Dancewave synthpop retrotunes by the bushel.

Synthopoetic

A symphonic suite or tone poem that describes impressions taken from the creation story as told in Genesis 1, with some Job and Psalms for flavor. Learn more at https://elievans.music.blog/2020/02/17/creation-teardown/

Creation

AVAILABLE TUESDAY JUNE 7, 2022.

Music from the video game "Percipio" by indie gamedev Old Man of the Fire. Posted with permission.

In Percipio you twist gravity to find your way through floating cities in the sky. Percipio is a colorful, joyful, and beautiful puzzle platformer. 12 creative levels pose increasingly complex puzzles as you navigate a gorgeous floating world.

"Percipio" is Latin for "Perception". It helps to see things from a new perspective sometimes.

Check the game out here:
https://oldmanofthefire.itch.io/percipio

Follow Old Man of the Fire on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/oldmanofthefire

Percipio

Epics

You are in an unfamiliar wilderness, a desert canyon. You can feel the sun on your neck, and the sand under your feet. In order to move on, you need to turn the world upside down.

Music from the video game "Percipio", a 3D puzzle platformer from Old Man of the Fire. Published with permission.

"Desertum" is Latin for "Wilderness".

Check the game out here:
https://oldmanofthefire.itch.io/percipio

Follow the Old Man of the Fire on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/oldmanofthefire

Percipio - I. Desertum

You are in a dark and lonely place. The air is so cold you can see your breath. The hair on your arm stands up. In order to move on, you need to turn the world upside down.

Music from the video game "Percipio", a 3D puzzle platformer from Old Man of the Fire. Published with permission.

"Glacies" is Latin for "Ice".

Check the game out here:
https://oldmanofthefire.itch.io/percipio

Follow the Old Man of the Fire on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/oldmanofthefire

Percipio - II. Glacies

You find yourself in a thick forest. You can smell earth, sap, and resin. The sun filters through the canopy, and birds are singing all around. In order to move on, you need to turn the world upside down.

"Arbores" is Latin for "Trees". 

Music from the video game "Percipio", a 3D puzzle platformer from Old Man of the Fire. Published with permission.

Check the game out here:
https://oldmanofthefire.itch.io/percipio

Follow the Old Man of the Fire on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/oldmanofthefire

Percipio - III. Arbores

Try to remain calm while everything falls apart around you. It's important that. You. Try. To. Remain. Calm. If you like Shostakovich or Prokofiev, you might like this.

Image from Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/photos/sand-desert-drought-heiss-dry-2329153/

tRY to rEMAIN cALM

A chiasm is a structure that crosses back on itself, a journey there and back again. This short piece for strings breaks in half, the latter half the exact reverse of the former. For string orchestra.

Clearly influenced by Barber's Adagio. How could it not be?

Cover art from https://pixabay.com/photos/cello-violoncello-strings-2830670/

Chiasm For Strings

Rearranged tracks from The Unseen Realm documentary score. "Drive Them Out" - Joshua and the conquest of Canaan, "Day of Atonement" - the establishment of Yom Kippur.

Copyright Faithlife Films. Used by permission. 

See the whole film on Faithlife TV: https://faithlifetv.com/the-unseen-realm

Drive Them Out - Day Of Atonement

The manor. It's a little unsettling in the day time, but at midnight? There may be a ghost or twenty.

Composer Club melody challenge: Only the chromatic notes between F and Bb.

Picture from Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/photos/woman-haunted-house-fantasy-fog-6099577/

The Manor At Midnight

Have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale moonlight? Collab with Naethan Aeterna (vocals, arrangment). Cover photo by Naethan, too.

Check out his channel: https://soundcloud.com/naethan-aeterna

Dancing With The Devil  In The Pale Moonlight (with Naethan Aeterna)

I'm calling this a "Concerto" because the cello is the featured player against the orchestra, and "Fantasia" because it seems appropriate: many sweeping melodic themes, no discernable structure, and not part of a larger work

 Produced for the Composer Contests Facebook group Melody challenge -- all the melodies consist of six notes: C, C#, Eb, F#, G, and A.

Painting by Paul Gauguin.

