Chris2210 wrote:Sorry, I'm going to do the Bruckner comparison again. It's a decent analogy because in comparison with most Yes music it is heavily concerned with contemplation of the Divine. The symphonies are also very lengthy works. But the key thing here is that he was constantly advised by 'well wishers' to revise them, generally to make them leaner, more concise and less meandering.
It leaves musicologists with the problem that there are at least two versions for most of the symphonies (principally the Haas and Nowak editions). So did Bruckner bow to pressure from those who urged him to make cuts? Most of his revisions were longer than the originals. There are very long, meandering, ruminative passages, but the crescendos are all the more shattering for that.
I suppose you could cut the first seven or eight minutes of the Bolero (after all it's only the same theme repeated over and over) or with the 1812 overture just cut to the chase and have the orchestral (and literal) fireworks with the cannon from the end.
They'd be different (and lesser) pieces of music. And so would Tales.
Excellent comment! And I couldn't agree more!
Don't change a single note of Tales. It is what it is, and to alter it is to diminish it.