Snapshots in The Family Album: The Structure, Content, and Context of Three Pink Floyd Guitar Solos [PDF]

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The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School School of Music

SNAPSHOTS IN THE FAMILY ALBUM: THE STRUCTURE, CONTENT, AND CONTEXT OF THREE PINK FLOYD GUITAR SOLOS

A Master's Paper by David E. Chávez © Copyright 2007 David E. Chávez

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Music in Composition/Theory May, 2007

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Introduction The guitar solos of David Gilmour, lead guitarist of British rock band Pink Floyd, have proven enduringly popular despite his relatively low public profile for a rock musician.1 Pink Floyd's songs “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2,” and “Comfortably Numb” include famous examples of Gilmour performing blues-based, improvised-sounding electric guitar solos. These solos are used by Pink Floyd as crucial instruments of storytelling and meaning within the whole of the concept album The Wall. In “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2,” the guitar solo symbolizes an escape from an environment of suffocating conformism. In “Comfortably Numb,” the guitar solos express the pain in which the album's main character is trapped. These solos fill their roles through well-crafted large-scale structure and rhythm, deftly executed figuration and ornamentation, exciting timbral choices, appropriate backing instrumentation, and precise recording-studio craft and composition.

Methodology This paper will begin with a short discussion of Schenkerian analysis—a significant feature of the analyses that follow. This is followed by a brief overview of the electric guitar 1 Cliff Jones writes in his preface to the encyclopedic Another Brick in the Wall: The Story of Every Pink Floyd Song: “Pink Floyd are a cult of unpersonality, a band who, after the departure of Syd, were bereft of a personal focal point and so let the icons and imagery of their albums do the job for them. This created one of the great marketing strategies of all time – the anti-image image. This is a band who are not only aware of their own cultish appeal, but who exploit it at every possible turn, seeding their albums with secret messages, puzzles and visual cues that lead some to assume there is some higher power at work behind it all. Think about the powerful icons the band have created – huge visual monoliths that dominate their covers: pigs, power stations, walls, and prisms. These are amongst the most recognised and evocative images on earth, reinforcing the Pink Floyd global brand image, yet their creators could walk through any shopping mall in any country unrecognised. Roger Waters has quipped that the band's image is so strong that the band could conceivably still be playing in 200 years time – the mantle simply passed down through the generations to other anonymous-looking musicians.” (1996, 6) The legendary images of Pink Floyd's album covers are the work of Storm Thorgeson (http://www.stormthorgerson.com) and Hipgnosis, a graphic design studio specializing in creative photography, which Thorgeson cofounded. Thorgeson and Hipgnosis also designed album artwork for Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel, Styx, Syd Barrett, Yes, and others.

Chávez 3 solo and the blues before 1979, and a biographical sketch of Pink Floyd's career up to The Wall (1979). These sections culminate in an analysis focusing on the guitar solos of “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” and “Comfortably Numb.” The analysis of each song is divided into sections on pitch, rhythm, timbre, and other (non-guitar) instruments, all of which are unified in a section discussing extra-musical meaning. Though the sections on pitch also discuss Gilmour's local-level pitch construction and ornamentation, a primary focus is placed on finding larger-scale structure. A creative application of Schenkerian principles aids in understanding and fruitfully hearing Pink Floyd's broad (for rock music) musical structures. For purposes of clarity, it is necessary to establish a common vocabulary for the characters and creators of this semi-autobiographical album. The main character in the plot of The Wall is a rock star named Pink Floyd. In this paper, the name “Pink Floyd” will be used to refer to creators of the musical material, while the name “Pink” will refer to the main character of the concept album's story. Therefore, this paper employs the name “Pink Floyd” at times to refer not only to the band members themselves, but to any producers, session musicians, recording engineers, or other parties who had a significant influence on any aspect of the finished recording. By nature, a finished recording of a rock song is usually the work of multiple authors, even if the song had only a single “songwriter.” As Moore explains, there is an important distinction between the “primary text” for studying a classical piece and what we should consider as the primary text for the study of rock music. He writes: The primary medium of transmission of music throughout the European art tradition is, and for centuries has been, stave notation. The primary medium of transmission of rock, since at least mid1950s' rock'n'roll, has been the recording. This distinction is

Chávez 4 fundamental. European art music is performed with reference to a pre-existent score, which is accepted as an encoded version of the sounds intended by the composer. The rock score, where one exists, is actually a transcription of what has already been performed and produced. Therefore, although the analysis of art music is, normally, the analysis of the score, an analysis of rock cannot follow the same procedure. It must refer to the primary text, which is, in this case, what is heard. (2001, 34-35) Though primarily written from study of the recorded “text,” this paper does make extensive use of Western stave notation. Moore adds a wise caveat for the support of notation as a stillvaluable tool for studying rock music: “And yet, we cannot ignore notation altogether, since it does play a role (sheet music remains available), and can be valuable if its use is carefully considered” (2001, 35). While Western notation cannot adequately convey the local-level subtleties of pitch inflection which are so fundamental in rock and blues guitar styles, notation can provide a useful analytical tool for seeing larger-scale structure.

Schenkerian Analysis Early in the twentieth century, Austrian theorist Heinrich Schenker (1868-1935) developed enormously influential theories about the structure of tonal music based almost entirely on music of earlier centuries. He is credited with discerning a relatively small number of elemental patterns that seem to define large-scale tonal structure for common-practice-period musical works of all genres, lengths, and levels of surface complexity.2 As he was developing the theories that would become his best-known legacy, Heinrich Schenker was also teaching, performing, and composing. He intended his theoretical models to 2 For a more detailed introduction to Schenkerian analysis and suggestions for further reading, see Cadwallader and Gagné's text titled Analysis of Tonal Music or Pankhurst's web-based Schenkerguide.com: A Guide to Schenkerian Analysis.

Chávez 5 aid in the practical side of music. Indeed, the ideas for this paper grew from a simple discovery the author made while completing an assignment for a class on Schenkerian analysis. By discovering an upward-moving structural level behind the foreground in the guitar solo from a “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2”, the author could not only conceptualize but hear an important way in which the solo maintained a sense of direction and motion, even through rests and foreground-level changes in direction. More importantly, the analysis of the developing canon of rock music can aid not only in our understanding as theorists, but also in our appreciation as listeners and our active music-making as composers, songwriters and performers. While there are many books on popular-music guitar technique and many writings on the texts and subtexts of rock music, these writings often avoid an in-depth discussion of mediumand large-scale musical structure, at least in musical terms. By adapting Schenker's approach and applying other analytical tools, this paper deconstructs the solos in question in an effort to better understand how they function as tools of music and storytelling.

