ABSTRACT
Sophisticated technology and electronic effects have been essential components of Pink Floyd's music from their performances and recordings. The 'Atom Heart Mother Suite' is scored for cello, brass, mixed choir, and Pink Floyd. The band's consistent use of the Binson Echorec, both live and in the studio, exemplifies their interest in creating spatial and timbral effects simultaneously. Whether framing or internal, Syd Barrett's collages differ from Pink Floyd's collages by degree of musical integration and literalness, but they also operate from a different perspective. Barrett-era Pink Floyd placed an emphasis on free improvisation and psychedelic whimsy, and that orientation slowly transformed into an emphasis on composition by the 1970s in the band as led by bassist Roger Waters. The moment of formal self-awareness calls particular attention to the concluding segment of the movement, the collage that provides the path back to tonality and the work's principal themes, the retransition leading to the real recapitulation.
