Five Bridges
Encyclopedia
The Five Bridges Suite is a modern piece of music, written in the 1960s, combining classical music and jazz
. Written about the UK city of Newcastle upon Tyne
, it was released as an album by The Nice
which achieved the number two position in the UK album charts. In the Q
& Mojo
Classic Special Edition Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, the album came #29 in its list of "40 Cosmic Rock Albums".
conducted by Joseph Eger on October 10, 1969 (the recorded version is from October 17 in Croydon
's Fairfield Halls
). The title refers to the city's five bridges spanning the River Tyne
(two more have since been built over the river), and the album cover features an image of the Tyne Bridge
.
The five movement
s are:
The most elaborate orchestral writing is the Fantasia, but even this is fairly rudimentary, which is understandable as it was Emerson's first foray into this medium. Emerson credits Friedrich Gulda
for inspiring the High Level Fugue, which uses jazz figures in the strict classical form. Individually, the movements are not worthy of special notice, but the suite
as a whole is remarkable for its successful integration of the disparate materials. The ambitious nature of the production is also laudable - the entire suite was recorded at a concert
performance and meetings of pop
groups and orchestras were not at all commonplace.
Also included on the Five Bridges album
were live
performances from the same Fairfield Hall concert of the Sibelius
Intermezzo
and a movement from Tchaikovsky
's Pathetique
Symphony
. Both involved the orchestra playing the "straight" music juxtaposed with the trio's interpretations. Newly discovered material from this concert was later issued as part of a 3-CD set entitled Here Come The Nice.
The Five Bridges album also included a blending of Bob Dylan
's Country Pie with Bach
's Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 (with a quote of Coleman Hawkins
' jazz line Rifftide as well) and a studio recording of the original One of Those People.
The original album is tracks 1 to 8. The bonus tracks are tracks 9 to 13. Unfortunately, the "Five Bridges Suite" track numbers bear no relation to the music - and the sleeve notes bear no relation to the CD tracks.
Sleeve Notes
CD Tracks
Actual Music
This means that Track 3 is actually the 2nd Bridge and Track 4 contains 3rd Bridge, 4th Bridge (at 3.32) and 5th Bridge.
With:
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
. Written about the UK city of Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
, it was released as an album by The Nice
The Nice
The Nice were an English progressive rock band from the 1960s, known for their blend of rock, jazz and classical music. Their debut album, The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack was released in 1967 to immediate acclaim. It is often considered the first progressive rock album...
which achieved the number two position in the UK album charts. In the Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
& Mojo
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
Classic Special Edition Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, the album came #29 in its list of "40 Cosmic Rock Albums".
History
The work was commissioned for the Newcastle Arts Festival and premiered with a full orchestraOrchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
conducted by Joseph Eger on October 10, 1969 (the recorded version is from October 17 in Croydon
Croydon
Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...
's Fairfield Halls
Fairfield Halls
Fairfield Hall is an arts centre in Croydon, London, England and opened in 1962. It contains a concert hall, the Ashcroft Theatre , the Arnhem Gallery civic hall and an art gallery....
). The title refers to the city's five bridges spanning the River Tyne
River Tyne
The River Tyne is a river in North East England in Great Britain. It is formed by the confluence of two rivers: the North Tyne and the South Tyne. These two rivers converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Waters'.The North Tyne rises on the...
(two more have since been built over the river), and the album cover features an image of the Tyne Bridge
Tyne Bridge
The Tyne Bridge is a through arch bridge over the River Tyne in North East England, linking Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead. It was designed by the engineering firm Mott, Hay and Anderson, who later designed the Forth Road Bridge, and was built by Dorman Long and Co. of Middlesbrough. At the time...
.
The five movement
Movement (music)
A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...
s are:
- Fantasia - orchestra with solo pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
interludes by Keith EmersonKeith EmersonKeith Noel Emerson is an English keyboard player and composer. Formerly a member of the Keith Emerson Trio, John Brown's Bodies, The T-Bones, V.I.P.s, P.P. Arnold's backing band, and The Nice , he was a founder of Emerson, Lake & Palmer , one of the early supergroups, in 1970... - Second Bridge - trioTrio (music)Trio is generally used in any of the following ways:* A group of three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument.* The performance of a piece of music by three people.* The contrasting section of a piece in ternary form...
without orchestra - Chorale - Lee Jackson's vocals with orchestra, alternating with piano trio interludes
- High Level Fugue - piano with accompanying cymbalCymbalCymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
s - Finale - a restating of the Second Bridge with additional jazz hornHorn (instrument)The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
players.
The most elaborate orchestral writing is the Fantasia, but even this is fairly rudimentary, which is understandable as it was Emerson's first foray into this medium. Emerson credits Friedrich Gulda
Friedrich Gulda
Friedrich Gulda was an Austrian pianist and composer who worked in both the classical and jazz fields.Born in Vienna as the son of a teacher, Gulda began learning to play the piano from Felix Pazofsky at the Wiener Volkskonservatorium, aged 7...
for inspiring the High Level Fugue, which uses jazz figures in the strict classical form. Individually, the movements are not worthy of special notice, but the suite
Suite
In music, a suite is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed in a concert setting rather than as accompaniment; they may be extracts from an opera, ballet , or incidental music to a play or film , or they may be entirely original movements .In the...
as a whole is remarkable for its successful integration of the disparate materials. The ambitious nature of the production is also laudable - the entire suite was recorded at a concert
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
performance and meetings of pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
groups and orchestras were not at all commonplace.
