Thursday Tunes

Most people in the Western world can instantly identify the main title from the 1973 film The Exorcist. Few, however, know from whence it came. It is part of a much larger two-piece movement (actually one piece; it was divided into two because there are two sides to a LP) named Tubular Bells, by artist and composer Mike Oldfield.

Linked below is an excerpt (not the scary Exorcist bit; get your head out from under the pillow) which is an "instrumental build": Oldfield's variation on Maurice Ravel's technique from that composer's famous Bolero. (Yes yes... Bo Derek. I know. Music. FOCUS, dammit.) In Oldfield's piece, additional instruments are gradually introduced over the length of the piece, each in its own refrain. Oldfield vocally informs you of the names of each instrument as they are introduced, up to and including the titular tubular bells. Like Ravel's Bolero, this piece really works best when it's cranked up loud enough to annoy family and neighbors.

(Related trivia: the 1973 LP of Tubular Bells was the first album published by the newly-born Virgin Records and was the bestseller (in Europe, at least) which put the company on solid financial footing. So you can blame Mike Oldfield for Richard Branson -- or, if you prefer, the Devil.)




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