The Electric Guitar Solo and the Blues ...Well you know the blues got pregnant And they named the baby rock & roll. -Muddy Waters3 Like the music Schenker studied, 1970s rock music is descended from a number of vernacular and art music genres. The genre which exerted the most direct influence on rock guitar solos was the blues. In Rock: The Primary Text, Allan F. Moore writes : Improvisation, that seemingly most ineffable of musical 3 Lyrics from “The Blues Had a Baby and They Named It Rock and Roll.”

Chávez 6 techniques, is surrounded by myths that treat it as somehow magical, in that it purports to bypass the mind's conscious mechanisms, providing a vehicle for performers to express themselves in a fashion unmediated by any other concerns, thus bringing them closer to pre-verbal or pre-conceptual expression. Now it may be true that improvisers do not think through their actions verbally, especially when they are executed at speed, but it cannot and does not follow that these actions escape conscious control. Because what actually happens runs counter to popular intuition, it is vital that the practice of improvisation is subjected to some scrutiny. (2001, 83) By 1979, the electric guitar solo had already become an important form of emotional and musical expression in blues and rock music. The instrument's technique had developed significantly through the work of player/composers from Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, and T-Bone Walker to Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and Jimmy Page. From the second and third decade of the twentieth century, Jefferson, Johnson, Walker and others developed many of the pentatonic-based figures and musical mannerisms essential to later blues and rock guitar music. Beginning in the 1930s, advances in electric-guitar making and amplification enabled performers like Walker to expand the instrument's expressive possibilities and viability for live performance. These pioneers gave the blues electric guitar a language of voice-like expressive inflection that would compete with and eventually surpass the popularity of the saxophone and other popular music instruments. In the 1950s, players like Chuck Berry introduced virtuosic electric guitar music to white audiences as rock and roll became the commercially-dominant genre of American and British popular music. The 1950s also saw the development of two instrument models which remain dominant and mostly unchanged today: the Gibson Les Paul and the Fender Stratocaster. By the 1960s, American blues players including Muddy Waters inspired a new generation

Chávez 7 of British guitarists, both with live performances in British clubs and through newly available recordings. A British revival of the blues began, in part as a reaction to “the banality of the hitparade material and of rock and roll (which by the early 1960s had lost its power to surprise)” (Moore, “Blues-rock” n.d.). This underground movement began as a search for what was considered more authentic, acoustic blues, but would fundamentally shape the music of the Beatles, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Elton John, the Rolling Stones, and many others. Clapton's guitar playing is strongly and purposefully based in the blues. From the formation of the British trio Cream in 1966, Clapton's music included experiments that would become fundamental to progressive rock. Moore writes: “...until the advent of Eric Clapton, [guitar solos] tend to remain secondary to the song itself” (2001, 41). Simultaneously, his playing prompted a fan following which revered him as a “guitar god.” In the hands of Clapton and others, the guitar solo took on a new level of social and musical importance in rock.4 Beginning especially from his tenure as the opening act for Cream, Jimi Hendrix pushed the envelope of the electric guitar with his dazzling and influential combination of showmanship, facility on his instrument, and use of electronic effects. John Piccarella writes: “His revolutionary guitar technique and his innovative use of the recording studio as a compositional environment have had a greater impact on rock music than the work of any other musician.” Hendrix songs like “Machine Gun”5 and “All Along the Watchtower”6 helped redefine the sonic potential of the electric guitar, both in live performance and in the studio. Clapton and Hendrix were only two of many important guitarists in a period of musical and social experimentation. 4 The live recording of “Crossroads” on the Cream compilation album Gold is a fine example of Clapton's exciting live improvisation. 5 A good rendition is included on the live recording Band of Gypsys (1970). Hendrix marries explosive bluesbased pitch combinations with guitar sound effects evoking machine guns and other sounds of war. 6 A studio version, including moving panning, is second-to-last song on Electric Ladyland (1968).

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Common Features of Blues-Based Guitar Solos The pitch world of blues melody is built on the foundation of a repeated 12-bar chord progression and its variants.

Chord:

I

I

I

I

IV

IV

I

I

V

V

Bar #:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

(or IV)

I

I

11

12

Table 1: Basic 12-bar blues chord progression

Rock musicians whose melodies are blues-based often eschew this chord progression as a whole. However, 12-bar blues is one precursor of the IV-I harmonic motions commonly found in rock music. Blues melodies often to employ a third, a seventh, and sometimes a fifth which are flatted (fully or microtonally) in relation to the major scale (see Figure 1). These pitches are referred to as “blue notes.”

Figure 2: C-major scale with blue notes

The pitch world of blues melody is strongly marked by tension and fluidity between the major and minor versions of the third diatonic scale degree (Eb and E natural in C tonality). A similar tension and fluidity occurs between the tritone and the diatonic-major scale degrees adjacent to it (F#/Gb surrounded by F and G). Blues players move among the members of these and other

Chávez 9 pitch groupings and their microtonal inflections with a freedom of portamento unavailable in common-practice Western art music performance practice. Indeed, a blues musician's treatment of pitch and other parameters is descended from the conflict and confluence of African (including pentatonic and other non-Western scales) and Western musical traditions.7 Many common blues figurations are based on ornamented stepwise motion through the pentatonic scale (see Figure 3).

Figure 4: A pentatonic scale and sample figuration

A common upward-motion figure is shown below.

Figure 5 In terms of form, the guitar solo most commonly functions as a bridge section between repeats of sung verses and/or refrain material. However, the blues-based electric guitar solo was and is also used as the most important part of a closing jam section (coda) as in “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2.” Other examples include “The Thrill is Gone” by B.B. King and “Free Bird” by Lynryd Skynyrd. Numerous blues and rock songs include electric guitar solos in more than one section. 7 See Middleton's chapter titled “Some Aspects of the Blues” in Pop Music and the Blues.