Also included on the Five Bridges album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
were live
Recorded live track
A recorded live track is a song or audio sequence recorded from live performances .Live song tracks typically have concert hall noise . Though often less precise than practiced, studio recordings, live recordings may offer a more exciting feel...
performances from the same Fairfield Hall concert of the Sibelius
Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious."...
Intermezzo
Intermezzo
In music, an intermezzo , in the most general sense, is a composition which fits between other musical or dramatic entities, such as acts of a play or movements of a larger musical work...
and a movement from Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
's Pathetique
Symphony No. 6 (Tchaikovsky)
The Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, Pathétique is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's final completed symphony, written between February and the end of August 1893. The composer led the first performance in Saint Petersburg on 16/28 October of that year, nine days before his death...
Symphony
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
. Both involved the orchestra playing the "straight" music juxtaposed with the trio's interpretations. Newly discovered material from this concert was later issued as part of a 3-CD set entitled Here Come The Nice.
The Five Bridges album also included a blending of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's Country Pie with Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 (with a quote of Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...
' jazz line Rifftide as well) and a studio recording of the original One of Those People.
Side one
- "The Five Bridges Suite" (Emerson, Jackson) - 18:06
- "Fantasia 1st Bridge"
- "2nd Bridge"
- "Chorale 3rd Bridge"
- "High Level Fugue 4th Bridge"
- "Finale 5th Bridge"
Side two
- "Intermezzo 'Karelia Suite'" (Sibelius) – 9:01
- "Pathetique (Symphony No. 6, 3rd Movement)" (Tchaikovsky, Arr. Emerson, Joseph Eger) – 9:23
- "Country Pie/Brandenburg Concerto No. 6" (Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
) – 5:40 - "One Of Those People" (Emerson/Jackson) – 3:08
CD Reissue
The CD reissue has 5 bonus tracks. These are:- "The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack"
- "Flower King of Flies"
- "Bonnie K"
- "Diary of an Empty Day"
- "America"
The original album is tracks 1 to 8. The bonus tracks are tracks 9 to 13. Unfortunately, the "Five Bridges Suite" track numbers bear no relation to the music - and the sleeve notes bear no relation to the CD tracks.
Sleeve Notes
- "The Five Bridges Suite" - Tracks 1 to 8
CD Tracks
- 1 "Fantasia 1st Bridge/2nd Bridge" (2.42)
- 2 "Chorale 3rd Bridge" (3.27)
- 3 "High Level Fugue 4th Bridge" (4.01)
- 4 "Finale 5th Bridge" (7.59)
Actual Music
- "Fantasia 1st Bridge" (6.11)
- "2nd Bridge" (3.58)
- "Chorale 3rd Bridge" (3.32)
- "High Level Fugue 4th Bridge" (1.00)
- "Finale 5th Bridge" (3.26)
This means that Track 3 is actually the 2nd Bridge and Track 4 contains 3rd Bridge, 4th Bridge (at 3.32) and 5th Bridge.
Personnel
- Brian DavisonBrian Davison (drummer)Brian Davison , nicknamed "Blinky", was a British drummer, best known for his work in The Nice. He was born in Leicester and died in Horns Cross, Devon....
- drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration... - Keith EmersonKeith EmersonKeith Noel Emerson is an English keyboard player and composer. Formerly a member of the Keith Emerson Trio, John Brown's Bodies, The T-Bones, V.I.P.s, P.P. Arnold's backing band, and The Nice , he was a founder of Emerson, Lake & Palmer , one of the early supergroups, in 1970...
- keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments... - Lee JacksonLee Jackson (bassist)Lee Jackson is a British bass player and singer, best known for his work in The Nice.-Biography:...
- vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
With:
- Joe HarriottJoe HarriottJoseph Arthurlin 'Joe' Harriott was a Jamaican jazz musician and composer, whose principal instrument was the alto saxophone....
- Saxophone - Peter KingPeter King (saxophonist)Peter John King is an English jazz saxophonist, composer, and clarinettist.- Early life :Peter King was born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, on August 11, 1940. He took up the clarinet and saxophone as a teenager, entirely self taught...
- Saxophone - Chris PyneChris PyneNorman Christopher "Chris" Pyne was an English jazz trombonist.Pyne was the brother of Mick Pyne, and played piano as a child before switching to trombone...
- Trombone - Alan SkidmoreAlan SkidmoreAlan Skidmore is a tenor saxophonist of jazz and blues music, son of the saxophonist Jimmy Skidmore.-As a sideman:...
- Saxophone - John Warren
- Kenny WheelerKenny WheelerKenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC is a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. since the 1950s....
- Trumpet, Flugelhorn