A Journey to Liberation: A Musical Apocalypse (Nadine Marie Khoury)

A Journey to Liberation: A Musical Apocalypse

Nadine Marie Khoury

Reflection:

For my final project, I’ve composed a musical piece, titled A Journey to Liberation. I wrote the piece using musical techniques to embody various apocalyptic and eschatological principles discussed in class. In this paper, I dissect the song by section to explain my choices in conveying an apocalypse.

I. Introduction to a suffering world (0:00-1:30)

The piece starts with a constant pulse from the cello. This signifies a heartbeat, reminiscent of the “Last Man”, in order to project a lonely world in dystopia. The constant rhythm can also remind the listener of a soldier marching with fear, in anticipation of a war or existential conflict. Then, at 0:08, a melody from the Viola is layered on top of this beat. This melody is not harmonically pure, with many notes that don’t fit in the conventional scale; I wrote this to convey dissonance, a lack of harmony, signifying that elements of the divine (harmony) have fallen to produce an imperfect world, a concept central to the Gnostic Myth. Examples of this dissonance can be found in 0:38, 0:51-53, and 1:07.



II. Catastrophe (1:30-1:45)



Here, I depict unexpected suspense. At 1:30, the constant cello beat becomes rapid. The Viola begins to quickly rise in suspense. At 1:35, a violin echoes a higher version of each note, contributing anticipation. At this point in the apocalypse, the “sudden” suspense represents catastrophe. The notes rise to show the suffering and fearful society has arrived at an existential threat that causes it to try to rise and reach the divine.



III. Emissary/Rapture (1:45-2:03)



At 1:45, a clarinet plays a high note, and quickly descends. This signifies a divine response; an emissary is sent from heaven down to reveal a new world to the suffering inhabitants and bring liberation, as described in the Gnostic Myth. As the clarinet quickly descends down a chromatic scale, the orchestra responds in anticipation (1:52-2:03). I also convey elements of the rapture, described in 1 Thes. 4:16-17: “For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven.” By having the wind-based clarinet start at a very high note and descend quickly, I reference God’s trumpet descending to signal an impending rapture. The suspense that builds afterwards foreshadows the resulting final judgment.



IV. Bells of Heaven (2:03-2:33)

This section takes a very sharp contrast from the beginning and rings a high-pitched bell/chime in a cheerful key, reminiscent of the bells of heaven ringing, as depicted in the story of Noah’s ark, in which the bells rang to warn him. These bells show that the emissary is signaling an impending liberation. I maintain a strong base sound under the chimes to convey the foundational strength of God and the divine in shaping such an emissary. This happier section starkly contrasts with the dramatic section seconds prior, a contrast that should remind the listener of Syncretism. From 2:22-2:33, the flute plays a happy tune following the bells, symbolizing birds tweeting the news that liberation is coming.

V. Waltz of Revelations (2:33-4:16)

At 2:33, the dark rhythm of the beginning is replaced with a light and cheerful waltz. The emissary continues the Gnostic Myth by beginning the process of revelation to the earthly inhabitants. I split this revelation into sections, representing different “transformations” of the dance. The first revelation of the waltz takes place from 2:33-3:08. This is an entirely happy section, in which the revealed information is cheerful, as people rejoice to see the emissary. From 3:06-3:15, the emissary and earth engage in a call and response with the heavens (the chime instrument) as the main tune is echoed by the chimes. However, the waltz then begins to slowly escalate, as the chimes respond by transforming the harmonies to be more “sad” at 3:13. In the second revelation from 3:16-3:34, the waltz becomes somber to reflect that the heavens are not entirely happy with the people on earth. In the third revelation section from 3:35-3:55, I allow the waltz to transform back to a happy scale, to show back and forth tensions between good and evil. However, at 3:56, the waltz becomes dramatic, to reveal to the people that they will undergo a final judgment in which only the good are sent to heaven. The scale transforms to C minor, a somber scale, as more instruments, including a heavy piano baseline are introduced at 4:03. The waltz becomes heavy, shedding its light and happy quality, escalating until chimes give one final signal to unleash the final judgment at 4:12-4:16.

VI. Final Judgment (4:17-4:31)

Here, the waltz comes to a climax; violins rise in loud chords, and the piano and cello begin a fast and deep-pitched melody to represent the stirring of the underworld, while the flute and clarinet are racing in torment. Meanwhile, the chimes pursue a rapid melody rising in pitch to represent the heavens beginning the final judgment. The suspense finally ends as all the voices converge in a chord from 4:30-4:31, signifying that the judgment has been made.

VII. Liberation (4:32-4:48)

The liberation starts at a very low pitch with only the cello and piano, signifying the starting point for low earthly beings. The melodies chaotically begin to rise as more instruments are added to the ascension to heaven. This rise in pitch represents the beings slowly rising to meet the divine. However, at 4:44, I split the instruments; the cello and piano dramatically fall and the flute, violin, and chimes remain very high pitched. This is meant to represent how after the final judgment, evil forces are sent to hell while the holy remain in heaven with the divine.

VIII. Looking back from heaven (4:48-4:57)

I end with the heavenly chimes that have now liberated the holy people and welcomed them into heaven. The chimes conclude with a tune reminiscent of the waltz, indicating that the society remembers the tune from heaven after being liberated. The last two chords are the piece’s highest notes, signifying a holy and heavenly end to the world.

Note on the use of 7:                                      

One last apocalyptic reference is my use of the number seven, a subtle reference to the seven heads of the demon. The sections I have delineated above amount to eight – the first seven mark the seven heads and the eighth section marks heaven’s victory over the number seven in the final seconds, rising up to the highest notes in celebration.

Motif Left Out:

One concept covered in class I’ve chosen to omit is how the apocalypse is relative. In many stories, we see that one world’s liberation can mean another world’s destruction. In this piece, I’ve chosen not to explore this subtlety, since such simultaneous stories are difficult to track in a musical piece where instruments need to complement each other in a single story – it’s hard in the music medium to align different or “relative” stories on top of each other, unless they are harmonically similar, which would go against the intention of “relative” apocalypses that could have completely opposite and misaligned melodies.