Sysyphus

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Ummagumma

**“Sysyphus”** is a song released by the English psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd, is Richard Wright’s contribution (and opening suite) to the solo effort on Pink Floyd’s double fourth album *Ummagumma* (1969). As for all other band members, this roughly half-a-side piece is written, composed and performed solely by Richard Wright himself. That means, Wright sung each and every vocal track, played all the keyboards (Farfisa, piano, mellotron) drums and various additional instruments that can be heard on it. “Sysyphus” being a four-part piece, with each part being very distinct, its “lyrics” here are divided in four parts to describe each of those. The name “Sysyphus” refers to “Sisyphus”, the Greek mythological hero who tried to cheat death by imprisoning Thanatos himself, only to be sentenced to eternal torture in Hell: his punishment is to roll a boulder up a mountainside only for it to fall back down and starting over forever.

*(Sysyphus is an instrumental piece, so no lyrics are available.)*

## Parts

#### Part One (1:09)

The first part of “Sysyphus” can be seen as an overture similar to that of orchestral works such as Richard Strauss’s *Also Sprach Zarathustra*. Richard Wright makes heavy use of the mellotron’s “string ensemble resembling” sound, wide cymbals, timpani and several vocal tracks to imitate the feel of a full orchestra and choir, in a slow piece that sets the typical mood of peplum films.

#### Part Two (3:30)

Directly transitioning from part one, part two of “Sysyphus” is a mostly-piano piece that begins as delicate melodies to descend into more chaotic territory. As much as the beginning of the track is played with a soft touch of the piano keys, essentially on the right side of the keyboard (higher-pitched notes), it devolves slowly towards extremely heavy, rhythm-less strokes on the left side of the keyboard, some probably delivered with the whole forearm at once.

#### Part Three (1:49)

Picking up from the apparent crumbling of part two, part three is a short track emphasizing drum elements (especially cymbals) providing very sharp noises, over a piano playing its lowest notes to no apparent tone (atonal piano sections would come back from Richard Wright on subsequent records). All of this is complete with very high-pitched voice effects imitating shrieking animals, to provide an ever-more-tense atmosphere until a final release.

#### Part Four (7:00)

“Sysyphus, Part Four” is the longest of its parts and can itself be divided into two or three distinct parts. It begins with a very soft instrumental piece building an extremely soothing atmosphere. The mellotron plays wide layers of soft chords while the Farfisa organ imitates a flute providing comforting melodies. There is a good deal of background noises ranging from water flowing to bird cries (some are taken directly from the HMV sound effects record used earlier that year on “Cirrus Minor”). This ambience slowly fades out, almost intending to put the listener to sleep.

Once complete silence is reached, a very heavy stroke of most of a mellotron’s keys wakes the listener back up with a snap, then turns into very low-pitched, menacing notes from which slowly emerges a reprise of Part 1’s complete orchestration, only significantly lower-pitched and slower, resulting in a coda that furthers the malaise provoked by the mellotron moments earlier.

## Personnel

* Richard Wright – piano, organ, mellotron, Farfisa, drums.

## Trivia

* Sysyphus is the first and longest suite on the studio half of Ummagumma.
* Conventional wisdom is that this music was made under the influence of LSD, but that's a common misconception about Pink Floyd. With the exception of their founding member Syd Barrett, the band wasn't big on acid, but was very adventurous musically. Said David Gilmour: "We were fairly brave, and would put anything on a record that amused us one way or another."

## References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink\_Floyd\_discography
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ummagumma
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://www.songfacts.com/facts/pink-floyd/sysyphus-parts-1-4
4. ↑ http://lyrics.doheth.co.uk/songs/pink-floyd/ummagumma/sysyphus.php
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 https://genius.com/Pink-floyd-sysyphus-lyrics