Concerto Fantasia On Six Notes for Cello and Orchestra

It's a waltz, but good luck trying to dance to it! The jester doesn't keep to the structure or the steps, that tricky fellow.

Composer Challenge Chords: only chords rooted on F#, A, C#, E, and G. Basic progression is F#m, Em6/G, A, F#m, C#, E, A, C#7. There is a Gdim in there somewhere, and a G major. I think the mode is usually F# Phrygian, with a slip into F# major for a little bit, but don't quote me.

That Em6/G is pretty slippery, too. You could call it a C#m7b5/G (half dim) or a G6b5. It's functioning as the II(dim) chord most of the time,

Jester's Waltz

The recurring 3-note motif is my name, E-L-I transcribed onto a chromatic scale. Most of the introduction was generated by a computer program I wrote in the late 90's to take text and output MIDI in various combinations. The rest is me riffing on it. 

What's My Name

Composer Challenges 30s picture prompt. This gargoyle is on a castle overlooking the otherworldly armies on the march.

Gargoyle March

The gentle sound of rain falling on snow. A dome of clouds, motionless, in every shade of gray.  Water flows, quiet but unstoppable. Trees stand at attention. Somewhere, a bird calls. The mountain kings loom. Days are short and getting shorter.

The Gray Days Of Winter

Mekvat, the Sage Prime of the Academy of Mek, teaches a class of scribal acolytes about the three most important principles of their city. Then he leads a debate about the nature of truth with older students in the atrium. He is a pompous old man, but at least he enjoys himself.

Inside Every Circle

1. All is at Rest - River

Selolo is a consort of the warlord Taláni, one part princess, one part prisoner. One night, she has an oracular dream, and is taken to her master to recount it for him — hopefully to his liking.

1. All is at Rest - Moon

Atnan, feels useless to his village, which only needs fishermen, not mute scribes. He exchanges news with his friend, Barlas, then prepares for his coming of age ceremony the following day.

1. All is at Rest - Stone

Taláni, a brutal warlord, comes upon a trespasser in his dominion. He murders the foreigner, curses his body, and sends it back down the river as a signal to the man's compatriots: Fear my coming.

1. All is at Rest - Sun

The background music for a 3D game I never finished called "Unbeatable Beetle." You're a beetle. You crawl around looking for food, avoiding other bugs, and trying to get out of wherever you are before you run of energy. The only thing I actually finished was the background music, which loops.

Unbeatable Beetle

Some synth-heavy 80s style neo-retro spy movie love anthem malarkey — for your ears only.

Faded Photograph (I Saw You Once)

Fight the boss, win the game, it's exciting. Pulse-pounding action! Bass! Retro!

Download and use this if you want! Send me a message if you want!

Boss Fight

BPM 112
Bassline: F,Ab,G, F#
Chords: F min, Ab maj, G maj/min, F# maj (not complicated)

Rock Backing Track (WIP)

First movement of Creation, suite for orchestra and chorus. Space echoes flat and dark, then come six consonants: yod heh yod, alef vav resh, the first words, "Let there be light." The first theme is a musical cryptogram of those Hebrew consonants. Light is separated from darkness. By the end, everything is vibrating, and light breaks forth.

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the breath of God was fluttering over the surface of the waters, then God said, "Let there be light!" and there was light.

Day 1 - Let there Be Light

I. Let there Be Light

The third day of creation sees the primordeal oceans recede and dry land appear. "The deep" is personified by a seven-headed chaos dragon called Leviathan, and the dry land by a lumbering ox-like creature named Behemoth. Yahweh defeats Leviathan, and brings forth Behemoth, who lies down for a long sleep and plants grow out of his back.

See:
	* Job 40:15-24
	* Job 41:1-34
	* Gen 1:9-13

In two parts: Leviathan, then Behemoth.

