Extraterrestrial Opening Showdown

[josuev80]

Also Sprach Zarathustra (1971) vs Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1978-1980).(which also had Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra preceding it). I think the Close Encounters alone would make for a good opener.

[Soundwaveseeker]

I voted for Zarathrustra, as it's a pretty effective piece that a lot of artists have used. I know Rush did, I think Elvis did too I believe. And probably a lot more.

Actually, I've always thought that the opening theme for Battlestar Galactica would have made a great intro opening music for Yes or another band.

[luvyesmusic]

I've always loved this video that has scenes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with YES' Arriving U.F.O..

https://youtu.be/zghPUHmU6Cg

Never ever thought as a kid I would eventually make my way out to Devil's Tower in Wyoming, or that my entire family would see a true, huge mothership decades earlier off the coast of California, that left the atmosphere from a standing stop to less than two seconds, faster than any radar, and faster than any human could survive.

[Ash Armstrong]

I've always wondered if Jon angled for a piece by Sibelius, given his Iove of his music?
I wondered it again on Sunday when I was listening to Sibelius's 5th Symphony. I'm not sure but I think the finale of that, said to be a musical rendition of the beating of swans' wings taking to the air, is in the same key as the Firebird finale...

Also Sprach Zarathustra, as much as I like Strauss's music, has too close a connection with 2001: a Space Odyssey now, though of course the piece itself has nothing whatever to do with space exploration and extra-terrestrials. I knew the symphonic poem before I was aware of its use in Kubrick's masterpiece. It's been used a bit too much to underscore dramatic and mysterious moments in film and TV. It's almost hackneyed.
Close Encounters is among my favourite films, and John Williams score is terrific in its own right, but again brings with it associations of its own. I remember it being unexpected and fun at the start of the 1978 Tormato shows, but I wish they'd used more of it instead of the Britten Guide to the Orchestra. I've grown to love much of Britten's music in the last decade or so, after struggling to 'get it' for much longer, but the Purcell theme and its use in the Guide to the Orchestra just rubs me up the wrong way. Don't like it.
So it's the Sibelius 5th Symphony finale for me, or just stick with the Firebird.

The 'beating swans' wings' motif enters at 1' 15"....

https://youtu.be/wtRPJ6C7Jj8

[Soundwaveseeker]

It is hard to separate the music of Zarathustra from the Close Encounters film or sci-fi connotations. As for Sibelius 5th, I've probably heard it, though I confess I haven't kept up with my 'classical' side as much and need to revisit it. I agree, Firebird over Guide to the Orchestra is the way to go, though any time I listen to Stravinsky's Firebird, I almost expect to hear Siberian Khatru immediately afterwards. Any other classical pieces you think would fit as the intro music to a Yes concert?

[Ash Armstrong]

It is hard to separate the music of Zarathustra from the Close Encounters film or sci-fi connotations. As for Sibelius 5th, I've probably heard it, though I confess I haven't kept up with my 'classical' side as much and need to revisit it. I agree, Firebird over Guide to the Orchestra is the way to go, though any time I listen to Stravinsky's Firebird, I almost expect to hear Siberian Khatru immediately afterwards. Any other classical pieces you think would fit as the intro music to a Yes concert?

I get exactly the same expectation when I listen to the Firebird. There are three pieces of music that explicitly evoke sunrise that occur to me: Sibelius again, his tone-poem Night-ride and Sunrise, Debussy's La Mer, and Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe. Hardly surprising they should be coterminous with Impressionism in painting in seeking to give an 'impression' of a sunrise. The Sibelius isn't of the same style really, but I think they'd serve as Yesshow aperitifs very well.

[Soundwaveseeker]

Oh yes! Daphis & Chloe, I have heard that one. So dreamy! May be Ravel's best work. Well, that I've heard anyway. So much stuff I have never heard, though. La Mer I've heard, Ravel & Debussy the two impressionist heavy hitters. I'm sure I've got some Sibelius in my classical stack. Finlandia, at least. Prokofiev has some great work.

[Gtkgasman]

Of the two, Close Encounters is the one for me. But Firebird trumps both......

the poll is neck and neck, very cool, seems most polls here are like that. Very interesting are these polls....

[T.R. Brockbanks]

I voted for Zarathrustra, as it's a pretty effective piece that a lot of artists have used. I know Rush did, I think Elvis did too I believe. And probably a lot more.

Actually, I've always thought that the opening theme for Battlestar Galactica would have made a great intro opening music for Yes or another band.

Good choice, John Williams' Superman theme might be another one.