Chávez 10 The solos from “Comfortably Numb” and “Free Bird” exemplify the way in which fundamental changes in tempo, timbre, harmony, and/or other parameters can give a second (or third) solo a sense of having arrived somewhere new from an earlier solo. In “Free Bird,” the title character finishes apologizing and chooses instead to fly, depicted in a guitar solo of frenetic momentum. In the movie version of The Wall, the initially catatonic rock star erupts into violent action at the start of the second guitar solo. Traditionally, a blues song's story was more static. The song might describe a situation with growing intensity, but by the end of the song, the situation remains unchanged. Writing on harmonic patterns and formal structures, Moore comments, It seems that types of patterns may well acquire specific connotations. Patterns involving a minimal number of elements may connote 'stasis' and 'timelessness' (the guitar solo of the hippy era was frequently executed over a harmonic drone). It also seems to me that sequences which stick rigidly within a single mode (as opposed to using altered triads) may similarly connote certainty, stability, acceptance and even resignation: not for nothing are blues conventionally content to describe the situation. (2001, 55) Therefore, some multiple-guitar-solo songs transcend the stationary narratives common to more pure blues. The sequence of guitar solos takes the story somewhere new. In The Wall, Gilmour's solos both serve and enhance the song-level and album-level narratives. By 1979, the blues-based electric guitar solo was a well-established type of instrumental performance with a canon of widely-recognizable techniques and devices. Gilmour's solos in The Wall have nowhere near the experimental edge of some of the greatest recordings by Hendrix, Clapton, Led Zeppelin, or of Pink Floyd's earlier recordings. However, like Mozart in some of his finest arias, Gilmour seeks in the Wall guitar solos to raise an established musical idiom to its highest potential; he concentrates on doing the idiom extremely well as opposed to experimenting in search of a startlingly new idiom.

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Pink Floyd Syd Barrett (guitar and vocals), Nick Mason (drums), Roger Waters (bass guitar and vocals), and Rick Wright (keyboards) formed Pink Floyd in 1965 while they were students in London. Barrett studied painting, while the other three were architecture students. According to Mikal Gilmore, writing in Rolling Stone magazine's recent Pink Floyd cover story, ...what would bring Waters, Barrett, Mason and Wright together was a passion for the promising sounds of rock & roll, blues and R&B. Like other key British musicians -- including John Lennon, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page -- Pink Floyd would take the spirit of experimentation that they gained from art school and apply it to the raw form of rock & roll, with results that would transform the culture around them. (2007) Barrett, the band's original chief songwriter, named Pink Floyd after two legendary bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. The band became the unofficial house band of the drug-infused London psychedelic music scene,8 armed with an improvisational, experimental, and engaging style accompanied by an innovative light show. Their debut album, Piper at the Gates of Dawn, (1967) was recorded at Abbey Road around the same time that the Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The album captures their experimental, improvisatory style. The lyrics, harmony, and timbres sound at times childlike, and at times enigmatically complex or absurd. The quirky yet melodic sound of tracks like “Matilda Mother” displays the influence of the melodic pop and psychedelic pioneering of the Beatles (“Strawberry Fields,” “I am the Walrus”). The extended, chaotic instrumental jam “Intersteller Overdrive” [sic] is closer to the aleatoric experiments of the modern-classical avant-garde. Close listening 8 According to Moore: “[Psychedelic rock] featured extended blues-based improvisations, surrealist lyrics with performances often loud and accompanied by lavish light-shows. The effect was intended to evoke or support a drug-induced state” (“Psychedelic rock” n.d.).

Chávez 12 reveals extreme, moving panning9 used as a musical device—an experiment with the potential of the recording studio as a creative tool. The influence of various avante-garde styles (particularly musique concrète) and the recording studio as a compositional tool were important parts of Pink Floyd's music-making throughout their careers. When Barrett's erratic behavior rendered him impossible to work with, his friend David Gilmour joined the band as a guitarist/vocalist, first to fill in for Barrett and then to replace him. Drugs and mental illness were reportedly involved with Barrett's breakdowns. He would go on to record more albums (aided by his former bandmates), but within a few years departed from the public eye altogether. Barrett's personality and vision remained influential in Pink Floyd's music and lives. Though the band increasingly found their own style, they ensured that Barrett received his royalties, and various songs from their post-Barrett output reference him—never by name, but by strong implication. Over the coming years, Roger Waters would take the artistic helm of Pink Floyd. Though the other band members would still make important creative contributions,10 Waters came eventually to see himself as Pink Floyd, an attitude which would contribute to the band's division. His lyrics often dealt with themes of alienation, mental illness, and the evils of modern life. A Saucerful of Secrets (1968), containing only one Barrett-written track, was followed by Ummagumma (1969), a double album including live performances and studio recordings. Atom Heart Mother (1970) was a collaboration with composer Ron Geesin featuring orchestra and chorus. Meddle (1971) included a second side of one 23-minute song, “Echoes.” 9 The final minute of “Intersteller [sic] Overdrive” can be a dizzying listening experience if heard through headphones. 10 For an example, listen to Wright's four-movement, orchestra-embellished keyboard solo “Sysphus” on Ummagumma.

Chávez 13 The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) was Pink Floyd's breakout international hit, remaining on the American album charts for more than 14 years. Composed primarily by Waters, the work is a concept album11 exploring madness. Superstardom brought excitement and stresses, one of which was a change in the makeup of their audience. Gilmour is quoted in Rolling Stone saying, “We were used to all these reverent fans who'd come and you could hear a pin drop.” He goes on to characterize the change that came with Dark Side: “We'd try to get really quiet, especially at the beginning of 'Echoes' or something that has tinkling notes, trying to created a beautiful atmosphere, and all these kids would be there shouting, 'Money!'” (Gilmore 2007, 64). Their next two albums, Wish You Were Here (1975) and Animals (1977) dealt further with the themes of alienation and modern society's pitfalls. Wish You Were Here includes multiple references to the band's alienation from each other, including the title track and “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” which is often interpreted as a tribute to Barrett. Animals is an Orwellian allegory of different groups in society, represented by pigs, dogs, and sheep. As punk was transforming rock music with short, up-tempo songs involving few chords, Pink Floyd continued to record long, complex, often slow music. The Wall (1979) a semi-autobiographical12 double-album, became a phenomenal commercial success second only to Dark Side (among the band's output). The album was also the final chapter in Pink Floyd's collaborative creativity.13 Though the liner notes credit most of the writing to Waters, Gilmour and Waters do share writing credit for “Young Lust,” 11 According to David Buckley writing in Grove, a concept album consists of “a selection of songs either unified by one pivotal idea, for example the work of the Moody Blues, which centred [sic] around eastern mysticism and spirituality, or built around a narrative sequence, as in the cases of the Who’s Tommy and Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”.” 12 The main autiobiographical elements relate to Waters' and Barrett's lives. These include a father who died in war, struggles with madness, and alienation from and/or disdain for rock concert audiences. 13 The Final Cut (1983), Pink Floyd's last album with Waters, carries the subtitle “A requiem for the post-war dream by Roger Waters, performed by Pink Floyd.”

