Musical Guide to Larks' Tongues In Aspic by King Crimson

By Andrew Keeling

An informative, insightful guide to the secret mechanics that power the mysterious music of King Crimson This is a scholastic yet accessible work. that takes you through all the complexities of the music, stripping away layer after layer to reveal the inner workings of the exquisite machinery of harmony, counterpoint and rhythm that go together to make: "Larks Tongues In Aspic"

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andrew Keeling
• Release date: Nov 12, 2010
• ISBN: 9780956297778

Andrew Keeling

Andrew Keeling is a composer whose vocation only became fully apparent when he was 31. He has said, "I began to think that the musical and psychological pursuits of the first half of my life were insufficient to sustain into the second half of life. Composing presented itself as a solution to this dilemma." He had previously been a cathedral chorister, played as a multi-instrumentalist in various rock bands, and performed as a flute recitalist. Meeting such composers as Sir John Tavener, John Casken, Nicola LeFanu, Anthony Gilbert and Howard Skempton, and the result of embarking on a Jungian analysis in 1987, paved the way for his subsequent creative activities.Since the late 1980's he has written music for the likes of Opus 20, Het Trio, The Hilliard Ensemble, The Apollo Saxophone Quartet, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Evelyn Glennie, The Goldberg Ensemble, Fretwork, Virelai, Gothic Voices, Jacob Heringman, Matthew Wadsworth, Catherine King, Steven Wray, Alison Wells, Ian Mitchell and many others. Some of this music has appeared on CD releases by the Discipline Global Mobile, Riverrun, Burning Shed, Metier and UHR labels, as well as being performed and broadcast worldwide. It has also been published by Faber, Fretwork Editions, Staunch Music and Alto Publications in the UK and PRB Productions in the USA. He has written that, "Both compositionally and analytically, I wanted to reconcile certain features of the rock music I knew and liked with the things I'd assimilated from contemporary classical music."Since the late 1960's Keeling has been a keen advocate of the music of King Crimson, and in 1999 was invited to arrange new versions of the group's music, as well as the solo guitar Soundscapes, by Robert Fripp himself. Some of these have been performed, broadcast and recorded by The Metropole Orchestra of Amsterdam, the early music group Virelai and Contact Contemporary Music Ensemble. He has also written with former Fairport Convention vocalist Judy Dyble, former King Crimson/ELP lyricist Peter Sinfield and author/poet Alison Prince, and featured as an arranger for former Fairport Convention/Steeleye Span/ Albion Band founder member Ashley Hutchins, Ken Nicol (Steeleye Span and the Albion Band) and border-pipes player, Matt Seattle. In 2009 First Things, an album of his early acoustic songs, was recorded by Ken Nicol and released by MVS Recordings. Also as a flautist, together with former King Crimson violinist David Cross, he recorded and released English Sun, an album of nine improvisations, on Noisy Records.Andrew Keeling is also co-author, together with Mark Graham, of A Musical Guide to King Crimson, a series of books exploring the music of King Crimson and published by Spaceward Publications.In 1997 he was awarded the first PhD in Composition from the University of Manchester, and was subsequently a lecturer at the University of Liverpool and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

Book preview

Musical Guide to Larks’ Tongues In Aspic by King Crimson

By Andrew Keeling

Edited by Mark Graham

Smashwords Edition

ISBN 978-0-9562977-7-8

© Copyright Robert Fripp, Andrew Keeling, Mark Graham, 2010

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Part 1

1. Larks' Tongues In Aspic (1973) - Mapping the Album

2. The Early 1970’s

3. Interview with David Cross

4. Interview with John Wetton

5. The Primal/Ritual Voice

6. Textural Accumulation - The Sexual Voice of Larks' Tongues In Aspic

7. The Voice of Nature

8. Landscape - the Voice of Folksong and Modes

a) The English Voice

b) The European Voice - Bartók's Axis System of Tonality

c) The Golden Section

9. Structural Voices

10. The Hidden World of Number

Part 2

11. Larks' Tongues In Aspic Part 1

a) Structure, Music Types and Voice

b) Pitch and Harmonic materials

c) Section 1

Section 2a

Section 2b

Section 3

Section 4 and Graphic Analysis

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

d) Motives as 'Scintillae' and their distribution

e) Rising Lines During Accumulative Passages

f) Octatonic and Pentatonic

12. Larks' Tongues In Aspic Part 2

a) Structure

b) Harmony

c) Rhythm

d) Rhythm Continued.

i) Percussion

ii) Rhythmic 'Five-ness'

13. Conclusion

Appendix –An Analysis Of Red

Bibliographical Notes

Bibliography

Glossary

About The Author

Foreword

I have just scanned through a copy of Andrew Keeling’s Musical Guide to Larks’ Tongues in Aspic by King Crimson. In this book Andrew has applied some powerful analytical tools, deconstructing tonal and metrical materials using Bartok’s Axis system of tonality, the Golden Section and the Fibonacci series. He has also engaged with the ritualistic, occult and mystical components implicit in the album through the lens of Jungian psychology and revealed some fascinating numerical symbolism (particularly around the number 5) whilst developing a finely argued view of the music’s place in the spectrum of rock. Andrew recognises the developmental importance of Larks’ Tongues In Aspic in uniting disparate musical features within a shared language as opposed to the polystylism of earlier progressive rock.

