number 21. as promised, the first in a song cycle of unspecified length.
in the first installment we meet the central character in the last hours of his life. it’s something of a prologue to the stories that will follow: memories and reflections of a life now past. the door is wide open. though he’s on the border of delirium, and his mind is less than whole, he will swim through images of his younger days.
this song is a kind of experiment. it is the first piece of through composition i have ever tried. no verses, no choruses, little repetition of any kind. not sure if the form inspired the content, or the content the form, but the disjointed structure worked well with the protagonist’s state of mind.
without verses and choruses to cement and re-cement, it left me focused on trying to keep the tension while moving from idea to idea. it was fun to think of melody and harmony as purely transitional, coming to rest only to introduce a new direction.
i can’t really speak to musical influences, but i can say that the style feels more literary. and before you cancel your subscription, i haven’t decided to abandon the classic pop format. far from it. the formlessness seemed like a solid yet open-ended beginning.
and to be honest, i have no idea where this is going. i only know that i will be fleshing out his life as he remembers it. and at the end he will die.