Chávez 14 “Comfortably Numb,”14 and “Run Like Hell.” According to Gilmour, “things like Comfortably Numb are really the last embers of Roger and my ability to work collaboratively together – my music, his words” (“Sold on Song Top 100”).

“Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” [The Wall, Disc 1, Number 5 of 13] Form “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” is, on its surface, a fairly simple, strophic song, almost nursery-rhyme-like. The brief, famous lyrics, printed below, contain the song's strongest hooks, especially the oft-repeated opening line. [Verse]We don't need no education We don't need no thought control No dark sarcasm in the classroom Teacher leave them kids alone Hey teacher - leave them kids alone All in all it's just another brick in the wall All in all you're just another brick in the wall [Repeat of verse with children's voices] [Guitar Solo] The verses are framed on one side by the guitar solo (functioning as a coda) and the “The Happiest Days of Our Lives” (which functions as an introduction). “The Happiest Days” which directly precedes “Another Brick, Part 2” is listed as a separate “song” in the liner notes, and is given a separate track number on compact disc distributions of The Wall. However, “The Happiest Days” proceeds seamlessly with an attacca transition into “Another Brick, Part 2.” “The Happiest Days” also marks a departure from “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1,” in part by 14 According to Jones: “Most of the music for 'Comfortably Numb' was written by Dave at the conclusion of the sessions for his 1978 eponymous solo album ... Written too late for inclusion on the album, the melody was later revived for The Wall and rewritten with Waters, who wrote all the lyrics.” (1996, 133)

Chávez 15 introducing a more prominent, “danceable”15 drum pattern close to that of “Another Brick, Part 2.” Musically, “The Happiest Days” is both a transition out of “Another Brick, Part 1” and an introduction to “Another Brick, Part 2.”

Pitch Though the solo from “Another Brick, Part 2” is not designed to dazzle with note-to-note perpetual-motion speed, Gilmour's precise string bending and judiciously-applied vibrato are expressive forms of virtuosic pitch manipulation nonetheless.16 Any guitar player can attest to the skill and experience required to bend strings with precision and apparent ease, choosing when to leave and when to return to equal-tempered pitches. On the surface, the guitar solo is a collection of mostly-common figures in a stylishly inflected pentatonic idiom. Like a skilled jazz or soul vocalist (for example, Clare Torry on “The Great Gig in the Sky” from The Dark Side of the Moon) Gilmour applies vibrato and expressively bends (the pitch) into and/or out of many notes rather than attacking, sustaining, and releasing them right on the equal-tempered pitch. The pentatonic pitch-world of the guitar solo is most notably ornamented with the second scale degree of D-minor (E).17 Gilmour floats up to a slightly sustained E three times. He arrives through a string bend, and stays on the E long enough to effect a slight a agogic accent. The pitch world of the verses in “Another Brick, Part 2” is fairly static, employing easy15 “Most who bought the single knew little of Pink Floyd, but because of the song's (gasp!) danceable Chic-style disco production and beat, and the controversial theme, which became a playground rallying cry, it became a universal anthem.” (Jones 1996, 126) 16 For one of many other examples of such virtuosity in a blues context, see Eric Clapton's guitar work on the song “Hideaway” with John Mayall from the album “Bluesbreakers.” 17 A pentatonic scale built on the D-minor triad consists of D, F, G, A, and C. Therefore, E is a non-scale pitch—an ornament in terms of the pentatonic scale. Gilmour's emphasis of E helps give the solo a feeling of lift and upward motion up until the registral climax in the 24th measure.

Chávez 16 to-follow harmonic rhythm, long stretches of tonic harmony, and a simplistic melody reminiscent of a schoolyard chant. The sung melody comes to rest securely on scale-degree 1, as shown by a middleground graph of the verse (Figure 6). This solid descent to scale-degree 1, coupled with the effect of the VII-i cadence on the words “another brick in the wall,” is analogous to a perfect authentic cadence coupled with a descent to scale-degree 1 in common-practice music.18 The downbeat-struck VII chord is even directly preceded by a very clearly articulated downbeat movement to III—a chord often employed in rock music to function similarly to a commonpractice pre-dominant chord. Essentially, the verses are, by themselves, structurally complete (Figure 7).

Figure 6: Middleground level of verses from “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2”

Figure 7: Background level of verses

Gilmour constructs his solo (whether consciously or not) around a gradual, almost-linear upward motion, creating an increasing musical tension up until the final measures. The tension is most clearly articulated through a registral ascent, and it is here that Gilmour's jazz- and bluesplayer-like patience displays itself at its best. The ascent from the initial downbeat D to the later 18 Burns writes in her analysis of Tori Amos' “Crucify,” “The harmonic effect of the stop on [VII] is comparable to a half cadence; it is a dissonance that requires resolution” (Everett 2000, 226). Note that Burns is analyzing the VII chord within a particular context and is not making a general statement about all subtonic major chords.

Chávez 17 D an octave above occurs across an unhurried series of registral peaks (Figure 8, with numbers indicating how many measures into the 31-measure solo each registral peak occurs). Directly following this ascent, the falling solo line and cadential harmony bring the song to its close, leading into a gradual fadeout of the backing instruments over the sounds of children playing and teacher admonishing.

Figure 8: Registral peaks in the guitar solo from “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” Figure 9 shows a middleground level of the ascent, revealing an elegant unfolding of the tonic triad through the registral peaks.

Figure 9: Unfolding of the tonic triad in the guitar solo from “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” Obviously, to take a more Schenkerian perspective (as much as one can in a disco- and blues-influenced rock song with VII-i cadences), the solo prolongs tonic harmony and the tonic soprano note, ascending through an octave space, but always over a tonic pedal. We might begin to see the solo's middleground upward motion as a long initial ascent (considering the solo alone), or perhaps as an ascent from an inner voice. Taking into account that (a) the song has already accomplished its background structural descent before the solo even begins, (b) the bulk of the solo happens within the middleground ascent described above, (c) the chord voicings in

