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Fantasia Apocalyptica World Premiere
Composed 2012-2017 by Donald E. Knuth
Performed by Jan Overduin
Illustrations by Duane R. Bibby
January 10th, 2018, Studio Acusticum, Piteå, Sweden

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About the composition :

The Biblical book of Revelation, also know as Apocalypse (Uncovering), is a mystical work that is filled with symbols. It consists chiefly of a dream that was recorded in the first century A.D. by Saint John the Divine. The dramatic events in this famous dream run the gamut of human emotions, as they highlight crucial aspects of life, death and spirituality.

During the 60s, Donald Knuth became fascinated with the ways in which the author of Revelations emphasized many different numbers (2, 3, 3.5, 4, 7, 12, 24...) and gave them symbolic significance. Knuth soon began to wonder about the possibility of creating a pleasing musical work that would incorporate Revelation's numbers and other mystical symbols in essentially their original order. In 2011 he noted that such a project "may be crazy, but a 'muse' has been encouraging me to embark upon it for more than 40 years. ...I'm intrigued by the fact that so many artists and writers have been inspired by [Revelation], for nearly 2000 years by now; thus I can't resist the thought that perhaps I too might be led by these ancient words to create something that might be newly meaningful to people of the 21st century"

The Greek text of Revelation, which contains almost exactly 10,000 words, has therefore been closely followed as the source of this composition. Knuth identified more than 100 principal motifs in that text, and assigned a musical equivalent to each of them. One hears these motifs repeatedly building on each other, as they eventually become familiar.

Some of the the motifs are melodic; for example, 'God' is the three-note theme 'sol, mi, do'. Some are rhythmic; for example, a double-dotted rhythm represents royalty. Some are harmonic: 'man' is a Tristan chord, 'servant' is a Petroushka chord. Some are musical idioms: 'angel' is an arpeggio, 'grace' is a grace note. Some are musical basics: 'woe' is a blues scale, 'elders' are a chromatic scale, 'lion' is an octatonic scale', 'sweet' and 'sour' are major and minor, 'prophet' is a contrary motion, 'sun' is a palindrome, 'gold' is close harmony, 'blood' corresponds to notes that are clotted together. Some come from trigrams of the I Ching: 'earth' is down-down-down, 'heaven' is up-up-up, 'fire is up-down-up, 'water' is down-up-down. Some come from nature: 'lamb' is a bleating sound, 'horse' is a whinny.

Some motifs are effects attainable only on a pipe organ: 'star' is a Zimbelstern, 'name' is a pedal point; 'open' and 'close' are represented by opening and closing the boxes that surround the pipes.

Some motifs in this translation in this translation invoke the syles of great composers: 'seal' alludes to Alain, 'truth' alludes to Bach, 'mighty' alludes to Beethoven, 'voice' alludes to Borodin, 'throne' alludes to Brubeck, 'cloud' alludes to Debussy, 'word' alludes to Franck, 'temple' alludes to Gershwin, 'book' alludes to Hindemith, 'worship' alludes to Messiaen, 'blasphemy' alludes to Schoenberg.

Since the book of Revelation encompasses a huge variety of different events and emotions, no one style can appropriately represent the whole story. Therefore Fantasia Apocalyptica is an eclectic mix of many styles: Ancient Greek music; medieval chants; changeringing; Baroque counterpoint; near-Eastern folk music; shape-note singing; spirituals; calypso; Romantic symphonies, chorales, and combinatorial patterns; atonal music; jazz and Broadway; rock and rap. The music of contemporary ring tones is also present. All of these styles work together as parts of a unified whole, thanks to the versatility of a pipe organ.

Fantasia Apocalyptica also pays homage to dozens of choral compositions that have been based on Revelation. Sometimes the settings of the same text by different composers from different eras are found to fit together extremely well.
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via https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvixIGKr5sJffdfwecygY...