Holiday Season O Nox Ultima Update
A hot cup of Joe keeps me warm in the Cave
I am glad to be able to report some important progress on the musical. Having conceptualized the basic grooves, changes, and melodies for the most significant motifs of the project, I thought I’d start from the very beginning and put together final arrangement demos of the songs. I have been working on the first one, which, for lack of a more compelling title, I am calling “Sacking Of Eupatoria.” It begins with a haunting a cappella solo of a verse from the Dies Irae (“Day Of Wrath”), sung by the character Helena. She is a princess of a walled city under Roman attack, and the verse is depicting her desperate but ultimately futile prayer for deliverance. For effect, I thought it should be sung in Classical Latin instead of English, and the reverb ambience is that of an empty room with hard marble walls–an empty palace where Helena is hiding as royal guards outside try in vain to protect her and fend off the invasion. As soon as her line is finished, the music switches to full-on heavy battle mode, and the melodies of later songs “Blood Of Eupatoria” and “Glories Of Rome” are “pre-prised” here.
For demo purposes I originally sang the latin line myself, but last Sunday I had my first tracking experience with Becca Kreutz, the woman who will (Lord willing) be singing the role of Helena on this project. I set up a remote recording studio in the basement library of our church and recorded her singing the opening lines. She was absolutely fantastic, well prepared, totally professional, and creatively invested in her contribution. I had very high expectations for this part, and I’ll have to raise them even higher, because Becca is bringing her A-game. She could totally steal the show. Amazing.
Fro my part, I love how the opening song is coming. Very powerful and melodramatic. Dripping with emotion. My guitar playing, while clumsy, is passionate, like a wet, messy, sloppy kiss. and I love the tone of it. I’ll leave the tight instrumental precision that people expect from progressive rock to the superior talents of Frank & Jonathan.
One thing is for certain: no one will ever confuse us with Rush again, I promise you.
I have never been more hopeful about the outcome of this project than I am right now. To use a sports metaphor, I feel like the head coach of an all-star team, with each player striving to deliver the winning performance, to be the “game changer”. When I write and arrange things, I craft the parts to take full advantage of their best talents. I know that Jonathan, Dan, and Frank can really make incredible contributions, and I hope that they all, in the best possible sense, step up deliver the performance that will “steal the show”.
If only I can get the playbook finished!
