A progressive rock legend! Nothing more, nothing less...
A progressive rock legend! Nothing more, nothing less...
Wow....Marian has never received recognition of other keyboard giants because of his East Block background but IMHO he was always one of them ...RIP
Last edited by Progmatic; 08-11-2017 at 01:57 PM.
Agree!.Originally Posted by Progmatic
RIP!.
n.p.:
Konvergencie.
https://youtu.be/xKEZ2X8S_3g
RIP. Reads as though he was ailing for some time now...
"Always ready with the ray of sunshine"
Marian was unfortunately a chain smoker and that caught up with him. There was a great concert to his 70s birthday. He was on the wheel chair and on the oxygen.
He was certainly a great keyboard player. While I find the Collegium Musicum albums uneven, Stāle tie dni is a delight. R. I. P.
May his soul rest in peace, he is a great artist.
He was outstanding, both as player and artistic thinker.
Despite the frequent comparisons to western key-wizards, Varga's outset appears to have been altogether quite different, in that his attempts at synthetic and symbiotic forms of composition and performance was often highly post-modern in conceptual approach. Many listeners will thereby be rather bewildered at the consciously grotesque and apparent kitsch in Collegium Musicum's particular brand of "crossover" aesthetics et al. I remember an interview from approx 20 years back in which he noted B-films as one of his strongest influences; the eventual quality of their outcome as opposed to their intended valor as singular expressions of artwork. It would appear that he sought a sense of translation of those principles into making a total style of sound. And I think he came pretty damn close in albums such as Konvergencie and Divergencie (both double albums, ten years apart), which collect an unprecedented variety of differing genres and classes juxtaposed.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
Some of Varga's early experimentation could also be seen as subversive, considering the time and circumstances that he was doing it in. Rocking up and scrambling classical themes must have raised a few eyebrows, even if they may have given initial respectability necessary to sell the idea of playing rock music in the first place to the gatekeepers and censors of the day. Even Keith Emerson's similar efforts have allowed an interpretation that he was brazenly approriating and refashioning the music of ”establishment”, rather than pleading recognition from the same establishment and kitsching up the classics in the process.
Konvergencie and Divergencie indeed offer a variety show's worth of seemingly disparate musical styles, though Konvergencie does ”converge” a bit at the end of ”Eufónia”. Both albums do share the overall structuring of their four sides: a choral/rock mixture, a poppy or folky song cycle, a long-form art music piece/adaptation and a fusion suite/avant garde keyboard solo. The approach could be thought of as post-modern play of intertextuality.
This isn't what I'd call bewildering or distracting, though. I mean Divergencie is, obviously, more divergent, where as Konvergencie crunches up the various influences through Varga's almost thrashy organ-dominated sound and approach quite ”convergently”. Many of the bits he employs just leave me rather and strikes me as somewhat dated experiments that don't transcend their own time (the popular ”Eufonia” for example). Some I like much better, such as the side three of both albums. I can appreciate the thought and effort, without loving it. This also why Stāle tie dni works for me. There he seemed to be constantly on the right page, dangerously and attractively so.
^ Some great and interesting observations there, Kai. I listened to my ol' copy of Zelena Posta on coming home from work today, and it strikes me that even here his tendency displays in a strange variation on popular folk forms of Bohemian music. It seems he was dedicated to a kind of "meta narrative" - or indeed subversive and intertextual, as you pointed out - in bringing his artistic visions to life. Working with the most up-front Czech pop/beat singer of the day as sideman must have helped, of course, but more than a simple set of listenable tunes there's a total imprint of strategy and concept to what he was doing even here. Such a shame that he isn't better known with more "prog" fans; there's a whole other level of musical intelligence on offer here than in what many other famous 70s stalwarts were presenting.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
Been listening heavily to Collegium Musicum recently. It has reminded me in a convincing way of what I truly love about progressive rock music. The music's unpretentiousness and explosive energy creates a world of its own, which asserts itself with disdain to all outside demands. You are either into it or not, there's no middle choice. Varga is simply an outstanding talent of a musician, and one of the greats of the genre in his own right.
^ Yep, and this is still the case when Varga slams the big drum and brings in a string quartet, a horn section or a Gregorian choir or an entire philharmonic ensemble. It must have been a literal gas of exhaustion to apply for grants and deals from the cultural committees of faint bureaucratic constipation in the one-party state at the time - yet he succeeded again and again!
I keep coming back to the 1973 live album. That trio is simply just playing the moment; there's no doodle to duration when it's about tonal sonic. Space and time as sound.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
That’s the one I kept.
Steve F.
www.waysidemusic.com
www.cuneiformrecords.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"the masses have spoken, and this has appropriately vanished into the great Prog boner pile in the sky."
“Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin
"Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"
please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.
I love the trio format, but the stupid 5 hours long drum solo sort of ruins it for me. Equally good and explosive is the Collegium with Mario Varga live album of 1975. You hear beautiful shades of Ravel's Bolero in Mikrokosmos, but after awhile it doesn't even matter which part is Classical reference and which is Varga's conception, since in a style which is so incorporative of everything it's Varga's stamp on the music.
I also like very much Continuo, which is Varga's attempt on a more structured composing of progressive music. The Gentle Giant influence is quite evident, and the music is such fun to listen to. And come on, Fredor Freso is a god of a bass player.
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