Chávez 18 the solo's organ accompaniment exhibit a concurrent gradual upward motion, and (d) the solo's eventual downward cadence, while clear, is followed by a drum fadeout and other sounds rather than a tutti cutoff, is it is safe to say that the solo is more strongly marked by upward rather than downward motion. Whether or not Gilmour or the rest of Pink Floyd were consciously aware of the solo's middleground level (or its structural relationship with the rest of the song) during the recording sessions is impossible to say for sure. We might guess that such middleground structure was mostly the product of musical intuition or just plain coincidence during recording sessions. There is, however, some evidence that Pink Floyd may have been, at least to some extent, disposed toward thinking about large- and medium-scale structure. In addition to the fact that most of Pink Floyd began while the founding members were architecture students, consider Gilmour's own somewhat contradictory words in 1972: There aren't any guidelines; we just play whatever we feel like playing. We sometimes draw pictures of how it should be, in terms of where there are going to be climaxes and such. It's kind of a mental picture if you like. The songs tend to create mental pictures in other people, although the images are often not the same ones we started out with. (qtd. in “Heavy Mental Epics,” Guitar Player) As further proof of their attention to structural detail, one need only perform the astonishing synchronization of The Dark Side of the Moon with the classic film The Wizard of Oz. If the viewer triggers Dark Side at the right moment, various events in the music and lyrics coincide precisely with and refer to events in the film.19

19 For their recent Pink Floyd cover story, Rolling Stone has conveniently provided some “sync-ups” on their website in video format. See http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/03/20/video-mashup-darkside-of-oz/.

Chávez 19 Rhythm Considering the whole ensemble, rhythms in the guitar solo section are neither as regular as the sung verses, nor as heavily syncopated as certain measures of the introduction. The rhythms of the verse are eminently singable and sometimes speechlike (particularly in the cry of “Hey teacher - leave them kids alone”). By differentiating the guitar solo, Pink Floyd adds interesting variety to a song whose main body is rhythmically fairly simplistic. In his solo, Gilmour treats rhythm with style and patience, finessing rather than attacking the chord changes. In terms of hypermeter, the measures fit neatly into groups of four, laying down a straightforward canvas for the solo guitar. At the local level, Gilmour often employs simple rhythmic cells, the most notable of which is two sixteenth notes followed by one eighth note (filling one beat). Despite these fairly ordinary qualities, Gilmour uses spaces of guitar silence and syncopation to give the solo a sense of surprise and freshness. His note groups are at first separated by long rests (while the underlying groove carries on), then become more closely spaced during the registral ascent. Even after these groups become more closely spaced, he takes time to linger on certain notes, giving the harmony and pitch contours room to be heard.

Timbre Gilmour chooses a slightly distorted tone as the timbral basis of his guitar solo, contrasting with the more distorted timbre of the rhythm guitar present in the verses.20 When amplified with a smaller amount of distortion, the electric guitar exhibits exceptionally rich variability in timbre. Interesting changes in noise and overtone content become audible as the

20 Throughout, this paper uses the term “distortion” to refer the white-noise-infused timbral effect created with a combination of guitar effects pedals and amplifier settings.

Chávez 20 instrument moves through changes of register, texture, and dynamics. This richness gives the tone what was by 1979 already a classic sound, hearkening back to the blues and earlier rock guitar sounds of players like B.B. King, Clapton, and Hendrix. Before and during the guitar coda, an eclectic collection of sounds tell Pink's story.

Other Instrumentation The helicopter sound that ends “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1” and begins “The Happiest Days” has a strongly regular rhythmic content, but one that clashes with the pulse of the more conventional music around it. A teacher's abusive admonishments add to the sense of chaos. The re-entrance of the guitar coincides with a drum entrance which is halting at first; the drums and bass guitar briefly question the placement of the downbeat during four measures in which they strongly punctuate the second eight note of beat four, separated by long rests. This strong, spaced out syncopation temporarily calls into question the placement of the downbeat. Finally, a regular drum kit pattern—something absent from “Another Brick, Part 1”—begins, and the singer enters. The rhythmic and metrical ambiguity lends freshness and a sense of surprise to the disco-like rhythmic regularity of the song to come. In his book What to Listen for in Rock, Ken Stephenson writes, “When offering this kind of ambiguity, an introduction, rather than just coming first in the piece, fulfills an interesting function appropriate to its position: providing a chaos out of which the order of the song emerges” (2002, 127-128). Ironically, this same sense of order and regularity is simultaneously oppressive to the protagonists and a vehicle for their protest. The style-world inhabited by the drums, bass, and rhythm guitar on the sung verses is

Chávez 21 recognizably disco. “Good Times” by Chic contains a similar, slightly faster disco groove. Both songs have a straightforward, tightly-in-tempo drum kit pattern including bright hi-hats and consistent emphasis on the first and third beats. The harmony of both songs is in part filled out by precise, repetitive rhythm electric guitar strumming with subdivision of the beat on a sixteenth-note level. During the guitar solo, the drum kit maintains a pattern similar to the rest of the song, but provides more space for the solo. Mason only hits the snare drum on beat four, as opposed to the consistent snare hits on beats two and four during the sung verses. In addition to the fat, pure-blues-invoking tone of the lead electric guitar, Pink Floyd adds a layer of sustained drawbar organ chords, replacing the rhythm guitar for the guitar-solo section. The organ adds interest, drama, and differentiation from the sung verses both in timbre and harmony. Its timbre is not only new, but also has a sense of motion, in part through the use of changing Leslie-speaker rotation speeds. As mentioned above, the organ chord voicings play an important role in the rising motion of the guitar solo; the organ chords also add new colors to the harmony, especially as its chords move from dorian-mode harmonies employing B natural to the later, aeolian-mode harmonies emloying B flat. Like the rest of the album, “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” is immaculately recorded and mixed—a prime example of the high-quality audiorecording technology available in the late 1970s put to use. The musique concrète21 techniques of the beginning and end of the song (considering it together with “The Happiest Days of Our Lives”) are executed with seamless precision, giving the listener opportunity to absorb meaning unmediated by flaws in the 21 Musique concrète is a genre of electro-acoustic music. Created in 1948 in Paris by Pierre Schaeffer, the term came to be associated with the use of recorded real-world sounds as opposed to electronically synthesized sounds.

Chávez 22 technology. This precision helps draw the listener into Pink's world of madness and conflicting realities by making the physically impossible (a helicopter within the recording studio, for example) sound as close as reality. Like Pink, the listener hears the repeated admonishments of his schoolteacher as if it were yesterday, without any hint of tape-loop seams or copy degradation. Gilmour's guitar exists therefore in a world of too-perfect sonic purity. His carefully constructed guitar solo belies no hint of studio-edited, punch-in-punch-out compositional technique, though such techniques may well have been used. Considering the purity of the recording, the meanings depicted seem even more harsh.

