''Ars Longa Vita Brevis'' is the second

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by the English

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

group

the Nice The Nice were an English progressive rock band active in the late 1960s. They blended rock, jazz and classical music. Keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist Lee Jackson (bassist), Lee Jackson, guitarist David O'List, and drummer Ian Hague ori ...

Background

In the summer of 1968 The Nice had their first taste of commercial success when their cover of "

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

", the popular

West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a Musical theatre, musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a Book (musical theatre), book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo an ...

number re-imagined as a heavy instrumental acid-rocker (Emerson called it "the first instrumental protest song", chosen as a reaction to the assassination of MLK that spring), hit #21 on the UK charts. The group achieved further notoriety in the press when they were banned from further appearances at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

after Emerson had burned a makeshift spray-painting of the American flag during a prestige gig at the venue in July. Guitarist

David O'List David O'List (born 13 December 1948) is an English rock guitarist, vocalist and trumpeter. He has played with The Attack, The Nice, Roxy Music (before being replaced by Phil Manzanera), and Jet (replaced by Ian Macleod). He also briefly dep ...

was fired from the band in the fall of 1968 during the initial recording of the album. (An early outtake of "Daddy, Where Did I Come From" featuring O'List on guitar was later released on the compilation Autumn '67 - Spring '68). After flirting briefly with auditioning a replacement guitarist (including

Steve Howe Stephen James Howe (born 8 April 1947) is an English musician, best known as the guitarist and backing vocalist in the progressive rock band Yes (band), Yes across three stints since 1970. Born in Holloway, London, Holloway, North London, Howe d ...

, later to join

Yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * Young Eisner Scholars, in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and Appalachia, US * Young Ep ...

), the Nice decided to carry on as a keyboard-led trio and completed the album that October.

Songs and recording

Structurally, side one of the album picked up where its predecessor left off, with shorter psych-pop numbers ("Daddy, Where Did I Come From", "Happy Freuds") sitting next to extended jams based on classical compositions (Sibelius' "Intermezzo from the Karelia Suite"), only this time without the participation of a guitarist. "Daddy Where Did I Come From" contains a comedic spoken word break of a father trying (and failing) to inform his son about the facts of life, while "Happy Freuds" is a Zappa-influenced puncturing of self-assured people with heavy use of echo delay on the vocal. The cover of "Karelia Suite" features a lengthy interlude with Jackson bowing his bass, followed by Emerson creating structured feedback with his Hammond L100 through a Marshall amplifier, supplemented by a Dallas Arbiter fuzz-face unit. A significant evolution was taken on side two with the appearance of the multi-sectional suite "Ars Longa Vita Brevis." The suite begins with a prelude featuring a full orchestra followed by an extended drum solo ("Awakening"), a more conventional acid rock number with guest electric guitar ("Realisation"), a rock adaptation of Bach's ''

Brandenburg Concerto The ''Brandenburg Concertos'' (BWV 1046–1051) by Johann Sebastian Bach are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, in 1721 (though probably composed earlier). The origina ...

No.3 in G Major'' featuring a return of the orchestra ("Brandenburger", released as a non-charting single in November 1968), a lightning-paced

Jazz-fusion Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

Hammond organ jam ("Denial") and an orchestral coda. "Ars Longa Vita Brevis" was, along with

Procol Harum Procol Harum () were an English rock music, rock band formed in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, in 1967. Their best-known recording is the 1967 hit single "A Whiter Shade of Pale", one of the few singles to have sold more than List of best-selling si ...

's " In Held 'Twas In I" released around the same time, the first side-long progressive rock suite and served as a template for Emerson's later efforts on '' Five Bridges'', ''

Tarkus ''Tarkus'' is the second studio album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released on 4 June 1971 on Island Records. Following their debut tour across Europe during the second half of 1970, the group paused touring commitme ...

'' and "

Karn Evil 9 "Karn Evil 9" is an extended work by progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer, appearing on the album ''Brain Salad Surgery''. A futuristic fusion of rock and classical themes, it was written by band members Keith Emerson and Greg Lake with fo ...

". Emerson recalled that during a break in the recording of "Brandenburger", he heard several of the orchestral musicians complaining about the noise and tempo of the arrangement, whereupon he decided to crank the volume of his Hammond even louder. The album unusually contains some songs in which Emerson sings lead vocals: he sings the lead in "Daddy, Where Did I Come From", sings the second lead vocal on "Happy Freuds" and takes the bridge in "Little Arabella". Guest guitarist Malcolm Langstaff, who played on the second movement of the suite titled "Realisation", died in 2007.

