In the classic days of the single this would be the experimental/'progressive' B side of "Bring Me To Fring All Saints." The track explores what, if anything, remains when the body dies? The answer is beyond reason and even the strongest faith can only guess. The only certainty our little duo has on this question is that if the little self we fearfully cling to in the face of death is all we have, then we're not really living anyway. That little self palpably dies whenever we let it go and embrace a larger existence, as for example when we love.
The lyric is a Petrarchan sonnet repeated with variations. In sonata terms the first theme ( in the tonic key) is "In fear of death and out of love with God" which changes key into "In love with death and fear of God and doubt" and back again, a pattern repeated with word modulations on the same theme as the octave of the sonnet works out (ABBBAABBA.) The second theme (in the dominant key) is "In doughty love with love and life and out" which changes key into "Of fear with death, I hear your heart-strung tune" and back again, this second pattern also repeated with word modulations on the same theme as the sestet of the sonnet works out - (CDEEDC. ) The sonnet is repeated with subtle variations and then the two themes, both verbal and musical, are developed before the recapitulation (beginning "In fear of death and out of love with God/ In love with death and fear of God and doubt") resolves with a repeat of the original dominant sestet in the tonic key.
Thus, the themes of love and death are expositioned, developed and resolved as both sonata and sonnet.
All the vocal and instrumental lines ( bass, harmonium, acoustic guitar, tom, snare) are simple but the overall sonata construction is more complex than anything I've ever tried before so I didn't want to waste the considerable cognitive effort required on a trivial subject. Love and death are certainly not trivial themes. As regards the lyric, the phrases had to be as musical as they are semantic and in constructing a sonnet for this musical programme two things happened. 1. I wrote in a less linear, more cyclical, way than usual and being so preoccupied with the form (and the minting of phrases that resounded and that could be developed in the repetitions and varied as tunes are in a sonata) my mind was so preoccupied it let my deepest feelings about these themes through undistracted and unfiltered.
The sonnet as a poetical form repeats metrical and musical ideas anyway (the form, meter and rhyme in an octave and sestet which pivot around a 'turn' at the end of the eight line ) and the 'thought' of a sonnet goes one way (thesis) and then the other (antithesis) towards its synthesis at the end. In this one, those repetitions, pivots and resolutions are extended through subtle variations of the same sonnet (rather than say a sonnet sequence based on verbal thoughts only) within an overall musical sonata.
music as an actual formal musical sonata with sonnet lyrics.
peacocks-tale.bandcamp.com/track/sonata-in-g-love-and-death for full notes.
The lyric is a Petrarchan sonnet repeated with variations. In sonata terms the first theme ( in the tonic key) is "In fear of death and out of love with God" which changes key into "In love with death and fear of God and doubt" and back again, a pattern repeated with word modulations on the same theme as the octave of the sonnet works out (ABBBAABBA.) The second theme (in the dominant key) is "In doughty love with love and life and out" which changes key into "Of fear with death, I hear your heart-strung tune" and back again, this second pattern also repeated with word modulations on the same theme as the sestet of the sonnet works out - (CDEEDC. ) The sonnet is repeated with subtle variations and then the two themes, both verbal and musical, are developed before the recapitulation (beginning "In fear of death and out of love with God/ In love with death and fear of God and doubt") resolves with a repeat of the original dominant sestet in the tonic key.
Thus, the themes of love and death are expositioned, developed and resolved as both sonata and sonnet.
All the vocal and instrumental lines ( bass, harmonium, acoustic guitar, tom, snare) are simple but the overall sonata construction is more complex than anything I've ever tried before so I didn't want to waste the considerable cognitive effort required on a trivial subject. Love and death are certainly not trivial themes. As regards the lyric, the phrases had to be as musical as they are semantic and in constructing a sonnet for this musical programme two things happened. 1. I wrote in a less linear, more cyclical, way than usual and being so preoccupied with the form (and the minting of phrases that resounded and that could be developed in the repetitions and varied as tunes are in a sonata) my mind was so preoccupied it let my deepest feelings about these themes through undistracted and unfiltered.
The sonnet as a poetical form repeats metrical and musical ideas anyway (the form, meter and rhyme in an octave and sestet which pivot around a 'turn' at the end of the eight line ) and the 'thought' of a sonnet goes one way (thesis) and then the other (antithesis) towards its synthesis at the end. In this one, those repetitions, pivots and resolutions are extended through subtle variations of the same sonnet (rather than say a sonnet sequence based on verbal thoughts only) within an overall musical sonata.
music as an actual formal musical sonata with sonnet lyrics.
peacocks-tale.bandcamp.com/track/sonata-in-g-love-and-death for full notes.
lyrics
In fear of death and out of love with God,
In love with death and fear of God and doubt
Of love and life and All and driven out
Of every In and home and church, a rod
For my own back, and with my own nails shod,
In fear of life and death of love I shout
My doubtful notes, my beaten heart as stout
As death, and out of fear I pray to God.
