Moonchild

“Moonchild” … a new arrangement for solo piano of a progressive rock ballad from the late 1960s, early 1970s. King Crimson was one of the first of the post psychedelic rock bands in the UK – an early progressive rock band - often simply called “prog” rock. This particular song was the 4th track on the band’s first album: In the Court of the Crimson King. In that beginning album, the band’s music immediately spanned several music genres: While the earlier 1960s psychedelic rock bands started, and often stayed, within the confines of the typical instrument and lyrical constraints of classic rock/pop bands, progressive rock took that simply as a starting point, adding orchestration techniques from classical music, and also added very poetic lyrics – sometimes abstract and often enigmatic. A few of the psychedelic bands joined in the progressive rock movement and eventually outlasted the movement, as did some of the more well-known prog bands, including King Crimson. King Crimson is somewhat unique in that it survived by disbanding and reforming around a couple of the original musicians along with new musicians. Guitarist Robert Fripp and the incredible lyricist Peter Sinfield were constants for almost all of the various incarnations of King Crimson (Fripp was actually in all incarnations) and that certainly went a long way to establishing the band’s consistence over decades – in fact, King Crimson still exists and performs today, 70 years after its formation, even though most of its original founders and musicians have passed away. This constant regeneration of the band’s lineup led to other bands forming around one or more musicians from some version of King Crimson. For example, Greg Lake, the original bass player and amazing vocalist of King Crimson, went on to join Keith Emerson (himself from “The Velvet Underground” – another prog rock band) and Carl Palmer (ex the prog rock band “The Atomic Roosters”) to create the prog rock super band Emerson Lake & Palmer (known as ELP). In addition, many musicians in other established or fledgling prog rock bands, or from other musical genres, recorded a track or two with King Crimson: Jon Anderson (of Yes), Keith Tippet (a well-known British jazz pianist), Raymond “Boz“ Burrell (from “Bad Company”), etc. In fact, at one point early in his career, Elton John was even booked as a session musician, though Fripp decided not to use him. King Crimson increasingly brought new instruments into its portfolio of sounds: brass, woodwinds and various early synthesizers. The band pioneered many of these within the broader rock genre. While early psychedelic bands (and pop bands) had also started experimenting with such things, it was King Crimson that, for example, pushed the Mellotron to its limits, added the EMI Putney VCS3 analog synthesizer as a staple, and made extensive use of western orchestral instruments. “Moonchild”, as performed by King Crimson, leveraged Greg Lake’s almost angelic voice along with Michael Giles’s groundbreaking percussion, Robert Fripp’s guitar style, Ian MacDonald’s keyboard talent on Mellotron and, of course, Peter Sinfield’s lyrics. The original song is roughly two and a half minutes long, after which it flows straight into a free form jazz improvisational composition – essentially a separate track, but with no track separation. The song is very elegant, very soft and intimate. MUSIC INSIGHTS: I capitalized on the song’s softness, slowing it down somewhat and varying its tempo within the intended phrasing. I moved the melody, and occasionally its accompaniment, through several registers and added some flowing ornamentation and improvisational elements. I used an arpeggiated counter melody to bring out a harmonic context for the melody. VIDEO INSIGHTS: If you read the lyrics, you will find that this song concerns a Moonchild who is alone and dancing in the light, and shadow, of a moon – dancing while waiting for the day. Thus, the video scenes show that dance … Please do indicate if you like the music and/or music video – it would encourage me to release other new works. Also, please do subscribe to this channel so that you get announcements of all future releases. “Moonchild” was composed, performed, and recorded in late April 2023 using Ableton Live 10 together with grand piano samples from Spitfire Audio and Native Instrument libraries. The final post processing and master mix was done with iZotope Ozone 9. At some time in the future, it will be released for streaming. Be sure to subscribe here and follow-on social media or signup for the weekly newsletter through the Solo Hands website (if you sign up for our newsletter, you will also receive our free eBook, Musical Notes – Composing & Arranging … plus you can also get a copy of the full orchestral score for this composition): Twitter: @SoloHandsMusic Facebook: @SoloHandsMusic Instagram: @SoloHandsMusic