* Leviathan is the sea. Chaos. Leviathan rises from the sea, horror. Leviathan's theme: Descending diminished fifths, in unsettled 7/4 time. 
* The choir, that is, the Sons of God, sing the battle between God and Leviathan, the Chaos monster in the sea. 
* Text: Latin Vulgate Job 41:5a; 40:27 — "Portas vultus ejus quis aperiet? Pone super eum manum tuam; memento belli, nec ultra addas loqui."
* English version:  41:14a; 41:8 English - Who can open the vault of his jaw? Put your hand upon him, remember the battle and speak of it no more!
* Leviathan slinks away, into the depths, beaten back. He is mastered.
* The sea retreats and the dry land rises. Whole tone ascending figures.
* Behemoth is the land, and the forerunner of all land beasts to come. His theme is ponderous and strong. Brass choir. Gigantic.
* Behemoth lies down to rest, in the shadows. Choir of angels sings him a lullaby: "ipse principium est viarum Dei" (he is the greatest of God's creatures) and "sub umbra dormit in secreto calami" (Under the shadows he sleeps, under the cover of reeds) from Job  40:14a and 16a (Vulgate).
* In the end, Leviathan is vanquished, and Behemoth lies down for an aeons-long nap so green plants can grow out of his back.

III. Leviathan And Behemoth

A droning A note cuts across the middle of two themes, one a slow and one faster. Soon, the two themes are forcibly separated by a sforzando note, pushing the fast (heavenly) theme above the drone, and the slower (earthly) theme below.

Genesis 1:6-8 -- And God said, Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water. 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse sky. And there was evening, and there was morning - the second day.

Text: "dividat aquas ab aquis" (let us separate waters from waters) "caelo desuper" (heaven above) "terra deorsum" (earth below).

Day 2 - Separation Of The Waters

II. Separation Of The Waters

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

V. Sun, Moon & Stars

The Carnival of the Damned.

So, my little brother asked me to make some "demented clown music" and I said, "Well, I do like circus music, and I am a little a demented. Why the heck not?" What came out is a little bit like a raucous interdimensional festival of weirdness that uses every note between C1 and C8 at least once, I'm pretty sure. Is that a theremin? Or a musical saw? Who knows? Is there a high wire act? Is there juggling? Tumbling? Does someone get shot and is the ending their funeral?

I'm pretty sure this is nightmare fuel for someone. I think it sounds cute.

Oddly enough this is now my most popular track, because a YouTuber I don't know used it as background music for a video game play-through. Hey, thanks for the traffic, kind stranger!

Updated in 2015 with East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra instruments.

Le Carnivaux des Maudits

Based on Ge 1:11:  And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants﻿ yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

Text from the Latin Vulgate, select phrases from Genesis 1:11-12 and 1:29.

Germinet herbam virentem (Let them grow, green plants) lignum pomiferum (flowering trees)  proliterit terram herbam virentem (and the earth grew green plants) dedi vobis omnem herbam afferentem (I give you all the plants as food) faciens fructum juxta genus suum (bearing fruit, according to their kinds).

IV. Let the Earth Sprout Vegetation

A pastiche, inspired by Joaquín Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez," a work that made me fall in love with classical music at a very young age. I subtitle it "Joy of Discovery" as it sounds like my memories of playing in fields of wildflowers as a young child. The meter is a fast 5/4, structured as a 3/4 + 2/4 polymeter. The form is ABA with coda. The harmony is fairly standard. Soli deo gloria.

Harp Allegro (Cmaj) - "Joy of Discovery"

Composed for a Composer Club challenge from the prompt "Alice goes down the rabbit hole." I took the approach that I thought Lewis Carroll would -- absurdist commentary on contemporary society. I think you'll find all of this very thinly veiled. Story with timecodes that correspond to the music below.

--

Down the [Rabbit] Hole

[0:00] I was contemplating a nap on a Saturday afternoon, when a rabbit caught my eye. It was wearing a hat and and had a camera. [0:15] Every few hops it would take a picture and say, "What a story!" I decided to follow.

[0:43] A tunnel?! I looked inside: It was dank and there was a strange light emanating from below.  [1:06] I was thinking to turn back, when it was as if the world rotated so that forward was now down, and I was falling falling, through roots and moss, then a subway system, then pipes and wires. Some of the wires let off puffs of steam. 

[1:43] One of the puffs softened my landing onto the ground. I found myself in a field, which looked like it was either for battle or sports, or both. [1:53] There were two teams, one red and one blue. The game was throwing tiny birds at one another. The two sides mirrored each other's movements, volley for volley. I saw banners on the field that showed the blue team was playing for the Old White Woman of the Woods, and the red team was fighting for Father Toad. They got farther apart as they went, so I ran through the middle.

