Mike Oldfield - Q.E.2.

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Free Music Notes for Q.E.2.

Free Music Review: Unsolicited Praise
Hit: 5 Stars

With QE2 you have some of Mike's distinguishing trademarks. For example, the first piece, Taurus, is at times alternately mean and nice, a dichotomy evident in some of his other work. Taurus also contains some very adroit key changes which allow for contrasting degrees of musical brightness. The title track is perhaps the album's best; in fact, Mike shows daring here in dueling synthetic bagpipes against an electric guitar for a very engaging effect. Mike also uses Celtic-based melodies throughout the album as he has done during various stages of his career.

Has any single composer born anytime after 1950 composed more aesthetically satisfying melody lines than Mike Oldfield? And has any put them to work more effectively in his music? I honestly suspect not. Just listen to the one melody near the end of Taurus which he predicates the title track upon and take note of the heights he reaches. The melody is strong, to be sure, but Mike is able to do so much with it. (You don't have to listen too carefully to appreciate the difference between what he does with it on Taurus and what he does with it on the title track!) Very few composers can essentially stay with a theme for a long time and continue to add interest through subtle changes and well-conceived developmental tactics, but Mike is one of the very few who can not only get away with it, but make the approach one of his greatest compositional assets.

This is one of Mike's best; it comes highly endorsed.

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