This book is rewarding on a number of levels because Andrew is himself an inspiring musician engaging with music he loves. He is eager to listen to the music from any perspective and rules nothing out of his interpretation. The result is a distinctively personal, affectionate but utterly convincing musical analysis and it is a ground-breaking piece of musicology.

David Cross – King Crimson ’72-’74, David Cross Band, Cross and Keeling.

Preface

In the Spring of 1972 I returned penniless from touring Ireland in a band. One of the first things to be done on arrival was to phone a friend, and fellow King Crimson-enthusiast, to ask if he'd bought the new post-Islands album, which I'd been reading about and eagerly anticipating. This was Larks' Tongues in Aspic. At that time I couldn't afford to buy a copy myself. An hour later he'd arrived at my house, placed record on turntable and we listened to the album from start to finish. I remember commenting how different I thought the music was. It was surprising. Musically, there'd been considerable change. Things seemed harder-edged, and the saxophones were gone now replaced by violin. Next I looked at the artwork which was somehow 'less' compared to earlier King Crimson albums. I also discovered later, when I'd bought the album myself, there'd been reduction in the lyrical dimension. Those were my first impressions. It took me till 2001/02 to fully understand the musical dimensions of the album and write about those discoveries, although I must stress once again that I'm not a writer. Merely an enthusiast.

Writing at a time when funding for British Universities is under severe threat from a Government who appear confused over the real purpose of education (educare), I make no apologies that concepts in this book might seem, at times, somewhat complex and, even, pedantic. However, it is my view that the music of Larks' Tongues In Aspic demands serious attention, hence the approach used here.

I'd like to thank: Mark Graham and Spaceward for putting time and energy into the project; Robert Fripp for inviting me to write about it in the first place, and for allowing me to reproduce the musical examples; David Cross for enlightening me about King Crimson Mk III; John Wetton for answering my questions about King Crimson Mk III; Sid Smith for his book, In the Court of King Crimson - an invaluable source of information about things Crimson; Hugh O'Donnell of the Discipline Global Mobile art department for the photographs; Jason Walsh for making my original pencil score of Larks' Tongues In Aspic Pt. 2 thoroughly presentable.

Andrew Keeling - February, 2010.

Part 1

1. Larks' Tongues In Aspic (1973) - Mapping the Album

It had been nearly two years since the release of King Crimson's previous studio album, Islands, and Robert Fripp was now the sole surviving member from the original line-up of the band. The genesis of Larks' Tongues In Aspic, the fifth studio album, owes much to Fripp's disillusionment with the first two incarnations of King Crimson, after feeling that the grandiose inclinations of classical Progressive rock were dead, and that the new King Crimson should be a leaner, yet stronger enterprise. (1)

Larks' Tongues In Aspic is the result of the interaction between Fripp and the new members he had recently recruited: Bill Bruford (drums) from the highly successful Yes; John Wetton (bass guitar/vocals) formerly of Mogul Thrash and Family; David Cross, a classical violinist, flautist and keyboardist who was also a composer; Jamie Muir (percussion) from the enclaves of avant-garde jazz. This highly eclectic unit, minus Muir, would be responsible for a further two studio albums, Starless and Bible Black (1973) and Red (1974). The inclusion of Muir looks forward to Pat Mastelotto's contribution on the later Thrak (1995), as well as owing something to former drummer Michael Giles' work on McDonald and Giles' eponymous album (1970). Richard Palmer James, a friend of John Wetton's, was also drafted as a lyricist for the three albums, but unlike Peter Sinfield was not to be involved as sleeve-designer, producer or sound-engineer.

With a front-line of Cross and Fripp providing height, line and harmony, and a rhythm section of Wetton and Bruford providing depth, fire-power and incredible rhythmic precision, together with Muir spraying timbral-rhythmic decoration over and within the texture, the stage was set.

The band included the potential for complex polyrhythmic interplay, and the opposites which, as we shall discover, are involved in the aural and visual dimensions of the album's architecture appear in the immense range of possibilities provided by the instrumentation. The first incarnation of King Crimson came to prominence through a fusion of musical, philosophical and psychological opposites borne through the interaction of its members. Similar

Reviews for Musical Guide to Larks' Tongues In Aspic by King Crimson

[Brian Robison · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Dr. Keeling analyzes this landmark album from multiple perspectives, ranging from the extramusical (including alchemy and Tantra) to the musical (including highly technical analysis following Lendvai and Schenker). He carefully situates Larks' Tongues in Aspic within the band's (or rather, the bands') overall career, and in a bonus appendix, supplies a detailed analysis of the piece Red that followed two years later. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the album; readers untrained in academic music analysis can easily skip those portions and still learn to hear and think about this music in new ways.