When I was younger, I was interested in blending popular and classical music into some sort of hybrid. For example, I wrote disco for string quartet, and, in the case of this piece, "serious art music" for rock musicians. I'm aware that other composers of my generation experimented similarly, so I can't claim to be unique in this. But no matter who the composers are, I've since come to the conclusion that these experiments ultimately fail, because, as listeners, we come to these groups with certain expectations and habits that are essentially insurmountable. To put it simply, I'd much rather hear Cream play Cream than hear them play something that just doesn't fit, no matter how open-minded one might try to be about it.

For this reason, the first movement (subtitled "What if Cream had been influenced by Bartok rather than the blues?") is a bit unsatisfying now. It just doesn't "resonate" for me - and yet I wrote it!

The second movement (subtitled "What if Jimi Hendrix had studied composition with George Crumb?") is a bit more successful, I think. It's less constrained by the basic idea - more free to "be" music - than is the first movement.

The third movement (subtitled "What if Led Zeppelin (a) 'got culture', and (b) fired Robert Plant?") is ultimately the most successful of the three, because it's the one that's most faithful to the energy and drive of the genre.

(Most music pales in comparison to the early solo albums of Cream's Jack Bruce. Thank you, sir.)