Meaning After being jarred and jaded by the absence of his father (killed in war) as expressed in “Another Brick, Part 1,” Pink is subjected to cruelty by his schoolteachers. In “Another Brick, Part 2” the singers' (particularly the children's) words are a a battle cry—the beginnings of antiestablishment rebellion. The guitar solo is a release of that rebellion, the very creative voice which the teachers sought to suppress. When considered within the album as a whole, the rebellious lyrics of “Another Brick, Part 2,” become much more than a juvenile rant. Rather, they are the reflections of a young adult who is dealing with lasting mental and emotional damage inflicted during his school years. According to Jones: Consistently misinterpreted, much to Waters's chagrin, this is not an anti-education rap. Instead, it seeks to convey the message that vindictive and bitter teachers, and factory schooling, can break a child for life. The effect on such children is one of demoralising

Chávez 23 them to the point where they repress their innate creativity. (1996, 124) Jones also briefly quotes Waters himself on his creativity-crushing school years; Waters makes clear that he is not against good schooling. In the movie version of The Wall, the students are shown marching in time to the beat and reciting facts in a classroom. Their music in the verses is simplistic, with a middleground dominated by unsurprising downward motion. When they sing the second verse, the film depicts the students arranged in neat, motionless rows. During a break in the music, a teacher ridicules young Pink's poetry.22 When the film reaches the guitar solo, the steady beat marches on, but its marchers have abandoned oppressive order in favor of anarchy. The apparent laid-back ease of the guitar solo is juxtaposed with a sudden and intense student riot. The students trash their classroom, and are soon seen burning the school building and throwing school-related objects into a large bonfire. Just as the string bending up to E and the middleground trajectory of the solo float above the pull of tonic, the students are freeing themselves from the downward-pulling suffocation of their schooling. The guitar recording emerges from the pristine, clean-cut sound-environment of the recording studio, and yet it is revealed as a soundtrack for violence in Pink's mind. The lyrics of the verses and the action on screen confirm the guitar solo as the voice of justified rebellion— creativity and authenticity emerging from and literally rising above oppressive sameness. As mentioned above, the contrast between verses and guitar solo is a vehicle for meaning partially because of how uncharacteristic disco style is within Pink Floyd's body of work. The disco-like groove of the verses can be interpreted as symbol of the music industry money22 The verses the teacher reads mockingly to the rest of the class include lyrics from the song “Money,” a hit single from The Dark Side of the Moon.

Chávez 24 machine, with the guitar solo representing artistic authenticity. Though the music industry had made them rich men, Pink Floyd held the industry in great disdain, especially after the grueling whirlwind of superstardom that had enveloped them since The Dark Side of the Moon only a few years earlier. The Wall contains both obvious and subtle critiques of that industry, including the fans that fueled it. By 1979, disco had reached the apex of its popular-music domination, gaining mass acceptance among mainstream white audiences. By contrast, the sounds of blues and soul had often been watered down for acceptance as “pop” music or had fallen into obscurity. On The Dark Side of the Moon, African-American vocalists added an authentic “soul” factor. On The Wall, it is largely up Gilmour's guitar to dirty things up and keep that authentic, expressive sonic grit. In “Another Brick, Part 2,” his solo signifies the (temporary) triumph of true artistry, emerging out a bland, mass-produced backdrop. After the fadeout of the teacher's voice and children playing, followed by the sound of a sigh, “Another Brick, Part 2” is divided from the next song, “Mother,” by a moment of silence— relatively rare in an album marked mostly by no-break divisions between songs. “Mother” introduces immediate contrast; it is in a different key, moves at a different tempo, uses a very different drum pattern, and employs acoustic rather than electric rhythm guitar. Perhaps more importantly, “Mother” takes on a new “brick” in Pink's “wall.” As the album goes on, the listener hears of more bricks in Pink's wall. By “Comfortably Numb,” the wall is complete, but, as shown below, it does not adequately protect Pink from the combination of present reality, memory and insanity that weighs upon him.

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“Comfortably Numb” [The Wall, Disc 2, Number 6 of 13] Form Pink cries out at various points in the album for salvation from his sad state, but, when disc two is half over, he is still experiencing the acute pain of the present while dimly recalling his childhood. The lyrics of “Comfortably Numb” are printed below with section designations added. [Verse 1]

Hello, Is there anybody in there Just nod if you can hear me Is there anyone home Come on now I hear you're feeling down Well I can ease your pain Get you on your feet again Relax I'll need some information first Just the basic facts Can you show me where it hurts

[Chorus 1]

There is no pain, you are receding A distant ship smoke on the horizon You are only coming through in waves Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying When I was a child I had a fever My hands felt just like two balloons Now I've got that feeling once again I can't explain, you would not understand This is not how I am I have become comfortably numb

[First Guitar Solo] [Verse 2]

O.K. Just a little pin prick There'll be no more aaaaaaaah! But you may feel a little sick Can you stand up? I do believe it's working, good

Chávez 26 That'll keep you going through the show Come on it's time to go [Chorus 2]

There is no pain, you are receding A distant ship smoke on the horzon You are only coming through in waves Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying When I was a child,I caught a fleeting glimpse Out of the corner of my eye I turned to look but it was gone I cannot put my finger on it now The child is grown The dream is gone I have become Comfortably numb

[Second Guitar Solo] Pitch Figure 11 is a graph representing a middleground level of the verses in Comfortably Numb. This structural level is identical to the adjacent higher-middleground level, a fourmeasure musical phrase which is played a total of three times (with changing lyrics) to comprise each verse.

Figure 10: Middleground level of verses from “Comfortably Numb”

Chávez 27 The verse is made up of two relatively simple contrapuntal lines. The melody line hovers around scale-degree 5, while the bass line maintains a heavy, downward trajectory whose pull is rhythmically accentuated in the three-note descent G-F#-E. In addition to locally portraying downward motion, The three-note motif present in the bassline exhibits motivic parallelism with other parts of The Wall, including the middleground descent from the verses of “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2,” the repeated electric-guitar motive at the end of “The Happiest Days of Our Lives,” and the heavy-handed distortion guitar melody just before the vocalist's entrance during both instances of “In the Flesh.” The descending bass line and hovering melody of the “Comfortably Numb” verses can be further reduced to the next deeper structural level: a prolongation of scale-degree 5 over a tonic in the bass (not shown). Figures 11 and 12 show middleground and background level graphs for the sung choruses.