In doughty love with love and life and out
Of fear with death, I hear your heart-strung tune
And let my not-self go, and all in love
All lost like little self in All above,
Self’s little death, my darkness all consumed,
Unshrouding June from ‘I’-cy clouds of doubt.
And half in love with death and fear of God
In fear of All - and all in love with death,
As out of love with life as dying breath
Repeating prayers of lightning to a rod
That doesn’t give a damn, an outed odd
In death with love who never dared to guess
Death’s loving door, a grave, would answer ‘Yes...
And half in love with death and fear of God
In fear of All - and all in love with death,
As out of love with life as dying breath
Repeating prayers for lightning to a rod
That doesn’t give a damn, an outed odd
In death with love who never dared to guess
Death’s loving door, a grave, would answer ‘Yes
Fear’s death will come and fall in love with God.’
In doughty love with love and life and out
Of fear with death, I hear your heart-strung tune
And let my not-self go, and all in love
All lost like little self in All above,
Self’s little death, my darkness all consumed,
Unshrouding June from ‘I’-cy clouds of doubt.
And half in death and for the love of God
The death of God all in love with death,
As out of love with life as dying breath
Repeating prayers for lightning to a rod
That doesn’t give a damn, an outed odd
In death with love who never dared to guess
Death’s loving door, a grave, would answer Yes
Fear’s death will come and fall in love with God.
In fear of death and out of love with God,
In love with death and fear of God and doubt
Of love and life and All and driven out
Of every In and home and church, a rod
For my own back, and with my own nails shod,
In fear of life and death of love I shout
My doubtful notes, my beaten heart as stout
As death, and out of fear I pray to God.
In doughty love with love and life and out
Of fear with death, I hear your heart-strung tune
And let my not-self go, and all in love
All lost like little self in All above,
Self’s little death, my darkness all consumed
Unshrouding June from ‘I’-cy clouds of doubt.
In love with death and fear of God and doubt
Of love and life and All and driven out
Of every In and home and church, a rod
For my own back, and with my own nails shod,
In fear of life and death of love I shout
My doubtful notes, my beaten heart as stout
As death, and out of fear I pray to God.
In doughty love with love and life and out
Of fear with death, I hear your heart-strung tune
And let my not-self go, and all in love
All lost like little self in All above,
Self’s little death, my darkness all consumed,
Unshrouding June from ‘I’-cy clouds of doubt.
And half in love with death and fear of God
In fear of All - and all in love with death,
As out of love with life as dying breath
Repeating prayers of lightning to a rod
That doesn’t give a damn, an outed odd
In death with love who never dared to guess
Death’s loving door, a grave, would answer ‘Yes...
And half in love with death and fear of God
In fear of All - and all in love with death,
As out of love with life as dying breath
Repeating prayers for lightning to a rod
That doesn’t give a damn, an outed odd
In death with love who never dared to guess
Death’s loving door, a grave, would answer ‘Yes
Fear’s death will come and fall in love with God.’
In doughty love with love and life and out
Of fear with death, I hear your heart-strung tune
And let my not-self go, and all in love
All lost like little self in All above,
Self’s little death, my darkness all consumed,
Unshrouding June from ‘I’-cy clouds of doubt.
And half in death and for the love of God
The death of God all in love with death,
As out of love with life as dying breath
Repeating prayers for lightning to a rod
That doesn’t give a damn, an outed odd
In death with love who never dared to guess
Death’s loving door, a grave, would answer Yes
Fear’s death will come and fall in love with God.
In fear of death and out of love with God,
In love with death and fear of God and doubt
Of love and life and All and driven out
Of every In and home and church, a rod
For my own back, and with my own nails shod,
In fear of life and death of love I shout
My doubtful notes, my beaten heart as stout
As death, and out of fear I pray to God.
In doughty love with love and life and out
Of fear with death, I hear your heart-strung tune
And let my not-self go, and all in love
All lost like little self in All above,
Self’s little death, my darkness all consumed
Unshrouding June from ‘I’-cy clouds of doubt.
credits
released July 1, 2024
In the film, I'm doing my first play through which remains as the basic bass guitar and vocal track on which everything else was later added (including Maz's guitar).
In the film, I'm doing my first play through which remains as the basic bass guitar and vocal track on which everything else was later added (including Maz's guitar).
No comments:
Post a Comment