[2:35] I ran in the direction that I thought the rabbit had gone. [2:42] I soon found myself on a hot, sunny beach. The sun was so hot and bright I could barely see. [3:05] As I squinted, I saw the sand covered in crabs, clattering their claws as they went back and forth into the ocean. They were gathering pearls, fighting each other to see who could make the biggest tower and then sit atop it. The biggest crabs  pushed the smaller crabs off of their towers and the pearls spilled all around.

[3:24] Then the toads came, flanked by rabbits with trumpets to herald their approach. They were giant warty hopping toads, and they jingled as they hopped, as if they had swallowed many coins. [3:51] Immediately they began slurping up the crabs and their pearl towers, and spitting out the shells. I feared for my life, but they ignored me.

[4:03] At once they all stopped, and stood as if at attention. The largest, ugliest, most repulsive toad I'd ever seen came glumping onto the scene. He was as large and as warty as any three of the other toads, who burped up coins and pearls in front of him as he passed by. Everyone waited eagerly for him to speak.

[4:10] He hesitated, and then let out a powerful belching croak. Out gushed a river of swampy water and pearls and crab shells, washing everything (including me) away from the beach. 

[4:15] We were washed back onto the field of combat, and as the water dissipated, I saw that Father Toad was being coronated King. The red team sang "All hail King Toad!" while the blue team cried. There were thousands of rabbits rejoicing and taking pictures and saying "What a story!". It was a Fool's Ball! Everyone was dancing and swirling and twirling and belching and croaking and throwing birds and chittering and clacking faster and faster and faster -- and oh! By now you've probably figured out that I took that nap after all.

Down The Hole

Chorale and orchestra setting of the first of the seven utterances of Christ on the Cross: Father, forgive them, for they know not what it is that they are doing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayings_of_Jesus_on_the_cross

Seven Words - Father Forgive Them

For the Composers Club 30s composition challenge, "Paintings." The painting is "Big Fish Eat the Little Fish" by Pieter Bruegel. http://www.pieter-bruegel.co.uk/gallery/pages/fish.htm

CCP30 Paintings - Big Fish Eat The Little Fish

May 2019 Composer Club 30-second challenge: Sun. I decided to imagine a documentary about the sun, where we cut away from the narration for a short moment and watch a gigantic solar flare erupt into space. The text is "helios" (Greek for "sun") and 
ο ήλιος λάμπει λαμπρά ho helios lampei lampra, "the sun shines brightly". The last word is "phos," LIGHT. 

Made with FL Studio 20, EastWest Hollywood Orchestra, and a few woodwind sounds from Spitfire Audio Studio Woodwinds.

CCP 30 - Sun - Solar Prominence

The Unseen Realm (https://faithlifetv.com/the-unseen-realm) is a 2019  documentary film adaptation of the book by the same name. It covers biblical topics from a fresh angle. Parts of this track appear in the original score I wrote for the film. 

POSTED BY PERMISSION of the copyright holder, Faithlife Films.

Book Of Enoch

The Unseen Realm (https://faithlifetv.com/the-unseen-realm) is a 2019  documentary film adaptation of the book by the same name. It covers biblical topics from a fresh angle. Parts of this track appear in the original score I wrote for the film. (Main title opening sequence.)

Watch the film at https://faithlifetv.com today.

POSTED BY PERMISSION of the copyright holder, Faithlife Films.

The Unseen Realm (Main Title)

The entire piece, both solo and accompaniment use only 6 pitches: (C, D, E, G, Ab, Bb). Why? These are the pitches my wife and I have tattooed on our necks (but transposed down a half step so it doesn't have to be in C#!) Details on why those notes here: https://elievans.music.blog/2020/02/17/we-are-a-matched-set/

Sheet music available on request.

Soloist in this recording is Juan Rosales from Costa Rica. If you want to hire him, you can find his Fiverr profile here: https://www.fiverr.com/juanrosales767/record-an-amazing-oboe-solo

OELLGIA - Duet for Piano and Oboe

Dance, y'all.

