The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Rachel Chau)

The purpose of my final project is to compose a piece for The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I wanted to create an apocalypse using a sound medium since I have not studied one in class. I also thought it would be interesting to see how my passion for music would intertwine with a topic like the apocalypse. I decided to write my piece for The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse because I was immediately intrigued by their role as heralds of the Last Judgment. In addition, there was not much said about The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the Bible, allowing me to expand my understanding of their roles in a destructive apocalypse by applying my own interpretation. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse features four movements which correspond to each horseman, ordered in the sequence they are introduced in the Bible. I believe the white, red, black, and pale green horsemen represent the destruction of evil, relationships, life, and humanity, respectively.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are described in The Apocalypse of John, which is Revelation 1-22. This passage from the Bible details what will happen during the Last Judgment. In Christian theology, the Last Judgment marks the end of the world. God will come down and save His followers, leaving the rest of the humans to die on Earth. The way how believers will be chosen and brought to Heaven is through the rapture, an eschatological Christian concept that states that believers will be “seized” or “snatched away” from Earth and into the air. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse prelude the Last Judgment. I wanted to understand the fear The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse would cause when humans saw them, knowing they were going to be judged by the Lord. I took inspiration from Michelangelo’s famous fresco Last Judgment, focusing on the split of mankind into good and evil and the Last Judgment’s consequential destruction. To further grasp the emotions involved with the Last Judgment and the Four Horsemen, I looked at The Simpsons episode Thanks God, It’s Doomsday. I tried to capture the terror and uncertainty regarding the loss of family and the imminent end of the world brought about by The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in my composition.

The White Horseman represents the destruction of evil. The horseman himself is Christ, saving His followers through the rapture. I decided to compose a solo piano piece to focus all the attention on Him. I began my composition with a dark, minor opening to symbolize the fear and uncertainty the White Horseman would bring as He entered the Earth. I used full chords to represent the majesty of the Lord, who is described as wearing a crown. The text also states that the White Horseman is wielding a bow, stepping down from the Heavens conquering and ready to conquer. I wanted to demonstrate how God was going to destroy the evil from the world. I transitioned into a twisted, minor version of Angels We Have Heard On High. I was really interested in the hymn’s lyrics “gloria in excelsis deo” which means “glory to God in the highest.” I decided to deviate from the original major melody and add dissonant undertones because I wanted to highlight the fact that God is both a loving and wrathful God. I wanted to show how pure and glorious He was but also so powerful that we should all fear Him. Throughout the piece, I switched between major and minor chord progressions to further demonstrate the duality of God: our loving, wonderful Savior who should also be feared and respected. I also weaved a repetitive, thumping bass line to represent Christ’s impending and powerful mission to conquer the Earth and save His followers. I ended the movement on a rich d-flat major chord because I believe the White Horseman inspires hope for God’s believers by purging the world of evil.

The Red Horseman’s role in a destructive apocalypse is to destroy the relationships between people. For the Red Horseman, I wrote a piano duet because he represents warfare, and warfare involves a conflict between two or more parties. Colored crimson like the blood that will be spilt, the Red Horseman wields a great sword, stealing the peace from the world so people can kill one another. I decided to make the piece very fast-paced and intense to capture the feeling of warfare. From the beginning, I implemented a constant rhythmic line to establish a sense of dread and worry. I composed a dissonant melody that does not resolve in harmony to exacerbate the sense of panic. I stacked the discordant tune to represent how powerful the Red Horseman’s impact is, as war affects everyone. The slower full chords in the middle of the piece reveal the gripping fear violent conflict brings about. The piece then quickly follows an ascending chromatic scale, representing the Earth’s rising anxiety. The rhythmic bass line resumes with a stronger melody on top. It continues to build, quickly collapsing into chaos via descending chords.

I decided to compose a haunting piano-vocal score featuring a soprano section for the Black Horseman movement. The Black Horseman represents the destruction of life.  I set a slow tempo at the beginning to set a dreary theme. The Black Horseman also wields a pair of scales that weigh food and money, representing the famine he brings about. To symbolize the balancing act of the scales, I made the piece constantly fluctuate between major and minor keys. The sad tune is striving to reach an equilibrium, oscillating between happy and sad harmonies. The haunting, melancholy soprano tune is dissonant to symbolize the fear of famine. The piece slowly dies with an unresolved chord to represent the ultimate outcome of life through famine: death.

Finally, I composed a cello-cello-harp trio for the Pale Green Horseman section. The Pale Green Horseman destroys humanity in a destructive apocalypse. The Pale Green Horseman is death, and Hades lurks in his shadow. I made the cellos represent the luring voices of death and Hades. These two instruments work together, often harmonizing with each other. This is similar to how death and Hades bring about sickness and plague by working with one another to destroy an individual’s humanity. The three against five rhythmic dissonant arpeggios the harp plucks foster an uneasy feeling. The running harp notes also establish a mysterious undertone, symbolize the haze Hades has. It symbolizes how death is a foreign concept.

I initially wanted to compose a piece all of The Apocalypse of John. However, I realized it was too difficult to explain such a long passage through a sound medium. Instead, I decided to focus on The Four Horsemen in order to really understand the underlying apocalyptic destructive forces behind each horseman. I initially was going to talk about the apocalyptic motif of catastrophe, but with this change of scope, focused more on the destruction of evil, relationships, life, and humanity by analyzing The Four Horsemen.