Figure 11: Middleground level of the sung choruses from “Comfortably Numb”

Figure 12: Background level

Though the final arrival on D is, in the background, a resolution back to the chord from the beginning of the chorus, within the more local harmony it sounds like opening up a new harmonic world; this new world is introduced through the portal of a cadence that is plagal (IV-

Chávez 28 I), yet almost deceptive given the elements of harmonic surprise directly preceding it, particularly the surprising shift from the G chord to the A chord. The freshness of D harmony is greatly aided and perhaps upstaged by the burst of a new timbral palette (see Other Instrumentation). The first guitar solo is built on the same foreground chord progression as the chorus which has just ended. If we consider the foreground chord progression alone, this solo is just a repeat of the chorus with the voice joining in at the end for the final statement: “I have become comfortably numb.” Where the chorus had begun its journey on the tonic note of its D major chord, the guitar solo increases the intensity, breaking into a pealing F#. Figures 13 shows a middleground graph for the first guitar solo.

Figure 13: Middleground level of the first guitar solo from “Comfortably Numb”

The prevalent foreground motion in both “Comfortably Numb” solos is downward, either a falling scale or arpeggio. However, observing Figure 13, we see a middleground that displays buoyancy as much as downward weight, and ends on the same open-ended open-fifth cadence as the preceding chorus. According to the profile in the February 1994 issue of Guitar Player magazine, “Gilmour developed his solos by noodling aimlessly until he came up with something he liked. Often he would mix parts of several different solo tracks into one” (“Heavy mental epics”). Such is the

Chávez 29 case with the solo from “Comfortably Numb,” which was compiled by splicing portions from two takes (Jones 1996, 133). The studiocraft involved is executed with precision and transparency, maintaining the illusion of one pristine, improvised recording. In truth, though perhaps not written out note by note, the final recorded product was carefully constructed using a time-consuming process. The second solo is a large closing gesture, filled with excitement, but more intent on a single harmony and a tonic arrival than either the solo from “Another Brick, Part 2” or the first solo from “Comfortably Numb.” In the foreground, the second solo proceeds through a series of descending adventures down an ornamented pentatonic scale and is in this way not unlike the foreground and middleground of the first “Comfortably Numb” solo.23 Gilmour emphasizes the members of the B-minor triad and takes few opportunities to place emphasis on other pitches, even when supporting bass pitches are available. As the supporting chord progression repeatedly takes a downward journey to the note B, the guitar soloist uses the B a major seventh above middle C as a focal pitch. The solo is broken into four-measure phrases, the first of which arrives on the B above middle C. For the next few phrases, this B remains a registral center for Gilmour's explorations. In the sixth phrase, Gilmour increases the intensity, transposing the guitar's pitch world (including the focal pitch) up an octave. Figure 14 shows the highest and lowest notes of the second phrase through the sixth phrase (each phrase separated by a barline), with the focal B displayed in the middle for reference.

23 These foreground and middleground descents and register transfers also effectively depict the “waves” referred to in the lyrics.

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Figure 15: Analysis of selected phrases of the second guitar solo from "Comfortably Numb"

The seventh phrase is played over a fade to silence. The final audible gesture is a descent down the pentatonic scale to arrive on the B above middle C. Figure 16 depicts the background level of the entire song.

Figure 16: Background level of “Comfortably Numb”

Rhythm and Meter The presence of triplets throughout both guitar solos recalls the pervasive presence of triple subdivision in more traditional blues. These triplets contrast with the duple-subdivision world of the backing instrumentation around them, clashing most in the second guitar solo. The first guitar solo is marked by lingering downbeat-struck high notes. Gilmour also makes frequent use of eighth-note triplets, interacting with but not disturbing or deterring the gentle and persistent duple meter of the backing instrumentation.

Chávez 31 In the second solo, Gilmour's rhythms are significantly less tied to the even eighth note subdivisions maintained by the backing instrumentation. His solo gains more momentum as well. Faster figurations abound, and the eighth-note triplets of the first solo are replaced with numerous sixteenth-note triplets. The first chorus is comprised of four four-measure phrases with a three-measure phrase added at the end: 4+4+4+4+3. The second chorus adds an additional measure at the end (4+4+4+4+4) for a stronger sense of closure and completion. The additional measure also contributes toward a greater sense of arrival and finality as the music transitions into the second guitar solo.

Timbre Gilmour's distorted guitar has a ringing, almost plaintive timbre, with a sound that is more contemporary and bright than the more nostalgic timbre of the solo from “Another Brick, Part 2.” Most importantly, his timbre has a much stronger white noise component in the second, post-singer solo compared with the first intra-verse solo. The first note of the second solo is so rich in upper harmonic partials that the fundamental of the tone is almost subsumed and perhaps overshadowed. This note has a pungent timbre that cuts through the texture and perfectly demonstrates the rich timbral possibilities of the electric guitar, even from one note to the next. The combination of noise on the attack, noise in the sustain, and rich overtones increases in intensity when Gilmour breaks up monophony part way through his second solo, first with m7 chords24 and, just before the end of the fadeout, with frenetically repeated minor triads. The

24 The pop chord chart designation “m7” refers to a minor triad with a minor seventh added—a minor-minor-7th chord.

Chávez 32 contrast between the more mellow timbre of the first solo and the heavier-rock timbre of the second solo helps draw the listener into a visceral and kinesic experience of Pink's madness. Music which depends on heavily distorted electric guitar has a history of eliciting physical movement from its listeners, especially concertgoers.25 Whereas the solo from “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” was ironically laid-back, the intensity of the second solo from “Comfortably Numb” makes use of the cultural lexicon of electric guitar such that it is hard for the listener not to literally feel some of Pink's thrashing catharsis (see references to the movie in the section on Meaning).

Other Instrumentation From the opening moments of the song, the non-solo-guitar instruments display a smooth, gentle evenness which contrasts with the intensity of the final guitar solo. This smoothness is disturbed most notably in the distant scream of “aaaaaaaah!” in the lyrics of the second verse. Michael Kamen's memorable orchestral background, particularly the brass, provides a bed of timbral warmth for the singers' and solo guitar's storytelling. The orchestra is mostly content to play sustained chords, branching out to slowly flowing, decorated arpeggios on the choruses and first guitar solo. The supporting instrumentation (rock instrumentation and orchestra) prepares the listener's ear for the entrance of the first guitar solo with an arresting change in color. With a 25 Robert Walser ends his Grove article on Heavy Metal with an almost comically dry statement: “Heavy metal fans became known as ‘headbangers’ on account of the vigorous nodding motions that sometimes mark their appreciation of the music.” Walser is not referring specifically to the effect of electric guitar solos but rather to the effect of the music as a whole. At the second guitar solo of “Comfortably Numb,” the whole ensemble (led by the solo guitar) employs a musical style more closely related to heavy metal than the smoother style of the rest of the song (verses, choruses, or first guitar solo).

