The Canadian rock band Rush has written, recorded, and performed several instrumentals throughout its career.
Studio recordings
La Villa Strangiato
"La Villa Strangiato" was released on the 1978 album Hemispheres, and is subtitled "An Exercise in Self-Indulgence". The 9:37 song, the fourth and final track of the album, was Rush's first entirely instrumental piece. The multi-part piece was inspired by a dream guitarist Alex Lifeson had, and the music in these sections correspond to the occurrences in his dream. The opening segment was played on a nylon-string classical guitar. The next segment introduces the main theme of La Villa, the Strangiato theme. The song progresses to include an increasingly complex guitar solo backed by string synthesizer, followed closely by bass and drum fills. The Strangiato theme is then revisited before the song ends abruptly with phased bass and drums. The piece is divided as follows:
I: "Buenas Noches, Mein Froinds!" (0:00–0:26) II: "To sleep, perchance To dream..." (0:27–1:59) III: "Strangiato theme" (2:00–3:15) IV: "A Lerxst in Wonderland" (3:16–5:48) V: "Monsters!" (5:49–6:09) VI: "The Ghost of the Aragon" (6:10–6:44) VII: "Danforth and Pape" (6:45–7:25) VIII: "The Waltz of the Shreves" (7:26–7:51) IX: "Never turn your back on a Monster!" (7:52–8:02) X: "Monsters! (Reprise)" (8:03–8:16) XI: "Strangiato theme (Reprise)" (8:17–9:20) XII: "A Farewell to Things" (9:20–9:37)
Live versions of "La Villa Strangiato" have often featured altered sections. For instance, on Exit... Stage Left, Lee sings part of a nursery rhyme over "Danforth and Pape" (the liner notes include a translation of his words) and adds a short bass solo during "Monsters! (Reprise)." During later tours, as documented on Rush in Rio and the Blu-ray release of R30, a drum/bass vamp was inserted before "Strangiato Theme (Reprise)," over which Lifeson sang nonsense or made a stream of consciousness rant. The classical guitar introduction was either played on electric guitar or, more commonly, cut out altogether. During the 2010–2011 Time Machine Tour, the piece began with a polka rendition of "To sleep, perchance to dream," then transitioned into the original arrangement.
The band set out to record the song in one take; however, it ultimately required three separate takes. According to Lee, "We spent more time recording 'Strangiato' than the entire Fly by Night album. It was our first piece without any vocals at all. So each section had to stand up with a theme and musical structure of its own."
The segments titled "Monsters!" and "Monsters! (Reprise)" are an adaptation of Raymond Scott's popular composition "Powerhouse". Although the statute of limitations for copyright infringement had expired by the time Scott's publishers attempted to take legal action, the band paid some monetary compensation to him and his wife, feeling an ethical obligation to do so.
In 2018, Lee said of the piece:
That was a song where I would have to say our ideas exceeded our ability to play them. We thought: "We're going to write this long piece and then we'll just record it live off the floor and boom!"
But it was really difficult. It was beyond us. I included it here because it surprised me how popular that song was among our fans. They just love it when we go into that crazy mode.
Yes, it is an indulgence, but it seemed to be a pivotal moment for us in creating a fan base that wanted us to be that way.
"La Villa Strangiato" translates roughly to "The Strange Village" or "Weird City".
Drummer Neil Peart said of "La Villa Strangiato":
This is Alex's brain, and every section of that song is different dreams that Alex would tell us about and we'd be, "stop, stop." It was these bizarre dreams that he would insist on telling you every detail about, so it became a joke between Geddy and me. "La Villa Strangiato" means strange city, and there was so much going on in that. There's also a big band section in there, which was absolutely for me because I always wanted to play that approach. And cartoon music. We got in trouble later because we used music from a cartoon from the 1930s.
Rolling Stone readers voted the piece number 9 on their list of The Top 10 Rush songs.
Classic Rock ranked the instrumental number 2 on their list of The 50 Greatest Rush Songs Ever.