King Crimson Requiem would be a composition by King Crimson for choir, strings, percussion in smaller groups. It often ends with the human voice alone and may include parts for harpsichord or electric guitar.
King Crimson is tied to progressive rock that emerged from Canterbury scene of the 1960s. The Canterbury scene included other bands such as Soft Machine and Caravan. Many pop-oriented tunes became huge hits with boomer-aged listeners in 1990s when younger generation felt uninspired during the early days of grunge music.
Melody Maker observed “Few innovators have compensated more handsomely for their mortality”.
It is sung in Latin text which recount the suffering of Christ on Good Friday including his cry from the cross.
I’ve heard it would look like “the Grim Reaper with a guitar.”
The phrase “Requiem” is Latin for prayer to wake the dead. A requiem may refer to any compositions in music or literature, or artwork that focuses on death and mortality.
In fiction it is often used as an atmosphere of gloom and sadness about farewells, departures, and death. In this case we have a King Crimson composition titled Requiem which has the guitarist posing as the Grim Reaper. This could be done by using makeup to make them dressed in a cloak outfit with some bones strapped around their neck and carrying a power axe instead of traditional swords or skull helmets that cover their face (since they are coming from underground).
It would look like a planet that had not seen light in millennia. The sun has risen and the horizon blazes red, but most of the world is still shrouded in darkness. An instantaneous burst of light shines up from over the ridge, and for just a moment you catch sight of an emerald tree line below it pulsing with life where there should be nothing but dust.
The atmosphere is thick with smoke and ash so the distance between one oasis to another seems impossibly huge and they are far apart from each other; save for those built on high cliffs to avoid this problem. Houses are precarious things at best because of how dry it is here, but at least every now and then someone manages to find water in som eeplace.
The ground is so dusty, dry, and unforgiving that even with the remnants of fallen skyscrapers poking out here and there, the terrain doesn’t really change much. Anything that was once green is now ash, and as far as you can see everything is some shade of gray, brown, or black. Not many animals still live around here; most of them stay hidden away in their little dens waiting for the next eruption. There is no rest here, and they know it.
They say there are those who live around the high places, and that some of them even leave their homes and go out into the world to help others. But it is so rare for anyone to ever come back that you can’t help but wonder if those stories are myth or true.
I would imagine seven guys in dark cloaks, wielding violins, violas, cellos, and basses with an 8-foot tall pyramid in the center of the stage.
It would probably be a ballet with instrumental music.
A requiem is a mass for the dead so it only makes sense that King Crimson does not need to change much to compare their sound and songs with this style of performance. Supper’s ready, anyone?
