The "Hymn to Cynthia" part (including Pierre Moerlen's vibraphones starting at 4:08 in this video and the finale) is among my all-time favourite pieces of music and I have a specially ripped MP3 just of it to listen when I'm away from home. There are people who consider "Incantations" boring or too long, but certainly not me!
Why am I watching this today?? I think nostalgia, remembering when America WAS great. What is happening today in that country is just too damn sad to contemplate. So very, very sad.
Oh thank you so much for posting this! the part from 4.09 was indeed played on Australian ABC TV years ago as filler it always made and still makes me cry. Like the safe return scene in Apollo 13. Great music, human endeavour and creativity and courage and the link back to Hiawatha true native American hero with the unique and unbelievable Maddy Prior to complete it all for the 15 year old I was and 50 year old I am ... Oh my
@Marrickville Cricket Club: I also remember this from 1979/80 and the bit I had to search for was indeed the marimba (or vibraphone?) section starting 04:08 ... so maybe I also saw it first on ABC-TV ... even more likely as I was working for them at the time ... indeed I used some of the same NASA footage in a documentary I made about gravity ... although I chose Pink Floyd's 'Obscured by Clouds' as my music, not 'Incantations'. The vocal credits for the bits from Longfellow's 'The Song of Hiawatha' are a bit confusing ... it sounds like Maddy Prior to me but Sally Oldfield had a similar voice and she's credited on the album. There are no vocal credits on the IMBd entry for Tony Palmer's film. The reason I searched for this video, 40 years after I saw it originally, was triggered by a marimba cover I found of the Hans Zimmer theme for 'Interstellar'. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1ISgr-2qdK0.html. R (Australia)
This is the section I remember the most. I have been looking for this movie for years. I couldn't, for the life of me, remember what it was called. I was a very young kid when this debuted. Thanks for posting it!
Don't forget "First Excursion" from "Boxed". What he does there with that guitar is simply mind-numbing! Very Jimi Hendrix-like, but I have no doubt that Jimi himself would applaud.
Absolutely wonderful.. And I can almost not believe that the entire Incantations in concert (1979?) has now been posted to RU-vid. I never knew this existing in video and it is just incredible to see Mike Oldfield executing those original vibratos as he could do with such musical precision in those days.
Brilliant. Love watching the full vid on DVD with surround on!! Love all Mikes work, but the sextion just as he jums of the steps is one of my all-time fave bits of music.
You too huh? Loved it. Took me years to find out what the music was. You'll notice the ABC version, used as filler in the early evenings in 1978/79/80, doesn't synchronise the images with the music in the same places as this original cut does. They must have reedited it for thie own interest (the music used to conclude with the splashdown of the return capsule into the ocean, followed by the white ABC logo, remember?).
The second most inspired use of music to accompany a film featuring outer space, since The Blue Danube was employed for those wonderful timeless scenes in 2001 A Space Odyssey.
I am with you on that one: once I listened to them, I had to conclude that the first four are the best. It was Moonlight Shadow that made me ask for "Crises" as a Christmas present, and that is how I discovered his instrumental work. You have to start somewhere.
Thanks for adding this to RU-vid - my favourite part of Incantations. I wouldn't say this album was the last great one, what about Amarok? Many fans think that's his greatest achievement so far. I hear his next album will be going back to hs 70s roots of symphonic progressive rock.
Lección de BAJO.........AGUDO........contraste...........y ........ORIGINALIDAD... como era MIKE OLFIELD en sus mejores tiempos(80-90) ésta parte, NO tiene que ENVIDIAR A MOZART...y lo REPITO......Al genio del siglo XIX(pero todo..en su comprensión)
Well, in my case it was actually 2nd part of TB which my much older cousin had tape-recorded from vinyl. It was back in 70ties - I was something like 10 at that time. I grew listening to all the Oldfield's "hits" of 80ties which for me were only easy-listening nice pop pieces, nothing more. In my opinion only first 4 Oldfield's albums are masterpieces as a whole - I've never got bored of listening to them. There are moments on other records I like but it will not change my general opinion.
I am inclined to agree, although it was the instrumental sides of "Crises" and "Five Miles Out" and most of "QE2" that first made me a fan. Certainly after "Incantations" his music changed radically, though Tubular Bells 2 was a brilliant reimagination of the original. A shame Viv Stanshall couldn't be around for the voiceover on TB2003, but Cleese is his natural successor.
@cbnamyah How can anyone say that Oldfield's early music wasn't concept. Tubular Bells was ground breaking, Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn and Incantations were all modern classical and still hold their own.
Este extracto de la pelicula space movie esta mejor que la misma movie. excelente aporte, que parte del incantation es con la que empieza esta segunda parte del video, por que es de lo mejor que ha compuesto oldfield.
"Incantations" is somewhat abridged on "Exposed", but it's still a great performance. In that album, however, I prefer "Tubular Bells", which was absolutely fabulous, with a harder, rockier feel than the original.
@4:30 it looks like a depiction of Voyager (1 or 2?) flying past Jupiter... - this can't be actual footage!? Where would the camera be, if not on the space probe itself?!?
No, it's an artistic representation of Voyager. All the images of planets shown here are artistic creations, I think. But they are beautifully done, especially given the times.
I have allways been a fan to Mike..but I think he composes his spectacles only repeating few good riffs and continues playing them again an again= so 20 minutes song could be done within 5 minutes....
Last Epic ? Hmmm, I see your point, but how about songs of distant earth ... surely another truly "start to finish" piece of music ?? Likewise, Islands Side one (Vinyl) is great, but S2 is messy.