I made this track a long time ago, just remastered it. Lots of things are just for fun, and this is one of them.

Funkybee Tuna

Score and parts available from http://www.gustholdmusic.com/

Wheels hammer lopsided rhythms down the track, repetitive yet evolving. Nnatural wonders parade by: wandering streams, shocks of birch and aspen, bear and moose under sprawling gray skies. We watch round every bend, as any moment it might peek through, a monstrous wave struck by a magic harpoon, frozen, cresting forever over the lonely tundra: Denali, the ‘Great One.’

Inspired by a train ride in Alaska. Somehow repetitive and exciting at the same time. 11/8 (3/8+3/8+3/8+2/8) time signature. Watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfBC5i06xxE

Train to Denali

A prayer for our times, in the form of EDM, from Psalm 10:1, 12. 

1 Hví stendur þú fjarri, Drottinn,
hví felur þú þig á neyðartímum?

1 Why do you stand far off, O Lord,
Why do you hide in troubled times?

12 Rís upp, Drottinn Guð, lyft hendi þinni.
Gleym eigi kúguðum.

12 Rise up, O Lord God! Lift your hands!
Do not forget the oppressed!

Man reading Psalm 10 in Icelandic is from here: https://freesound.org/people/Pax11/sounds/426810/

The version he's reading can be found at the Icelandic Bible Society: https://biblian.is/biblian/salmarnir-10-kafli/

I did the cover art.

Neyðartímum (Troubled Times)

Imagine a deep forest, filled with magical creatures, noble and small.

For a Composer Club dice chords challenge: Only chords with C, E, G, and F# as roots. 

Picture from pixabay: https://pixabay.com/photos/butterfly-blue-forest-fantasy-2049567/

Mystical Forest

It's synthesizer pop, y'all. Don't overthink it, just enjoy.

One Hit Wonder

I wrote a novel, "Inside Every Circle" and in that novel there is a summer solstice ceremony called the "adumbration of the heavens" where adherents of a blood deity dance in the sun for hours in concentric rings to decide which of them gets the honor of being sacrificed so they can ascend and live forever among the stars. Totally normal holiday. Anyway, this is a piece I wrote to help me think about all that while I was writing it; not exactly a straight illustration of the ceremony, but evocative. The real ceremony would go through 29 cycles and last the entire day; this only goes through four. 

The percussion is arranged on a fibonacci sequence of 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13. The music is arranged on beats of 5, 8, 10, and 29, which multiplied equal 11,600. Because what's a good blod cult ceremony without some arbitrary numerology?

Circle Of Heaven

Otters are cute and playful, and also skilled hunters who are at home on land and water. In folklore around the world, otters are often associated with tricksters. [This is a work in progress.]

Ottersong

Work in progress. Doggerland was a prehistoric dry land area that connected the British Isles, Scandinavia, and Northern Europe. It was inhabited, probably by Neanderthals and modern humans. It’s now underwater.

This piece imagines that prehistoric landscape, in a two-part form. The first half introduces a string of themes, and the second half repeats and expands on them. The first statement runs to the three chords around 4’40; the restatement is under construction. The music evolves as it goes.

Picture is from Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/fire-flame-bonfire-dark-night-2593636/

The First Fires in Doggerland

Can you make a synthpop song in 5/4? Sure, why not!

Five

You find yourself in a liminal space. All is anticipation. Music from the video game "Percipio", a 3D puzzle platformer from Old Man of the Fire. Published with permission.

"Desertum" is Latin for "Wilderness".

Check the game out here:
https://oldmanofthefire.itch.io/percipio

Follow the Old Man of the Fire on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/oldmanofthefire

Percipio - Bonus: Deep Purple (Menu)

An ingenious gentleman, who fights to the death, against all odds. So ingenious, he invents enemies out of thin air. I haven't read Don Quixote, but if I did, I would imagine music like this.

Chords are all rooted on A, Bb, C, Db for the Composer Challenge group's chord challenge.

El Ingenioso

All original compositions, mostly orchestral. I am still deciding on a style, and probably will be for a very long time. Soli deo gloria.

Eli Evans

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks