Five Bridges


The "Five Bridges Suite" is a modern piece of music, written in the 1960s, combining classical music and jazz. Written about the UK city of Newcastle upon Tyne, it was released as an album by the Nice as Five Bridges, which achieved the number two position in the UK album charts. In the Q & Mojo Classic Special Edition Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, the album came No. 29 in its list of "40 Cosmic Rock Albums".

History

The work was commissioned for the Newcastle Arts Festival and premiered with a full orchestra conducted by Joseph Eger on 10 October 1969. The title refers to the city's five bridges spanning the River Tyne, and the album cover, by Hipgnosis, features an image of the Tyne Bridge.
The five movements are:
Emerson used Walter Piston's well-known textbook on orchestration for the work. Emerson credits Friedrich Gulda for inspiring the High Level Fugue, which uses jazz figures in the strict classical form.
Also included on the Five Bridges album were live performances from the same Fairfield Hall concert of the Sibelius Intermezzo and a movement from Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony. Both involved the orchestra playing the "straight" music juxtaposed with the trio's interpretations. Newly discovered material from this concert was later issued as part of a 3-CD set entitled Here Come The Nice.
The Five Bridges album also included a blending of Bob Dylan's "Country Pie" with Bach's "Brandenburg Concerto No. 6" and a studio recording of the original "One of Those People".

Track listing

Side one

  1. "The Five Bridges Suite" – 18:06

    Side two

  3. "Intermezzo 'Karelia Suite'" – 9:01
  4. "Pathetique " – 9:23
  5. "Country Pie/Brandenburg Concerto No. 6" – 5:40
  6. "One of Those People" – 3:08

    Personnel

;The Nice
with: