The Time Has Come



Well folks, I'm working on moving my blog over to blogspot.com.  We'll see how this goes.  

For now, please visit DepthDeception.blogspot.com for future updates.

The Last Bastion of Hope?



Am I the last one standing?  The single lighthouse in a sea of darkness? 

No.  There are others.  There will be others.  They will come and go.

But this blog will stand as the towering testament to my social ineptitude. 

THE WRATH OF GOD



About a month ago, and after listening to this podcast, I was inspired to try my hand at arranging, adapting and composing the 13th century Latin Hymn "Dies Irae," or the Day of Wrath, into an original work.

Dies iræ! dies illa
Solvet sæclum in favilla
Teste David cum Sibylla!
***
Day of wrath! O day of mourning!
See fulfilled the prophets' warning,
Heaven and earth in ashes burning!

This project had something of a rocky birth.  I really wanted to come full circle with the sound --the motif sounds great on an organ, but instead of using the organ, I wanted to have a big brassy orchestra sound.  As you probably know, the organ was invented to emulate the orchestra...so I'm not sure how much sense it makes to have an orchestra trying to emulate an organ...but that's what I reaching for.

Anyway, after I wrote the introduction, I was ready to shelve the project.  It just sounded too broad.  Too simple.  Too amateurish.  So I sulked and walked away for a couple weeks.

But then, on a whim, I decided to revisit it.  During that session I wrote the Bernard Hermann-esque bridge, which I really enjoy, and from there I was off to the races!

My aim with this piece is to illustrate the wrath and violence of the Old Testament God.  I imagine--BOOM!  Lightening streaking down and separating the sky.  God marches forth with terrible fury, a fiery sword, and the four horsemen of the apocalypse at His side. 

To drive home the relentless brutality, I repeat the main motif often.  But I also wanted to illustrate the unexpected nature of God's violence, so I disrupt the rhythm here and there to (hopefully) simulate the destruction of lightening bolts, quakes, and volcanoes.  

After I was done, I almost shelved the project again.  It's too much!  I felt I needed a denouement, something to book end the composition, but I wasn't getting anywhere.  However, after finding I had almost wholesale copied Mozart, I finally settled on a riff that I felt was adequately melancholy.   Here I imagine the end of days has come, it is the post-apocalypse, and lost souls weep as they contemplate the vast cruelty of God's design.

That was my thought process.  But for my money, nobody beats Verdi's Requiem.  (Not even Mozart.  Well, I suppose it's a close call...)  Now THAT is the appropriate sense of violence and fury of God.  Terrifying.  Gives me the chills.

The Time Has Come



Well folks, I'm working on moving my blog over to blogspot.com.  We'll see how this goes.  

For now, please visit DepthDeception.blogspot.com for future updates.

The Last Bastion of Hope?



Am I the last one standing?  The single lighthouse in a sea of darkness? 

No.  There are others.  There will be others.  They will come and go.

But this blog will stand as the towering testament to my social ineptitude. 

THE WRATH OF GOD



About a month ago, and after listening to this podcast, I was inspired to try my hand at arranging, adapting and composing the 13th century Latin Hymn "Dies Irae," or the Day of Wrath, into an original work.

Dies iræ! dies illa
Solvet sæclum in favilla
Teste David cum Sibylla!
***
Day of wrath! O day of mourning!
See fulfilled the prophets' warning,
Heaven and earth in ashes burning!

This project had something of a rocky birth.  I really wanted to come full circle with the sound --the motif sounds great on an organ, but instead of using the organ, I wanted to have a big brassy orchestra sound.  As you probably know, the organ was invented to emulate the orchestra...so I'm not sure how much sense it makes to have an orchestra trying to emulate an organ...but that's what I reaching for.

Anyway, after I wrote the introduction, I was ready to shelve the project.  It just sounded too broad.  Too simple.  Too amateurish.  So I sulked and walked away for a couple weeks.

But then, on a whim, I decided to revisit it.  During that session I wrote the Bernard Hermann-esque bridge, which I really enjoy, and from there I was off to the races!

My aim with this piece is to illustrate the wrath and violence of the Old Testament God.  I imagine--BOOM!  Lightening streaking down and separating the sky.  God marches forth with terrible fury, a fiery sword, and the four horsemen of the apocalypse at His side. 

To drive home the relentless brutality, I repeat the main motif often.  But I also wanted to illustrate the unexpected nature of God's violence, so I disrupt the rhythm here and there to (hopefully) simulate the destruction of lightening bolts, quakes, and volcanoes.  

After I was done, I almost shelved the project again.  It's too much!  I felt I needed a denouement, something to book end the composition, but I wasn't getting anywhere.  However, after finding I had almost wholesale copied Mozart, I finally settled on a riff that I felt was adequately melancholy.   Here I imagine the end of days has come, it is the post-apocalypse, and lost souls weep as they contemplate the vast cruelty of God's design.

That was my thought process.  But for my money, nobody beats Verdi's Requiem.  (Not even Mozart.  Well, I suppose it's a close call...)  Now THAT is the appropriate sense of violence and fury of God.  Terrifying.  Gives me the chills.