My Savage Rose Story...
by Thomas Koppel :
CHAPTER 6: DØDENS TRIUMF (TRIUMF OF DEATH) – ‘72
NO LIMITS
One day during the winter of ‘69-‘70 I read in the newspaper that ballet choreographer & dancer,
director of The Royal Ballet Flemming Flindt would like to work with us and create a new work for The Royal Ballet.
There were some discussions in the band whether we should do this or not; a couple of the guys thought we should stick to pop music & not ballets.
I definitely wanted to do it; for me this was a natural extension of what The Savage Rose was already about - no limits!
- and it was also an immediate & creatively interesting opportunity for me to re-connect to the “classical” worlds I had left.
Also I found it great fun that we would get this chance to have a whole new young audience invade The Royal Theatre.
THE ROYAL THEATRE
This theatre was actually like a 2nd home to me.
When I was 18, I wrote an opera “A Mother’s Tale” based on Hans Christian Andersen’s story.
The Royal Opera accepted the work & performed it for two years with my sister Lone as the young mother.
Also, I had been working at the theatre for a couple of years, playing the piano parts in the orchestra,
and playing the “orchestra part” on piano at the rehearsals; and working with the singers on their parts.
Also, in ‘68 I had written music for The Royal Theatre’s staging of Shakespeare’s Troilus & Cressida,
which I recorded with The Savage Rose.
THE CREATION
Flemming gave me his synopsis based on Eugene Ionesco’s “Triumph Of Death”. Its etchingly surrealistic images were challenging to me.
Flemming told me to just write the music for each scene; he would then create the choreography based on the music.
I was composing day & night, & it didn’t take me long.The band actually recorded two versions of the music.
One in ‘70, which was used for the TV version of the ballet, which preceded the theatrical version in ‘72,
to which we created a new recording with a slightly altered band.
This second version is basically what is on the record; only “Dear Little Mother” was unchanged from the first version.
Of course, especially Anders & Alex were crucial to both recordings,
because my score included an element of improvisation with those two in mind,
& depending on the mutual instincts we had developed in the studios as well as on the concerts.
THE SETTING SUN
Ionesco’s play is about some weird disease hitting everybody from kids in strollers to generals & archbishops in whorehouses.
I wanted to extend the theme of the play to embrace the problem of Europe; at that time the big European corporations were just launching the idea of a European Union with one economy,
one police force, one army. Anders & I regarded these ideas like a kind of sneaky fulfilment of Hitler’s attempts to “unite” Europe under the wings of the huge Central European steel corporations.
Triumph Of Death would be about an old civilization which had possibly oppressed people everywhere on the planet including on its own street corners & was now going down like a setting sun.
I made a drawing of that setting sun, which we eventually put on the record cover (where you can see it).
I gave Flemming a quote from a book by Franz Fanon from the days of the Algerian War, looking at Europe from the perspective of the colonized peoples.
When the ballet was premiered at the theatre, we put this quote in the theatre programme; however, somebody must have felt it too offensive,
for after a couple of performances it had suddenly been removed. Anyway, we put it on the record cover where it remained right until this re-release! (I believe...look for it....).
THE TRIUMPH OF THE TRIUMPH
The record company hesihesitated for a long time releasing the album; they didn’t know if they “could sell the music” which was,
with the exception of the final song “Dear Little Mother”, instrumental.The first impression was 500 records.
But the sales went crazy & the album has been bought by several hundred thousand people.
The ballet also became the greatest success of The Royal Ballet with more than 200 performances, including The Metropolitan in New York.
The conservative ballet lovers were somewhat shocked by the number of youngsters entering the theatre & also by the experience of The Royal Ballet nude on stage.
Annisette’s performance in “Dear Little Mother” (with Anders’ words) became a huge hit on its own; as late as 1997 the US record company Rhino included it in a big CD-box-set for the US market.
Triumph Of Death was the first time we tried to connect music with direct political issues that were important to us. It somehow worked.
Acknowledgement
Thank you, all you out there who inspired us, gave us unforgettable moments at the concerts,
helped shaping our minds & music & carried us through any difficulties:
thank you friends & co-musicians who together with us put your heart-blood into the music, very often without any immediate reward other than love;
thank you to many people around the music business & the media for showing courage,
swimming against tough streams & without prejudice seeing what we wanted to accomplish even in hard times;
thank you to Mega Records & Universal Music for this huge mutual effort....this re-release of 16 albums
(Black Angel & Tameless didn’t need re-release as they are already available) is for the first time totally true to the ideas & sound of the original recordings.
To this end we want to thank you, Jens A., for your initiative, dedication & competence without which this would never have been possible.
Annisette & Thomas, October 2000
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Amazone customer review:
A fantastic instrumental album from Savage Rose by Jeffrey J.Park
My first exposure to the Savage Rose (from Denmark) was through the
Supernatural Fairytales box set. I generally liked the track presented (Dear Little Mother)
and went out and bought this 1972 album, which as it turns out is 99% instrumental (vocals on Dear
Little Mother only) and excellent. My understanding is that keyboardist Thomas Koppel wrote the piece
as a musical accompaniment for the Royal Ballet's performance of Dodens Triumf (Triumph of Death).
The concept underlying Dodens Triumf is pretty heavy and reflected in the cover painting which is
meant to represent an old and oppressive society that was disappearing like the sinking sun.
This concept was clearly stated in a passage originally printed on the cover of the 1972 Polydor LP
which was taken from the Algerian writer Franz Fanon and his book "The Wretched of the Earth".
It is a pretty strong statement and has been reprinted on the inner pages of the CD reissue booklet.
The musicians on this instrumental album include vocalist Annisette
(she has a brief wordless vocal and a vocal part on Dear Little Mother only);
Anders Koppel (Farfisa? organ; harmonica; flute; and percussion);
Thomas Koppel (piano; harmonium; percussion); Alex Riel (drums; percussion);
Rudolf Hansen (acoustic and electric guitars; bass guitar);
and Ole Molin (acoustic and electric guitars).
The musicians are all pretty good although this music is more about texture and atmosphere
than mind-blowing ensemble work. The music is organ and acoustic piano saturated with a great deal of percussion.
In general, acoustic instruments are favored more than electric instruments,
although the electric guitar does poke its head out every so often.
One last note - Annisette has the most unusual voice I have ever heard. Although this is really unflattering
(and maybe a little unkind), her voice reminds me somewhat of Betty Boop.
The liner notes even quote the late Lester Bangs (one of prog rock's greatest enemies I might add) describing
her vocal style as "Minnie mouse on a belladonna jag". You get the idea.
This music is symphonic, pretty gloomy, and there are some supremely haunting moments.
All of the tracks flow together into a single, multi-movement suite and as such there is great continuity.
There are elements of classical (which reflects Thomas Koppel's classical training),
what sounds like traditional folk music, and some rock music.
Apart from an interesting drum/percussion solo on Soldaternes Dod (Death of the Soldiers),
this is a very quiet album dominated by the unusual organ sound that Anders manages to get and
the classically influenced acoustic piano work of Thomas.
Although only 500 copies of Dodens Triumf were initially released,
eventually something around 250,000 copies were sold.
In fact, the sheer success and the classical, instrumental nature of the album tore the band apart
and this would be the last recording with the original lineup.
All in all this is yet another fantastic album of experimental rock from Continental Europe
and is very highly recommended.
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