From a 2004 interview with Tony Banks on an orchestral suite he wrote, called Seven:
There were some fast bits in it. A lot of the orchestra has no problem in playing complicated pieces, but it is very different when they kind of know the piece. When they are doing most pieces that the orchestras play, they’ve heard it a hundred times before. If there is complexity in there, they know it, because they have heard it before. So, if they were doing [The Rite of Spring] or something, they’ve heard it a hundred times. With this, some of the way the changes work, the tempos and things, we were constantly trying to get it right. It was quite difficult.
The orchestra seemed to find some of the rhythmical ideas quite difficult in it, too. I don’t know why, but they proved very difficult. The most difficult part of all, which I am probably least satisfied with on the album, is the big theme at the end of that section which was supposed to be done basically on the brass with the strings arpeggiating behind it. We tried for hours and just couldn’t get it. The strings just couldn’t get the two in time. I don’t know why, it was easy enough on the synthesizers [laughs]! Also, it seemed to get slower and slower. So, that caused me the most grief. So, while I think the piece works well in sections, and still probably stands up, it’s the one that is probably the least close to my original hope for it, because, it was supposed to be the final piece and the big piece and the one that the whole album would build to. I would like to try and do it live some day and just get it that little bit better.
And, from the trenches, or at least, the classroom:
I gave one of my 8th-Grade girls the music to follow, since she fancies herself a composer: “Those 16th-notes were something else!”
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