On a regular basis, I have the pleasure and privilege to introduce music to a large number of students. After playing “Estampie” from Gryphon’s Gryphon (1972), a student asked why I introduced the performing ensemble as a “rock” band—a valid question. Why is this group, comprised of crumhorns, recorders, and bassoon, considered a rock band? Progressive rock scholars realize the term “progressive rock” casts a wide net that encompasses a diversity of styles, but the student’s question lingers and demands further examination.

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In this paper, I first survey the medieval style that most directly defines Gryphon’s music. Educated in early music and with a predilection for British nationalism, the band’s composers, Richard Harvey and Brian Gulland, adopted formal structures of sixteenth-century English carols (“Sir Gavin Grimbold”), dances (“Estampie”) and airs (“Crossing the Stiles”). I provide a comparative analysis of these songs with the works of early English composers John Dunstable and Thomas Campion. Next, I reveal specific rhythmic and harmonic traits that are more reflective of progressive rock in the 1970s than of the compositional practices of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These include additive rhythm, frequent meter changes, parsimonious voice leading, and chromaticism. I emphasize the album’s most balanced tracks in terms of style, “The Astrologer” and “The Devil and the Farmer’s Wife.” Next, I address production quality and recording methods that contribute to a more rock-sounding album (e.g., multi-track recording). Lastly, I will trace the evolution of Gryphon’s style across their five albums produced between 1972 and 1977. Despite their progressively edging toward a more mainstream rock style with each album debut, the band remained true to medieval forms and timbres.

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Keywords: Gryphon, medieval music, musical style, rock