars 37 (1:16) - 51 Tune B, played on stringsynthesizer. The character is more floating.
3. Bars 51 (1:44) - 75 Tune A again, but on classical guitar. The tune is repeated 3 times.
4. Bars 79 (2:43) - 121 Tune B played 3 times. The last 2 times with a solo on electrical guitar.
5. Bars 122 (4:13) - 175 Tune C.
6. Bars 175 (5:55) - 199 Tune D is presented. Notice the small detail motif in the tune.
7. Bars 199 (6:57) - 250 Tune D is played 6 times + 1 small coda. Every time somehow different. This is the merriest part of the album.
8. Bars 251 (8:19) - 272 Tune E, the part of the album, which is most lyrical and "pastoral". In bar 27 a cello plays a small paragraph.
9. Bars 279 (9:26) - 284 Tune E, b on electrical guitar. Much rawer sound.
10. Bars 284 (9:47) - 318 Tune C with solo on electrical guitar.
11. Bars 319 (11:09) - 324 Tune A on electrical guitar + transition to next tune.
12. Bars 338 (11:58) - 345 Tune B on panpipe. Floating mood.
13. Bars 345 (12:28) - 443 Tune B sung. The tune is repeated 7 times, every time changed and developed.
14. Bars 443 (15:49) - 475 Building tension.
15. Bars 475 (16:54) - 521 The climax. The tune A played like canon. Electrical guitar as counter voice.
16. Bars 521 (18:29) - Drum solo - fade out.

This was a rough sketch of the structure of "Ommadawn". Some may argue, that such a fracturing of the music destroys something important, the spontaneous first time experience. A long way I agree, but a structure can also give new experiences. You get "the big picture", and experience the music as a coherent homogenous whole.

Musical analysis

I will now go into further detail with the music, and try to discover what is happening, and how the music is built. [Follow the links above for analysis of every tune.]

Created: 18 August, 2004 - Last changed: 18 August, 2004 - Comments (0)