Title and album cover

The title is an

aphorism An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tra ...

attributed to

Hippocrates Hippocrates of Kos (; ; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician and philosopher of the Classical Greece, classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is traditionally referr ...

usually rendered as " Art is long, life is short";

Keith Emerson Keith Noel Emerson (2 November 194411 March 2016) was an English keyboardist, songwriter, composer and record producer. He played keyboards in a number of bands before finding his first commercial success with the Nice in the late 1960s. He be ...

's interpretation of this can be gauged from his sleevenote:

Newton Newton most commonly refers to: * Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist * Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton Newton may also refer to: People * Newton (surname), including a list of people with the surname * ...
's first law of motion states a body will remain at rest or continue with uniform motion in a straight line unless acted on by a force. This time the force happened to come from a European source. Ours is an extension of the original Allegro from
Brandenburg Concerto The ''Brandenburg Concertos'' (BWV 1046–1051) by Johann Sebastian Bach are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, in 1721 (though probably composed earlier). The origina ...
No. 3. Yesterday I met someone who changed my life, today we put down a sound that made our aim accurate. Tomorrow is yesterday's history and art will still be there, even if life terminates.

For the cover, the group hired photographer

Gered Mankowitz Gered W. Mankowitz (born 3 August 1946) is an English photographer who focused his career in the music industry. He has worked with a range of artists from the Rolling Stones to Jimi Hendrix, and in other divisions of the photography industry, ...

to create a composite overlap of

X-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

s of the three band members. While at the medical clinic, Emerson was informed that his X-ray showed two broken ribs, sustained from his intensely physical performances during the group's live shows. The cover went on to win the

New Musical Express ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a " rock inkie", the ''NME'' would become a maga ...

award for Best Pop Album Sleeve that year.

Release and reception

The original US version of the album opened with the earlier single "

". Released in November 1968, ''Ars Longa Vita Brevis'' failed to chart in either the UK or US, although it received a positive review from ''

Record Mirror ''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper published between 1954 and 1991, aimed at pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after ''New Musical Express'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK Album ...

'' which stated it was "musically excellent, very original, and going in a good direction to boot." ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

'' was even more impressed, calling it "a vast improvement on their first album which shows them moving in a direction far removed from any other group, British or American." Retrospectively,

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

's Bruce Eder described the album as "a genuinely groundbreaking effort."

Track listing

All songs written by

and Lee Jackson, except where noted.

Side one

# "Daddy, Where Did I Come From" – 3:44 # "Little Arabella" – 4:18 # "Happy Freuds" – 3:25 # "Intermezzo from the

Karelia Suite ''Karelia Suite'', Op. 11 is a subset of pieces from the longer ''Karelia Music'' (named after the region of Karelia) written by Jean Sibelius in 1893 for the Viipuri Students' Association and premiered, with Sibelius conducting, at the Impe ...

" (

Sibelius Jean Sibelius (; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often ...

) – 8:57 # "Don Edito el Gruva" (Emerson, Jackson, Brian Davison) – 0:13

Side two

"Ars Longa Vita Brevis" – 19:20 ::* "Prelude" (Emerson) – 1:49 ::* "1st Movement – Awakening" (Davison) – 4:01 ::* "2nd Movement – Realisation" (Jackson,

, Emerson) – 4:54 ::* "3rd Movement – Acceptance "Brandenburger"" (J.S.Bach, Davison, Emerson, Jackson) – 4:23 ::* "4th Movement – Denial" (Davison, Emerson, Jackson) – 3:23 ::* "Coda – Extension to the Big Note" (Emerson) – 0:46 ;Bonus tracks on the 1973 Columbia release # "

" (

Stephen Sondheim Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March22, 1930November26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. Regarded as one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater, he is credited with reinventing the American musical. He received Lis ...

and

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; born Louis Bernstein; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was th ...

) # "2nd Amendment" (Davison, Jackson) Added to side one (tracks 1 and 2) on the

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

release via their Columbia Special Products subsidiary. ;Bonus tracks on the 1998 rerelease #

"Brandenburger" (Mono single mix) # "Happy Freuds" (Mono single mix) ;Bonus track on the 2005 rerelease #

"Happy Freuds" – 3:27

Personnel

;The Nice *

– Hammond organ, piano, lead vocals (1), 2nd lead vocals (2, 3, 6) * Lee Jackson – bass guitar, lead vocals (2, 3, 6), backing vocals (1, 3), spoken word (1) * Brian Davison – drums *

– guitar on "

" with: * Malcolm Langstaff – guitar (6c) * Robert Stewart – orchestral arranger, conductor ;Technical * Don Brewer – engineer/consultant *

– cover photograph and

s of The Nice

References

{{Authority control 1968 albums The Nice albums Immediate Records albums Castle Communications albums Repertoire Records albums Albums produced by Keith Emerson Albums produced by Brian Davison (drummer) Albums produced by Lee Jackson (bassist)