"Cirrus Minor" is a song written and performed by the progressive/psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...

. It is the first track on their 1969

1969 in music

-Events:Perhaps the two most famous musical events of 1969 were concerts. At a Rolling Stones concert in Altamont, California, a fan was stabbed to death by Hells Angels, a biker gang that had been hired to provide security for the event...

 album Soundtrack from the Film More.

Overview

The song is approximately 5 minutes 15 seconds long. It was written by Roger Waters

Roger Waters

George Roger Waters is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. He was a founding member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, serving as bassist and co-lead vocalist. Following the departure of bandmate Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became the band's lyricist, principal songwriter...

 and performed with David Gilmour

David Gilmour

David Jon Gilmour, CBE, D.M. is an English rock musician and multi-instrumentalist who is best known as the guitarist, one of the lead singers and main songwriters in the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a producer for a variety of...

 (vocals, guitar) and Richard Wright

Richard Wright (musician)

Richard William Wright was an English pianist, keyboardist and songwriter, best known for his career with Pink Floyd. Wright's richly textured keyboard layers were a vital ingredient and a distinctive characteristic of Pink Floyd's sound...

 (organ). The song has a hallucinogenic, pastoral quality, with prominent organ and bird sound effects, like those that later featured on the Ummagumma

Ummagumma

Ummagumma is a double album by English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in 1969 by Harvest and EMI in the United Kingdom and Harvest and Capitol in the United States...

track "Grantchester Meadows

Grantchester Meadows (song)

"Grantchester Meadows" is a song from the second half of the experimental Pink Floyd album Ummagumma. It was written and performed entirely by Roger Waters. The song features Waters' lyrics accompanied by an acoustic guitar, while a tape loop of a skylark chirps in the background throughout the...

". It was also included on Pink Floyd's compilation album Relics

Relics (Pink Floyd album)

Relics is a compilation album by Pink Floyd released in 1971. The album was released on 14 May in the UK and 15 July in the United States. A re-mastered CD was released in 1995 with a different album cover, a three-dimensional version of the original sketch drawn by drummer Nick Mason for the...

. The song features no drums, which creates a rather unusual feeling. The Hammond and Farfisa organ coda is similar to that found on the "Celestial Voices" section of "A Saucerful of Secrets

A Saucerful of Secrets (song)

"A Saucerful of Secrets" is a multi-part instrumental composition by the rock band Pink Floyd from the album A Saucerful of Secrets, released in 1968. The track lasts 11:52 and was composed by band members Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Nick Mason, and David Gilmour...

". While the Hammond provides a stately foundation with a Em-Bm-D-A-G-D-B sequence, about 1/4 way into the coda Wright introduces the Farfisa which, run through a Binson Echorec

Binson

Binson was an early manufacturer of echo machines. Unlike most other analog echo machines, they used an analog magnetic drum recorder instead of a tape loop. Their most famous product was the Binson Echorec....

 platter echo

Delay (audio effect)

Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo.-Early delay...

, produces the swirly, trembly, echoey sound that hovers over the Hammond.

The opening birdsong is from a 1961 recording entitled "Dawn Chorus" and the single bird featured over the organ part is a nightingale also from 1961. Both featured on an HMV sound effects single (together with a recording of owls) but presumably the band just borrowed the originals from the EMI

EMI

The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

 sound effects library as EMI owned HMV.

Composition

"Cirrus Minor" has an unusual chord sequence:
E minor, E flat augmented, G major, C# minor 7, C major 7, C minor 7 and B 7. The chords are built around the chromatically descending bass line. The B 7, C major 7 and G major chords are the only chords which fit into the functional context of the E minor key. This chord sequence gives the song a very surreal atmosphere.

Equally surreal is the stately and pastoral Hammond/Farfisa coda. With Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...

 as one of his influences, it is one of the best examples of how and why Wright was so crucial to the band's early sounds and textures.

Personnel

• David Gilmour
  David Gilmour
  David Jon Gilmour, CBE, D.M. is an English rock musician and multi-instrumentalist who is best known as the guitarist, one of the lead singers and main songwriters in the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a producer for a variety of...
  
   — acoustic guitar, vocals
• Richard Wright
  Richard Wright (musician)
  Richard William Wright was an English pianist, keyboardist and songwriter, best known for his career with Pink Floyd. Wright's richly textured keyboard layers were a vital ingredient and a distinctive characteristic of Pink Floyd's sound...
  
   — Hammond and Farfisa organ

Covers

"Cirrus Minor" was covered by the French artist Étienne Daho

Étienne Daho

Étienne Daho is a French singer, songwriter and record producer who has released a number of synth-driven and rock-surf influenced pop hit singles since 1981.- Career :...

on his 2007 album, L'Invitation.