Progsody in C Minus was born from my enjoyment of progressive rock music from the early 1970s. The long-form sectional structures of much of this music are rife with fluidly shifting temporal and metric play, frequent changes in texture, and a mixture of grave seriousness and absurd humor in both the music and lyrics. The title is  humorously pretentious – a melding of the words “progressive” and “rhapsody” followed by the reference to the work’s overall tonality and modality. 

Progsody in C Minus is in 6 attaca sections, each with its own title, representing the progression of activity during a restless night’s sleep:

1. Nightfall
2. Awakening the Dreams
3. Somnambulation 
4. Into the Metal Machine
5. Psychoscherzo
6. A Heavy Revelation in 11/16

The sections differ distinctly in character, yet they are linked by the use of similar melodic and harmonic gestures through out, and create an overall crescendo in dynamics, texture, and density.

Progsody in C Minus was commissioned by Jeffrey Vickers with generous assistance from Northern Michigan University. It is approximately 14’15’’ in duration.