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Re: Quad Thoughts



Brian, Re:

>      In the excellent "A Decade Of The Who" book, Pete says "Dr. Jimmy" was 
>      his attempt to write in a "Wagnerian" style.

Although living here in Wagner City for almost eight years now, I am everything
but a Wagner expert.  However, immediately after having bought my Quad CD and
even before having listened to it, I already suspected Pete to have taken a
lesson or two from Wagner when I was just flipping through the lyrics sheet...

Let me explain.  Musically, there are three essential differences between
Wagner's operas and the classical ones:

   (1)  a bombastic orchestra,

   (2)  clearly audible, decipherable, and understandable vocals,

   (3)  an individual musical theme played whenever one of the main characters
   goes on stage.

It was the four themes that reminded me of Wagner at once.  Well, in Quad they
don't refer to different characters but to different facets of Jimmy's
personality, but that doesn't make much difference.  And you are certainly
right:  Among all songs of Quad, `Dr. Jimmy' is the most Wagnerian one,
especially since John's theme is (essentially) purely instrumental.

Maybe we have a better Wagner `expert' than me on the list who could work out
even more details?

Quiz:

   1.  (Who-related)  How often does each of the four themes occur in Quad, and
   where?

   2.  (not at all Who-related)  What famous modern composition transferred
   Wagner's idea of musical themes to other media than opera?

Cheers,

Bernd