Chávez 33 sound like turning the knob to fully open a bandpass filter, the wash of orchestral color and tinkling percussion complete a Hollywoodesque sound, evoking something like the opening of a door, creating a short and exciting transition into the first guitar solo. The bass guitar and the bass drum of the drum kit are locked together for much of the song, providing gentle rhythmic punctuation which most often falls on changes of harmony. For the first guitar solo and almost the entirety of both verses, the bass guitar and bass drum play in rhythmic unison. The drum kit pattern for the verses is acoustically dry and musically simple, using the crash cymbal infrequently and mostly avoiding any other kind of decoration. Eighth notes on the ride cymbal combine with barely-audible acoustic guitar strumming and an increase in the orchestral color palette to add more high frequency content and therefore a brighter sound to the choruses and guitar solos. The acoustic guitar strumming also continues through the second verse, providing a slight increase in timbral saturation and inner motion in comparison with the first verse. Just before the downbeat of the second guitar solo and as the distortion guitar is gaining strength, the organ player increases the Leslie speaker rotation, helping to disturb the foreground smoothness. At the same time, Waters lets his last bass note fall downward in a glissando that further disturbs the dying smoothness and foreshadows the downward pentatonic-scale adventures of the guitar solo to come. Throughout the second guitar solo, the drum kit increases in intensity in tandem with the solo guitar; this buildup occurs most noticeably through more frequent use of the crash cymbal as well as the addition of more than one type of crash cymbal.

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Meaning The central irony of “Comfortably Numb” is that it does not end up that way (neither comfortable nor numb). Despite the smoothness and beauty of timbre, texture, and harmony throughout much of the song, its final destination is with the painful cries of the solo guitar. “Comfortably Numb” begins out of a brief moment of silence, in contrast with the nobreak transitions between most of the songs from The Wall (though similar to the silence which precedes “Mother,” the song which follows “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2”). A crescendoing chorus of speaking and singing voices has just ended in Pink's lonely question, reprising the only lyric from the earlier song of the same name: “Is there anybody out there?” The reverberation of the spoken words hangs in midair for a few moments, and just as it has faded into silence, “Comfortably Numb” begins with a straightforward two-measure introduction. Immediately thereafter, the vocals enter with “Hello, is there anybody in there?” This questions and its counterpart just posed by Pink (“Is there anybody out there?”) demonstrate how completely Pink's wall has cut him off from human interaction. Among other downward motions, the repeated descending bass line of the verses and final guitar solo—particularly the three-note G-F#-E stepwise motif in the middle—depict Pink's seemingly inevitable descent into sadness, alienation, and mental illness. Pink is also nearing a descent into hostility. The feelings of isolation and hostility in “Comfortably Numb” and “In the Flesh” stem partly from Waters' experiences on a 1977 tour, especially a confrontation with a audience member which included Waters spitting in the audience member's eye. According to Jones, Waters was “horrified by his own behavior” and this event catalyzed Waters' image of a

Chávez 35 physical barrier—a wall—between himself and the audience (1996, 122). The three-note stepwise motif exists in inversion as the initial ascent in the verses of “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2.” This ascending version will be repeated over and over in a melodramatic, sinister style during “The Trial” as Pink listens to the accusatory voices in his mind. In the movie version of The Wall, live action gives way to surreal animation at the start of the first guitar solo. The hopeful flight of a bird gives way to a post-apocalyptic wasteland, filled with images of death and decay. Similarly, though the first guitar solo contains harmonic buoyancy and a greater timbral restraint, the second solo descends into the relative minor and lets loose the timbres of angst. The second solo comes after another verse-chorus cycle. By this time, Pink is being forced to the stage, though he is in no condition to perform. In the film version of The Wall, Pink explodes into a violent rampage at the beginning of the second solo, throwing objects around the room to the terrified dismay of his female companion. He soon is shown being arrested and then encased in a surreal, fleshy cocoon, with a face reminiscent of the masks the children wore in “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2.” The focused melodic and harmonic finality of the final solo, further emphasized through the more harshly distorted timbre of Gilmour's guitar, gives a final answer to the implied question of whether or not being “comfortably numb” is an effective balm. Instead of the hopeful, floating D major which sounded so fresh at the end of each chorus and the first guitar solo, the true destination of this song is an angst-filled B-minor. The soon-to-be-reprised opening song “In the Flesh” caricatures heavy guitar anthems,

Chávez 36 disparaging large-scale rock concerts as a mode of communication. “Comfortably Numb” displays a greater degree of patience and good taste applied to a similar distortion guitar sound; Gilmour and company patiently delay the most intense timbres until the second guitar solo to memorably convey a painful chapter in Pink's story.

Conclusion No matter how many how many attributes we analyze, there remains something inexpressible and unquantifiable that makes certain music endure, at least in the ears of the individual listener. However, rather than just succumb to an analytical/musicological philosophy of blanket positivism or bland neutrality, further research is warranted. It is fully possible that many or all of the same structural and functional properties observed above would also apply to other less-timeless works. According to Moore, “In rock contexts (as in almost all improvising styles worldwide), improvisation consists of the re-playing of formulae, learnt either systematically or in an ad hoc fashion, these formulae representing the rules shared by the community” (2001, 83). Certainly, this statement applies to the foreground-level of Gilmour's solos; the statement may also hold true at deeper structural levels. However, there may also be qualities that tend to characterize those rock guitar solos that make their way into an evolving canon of “classics” as opposed to the solos which are less rewarding for repeat listening. Gilmour and his bandmates have created classics of the genre in The Wall, songs which borrow from the blues without necessarily conforming to the harmonic stasis or other norms of the blues. In “Another Brick in the Wall, Part II,” the solo brings musical closure and interest to the song while representing the non-conformism longed for in the lyrics. The two solos from

Chávez 37 “Comfortably Numb” encapsulate the downward trajectory of the song—moments of comfort give way to depths of anguish. While the first solo seems to float above the downward pull apparent in the verses, the second solo focuses on the piece's destination, crying out from within (but also conforming to) the verse harmony. Gilmour's place in the “canon” of rock guitar is assured. His legacy rests not only on his famous “tone” (timbral voice) and vocal-like string bends, but also on his skill at crafting memorable solos that function effectively within the songs and song cycles (albums) in which they live. Though they may not have created their instrumental solos entirely in moment-bymoment improvisation, Pink Floyd's combination of spontaneity and careful studiocraft resulted in music that still sounds fresh decades later.

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