To give buoyancy of the murmurs in the abyss within us:

A meditative piece, and an experiment between 3 different melodic cells where the second and third cell has an additive note.  Each cell repeats once the melody reaches the note E until the combination of the notes are played full circle.   The pulses in between notes are measured carefully and are equally considered in the cycle. 


Release date:
29 March 2021

Photo by Sean Shimmel

Discordance Within

For Piano Day

Surrounded by son's and daughter's toys, this piece was written and recorded on my grandmother's old piano.


Release date:
29 March 2023

Posterity

This piece has a lot of personality.
It starts out atonal, ambient, and then moves its way through classical and cinematic. What is first heard is an improvisation around a twelve-tone scale, and in even the latter section the twelve-tone scale is heard in motifs as the music starts to pull reluctantly toward a more tonal center. The twelve-tone scale in the beginning is birthed into tonality by the end.

A dialogue about the piece:
"The chaotic parts didn't mean anything to me, which may seem like an insulting opinion, but you must understand, that I am a man of chaos; I dwell in darkness and I speak the language of all that people choose not to hear, see and speak of. The very fact that you've managed to create chaos I could not ascribe meaning to, shows how talented you are as a composer. I've listened to the chaotic parts with a willing and curious mind, yet nothing came to me - it was abundant with incoherence, yet melodic and flowing - that's something I rarely ever experience nowadays. You've given me a state of absolute solace in chaos, where in there wasn't a single thought to disturb my experience - I was captured by the torn essence you've painted with sound, and for that, I commend you.
The classical part and the cinematic part is taking nothingness, and building everything out of that nothingness. Something I'm personally very fond of, ontologically speaking. You have the ability to combine emptyness and everything into one dramatic track, thus again, I commend you. It's not very often I come across someone that can draw a melody that has no meaning, as it's a depiction of the loss thereof, in a way of silence. Silence is a golden state; it touches us in ways like looking in a mirror through our ears, and you've successfully reached that state, my friend." -Insanctuary
 
My reply:
The philosophy behind a piece is something I really like getting into, and that alone is what gives part to the listener entitlement of the very thing for which I can no longer keep as my own. For you being a self-proclaimed man of chaos, and for me not to be able to communicate a message to you within chaos is very interesting. When I write these things, it is more of a reflection in how I observe injustice in the world. Or at least the pain therein for those far less fortunate than I. Those raped, abused, and killed for no reason of their own compels me to write. Those robbed of peace and joy from their thoughts deserve others to share the burden. By keeping them into my thoughts, I wouldn't be doing them any favors if I chose to spend my time carelessly on things that don't amount to anything. I would rather use what was given to pay homage in some way that I can. 
Perhaps the chaos isn't suppose to prescribe meaning for I cannot find reason for why people go through these things while I have been so fortunate. Arnold Schoenberg constructed the idea of the 12 tone primarily as a way to get rid of the normative in music and try to express music through the human subconsciousness. Expressionism in itself could have been born by the dislocation of emotion from the early twentieth century. Writing this is perhaps a reflection for not to have any meaning to why, but just is, and it is my choice to make something good of it. For me, at the very least, I find meaning in the title for that I find hope.

The Place of A Skull

"...a river, moving inexorably from place to place...or maybe even time itself, pushing us into the future..."- Johnfn

As for man, his days are like grass...

Tomorrow's Lullaby

"...where they actually beheaded children and put their heads on a stick."

Based upon the article below:
"The terrorists who have invaded Mosul and other ancient Christian communities in Syria and Iraq have made music videos of themselves murdering civilians and captured soldiers. They are literally enjoying the act of killing and the fear and suffering experienced by others. This sadism may be the purest manifestation of evil witnessed since the Rape of Nanking during WWII.
Already, several images have emerged of Christian children beheaded by ISIS, merely for being Christian.
According to Arabo, women are being raped, then murdered, and men are being hanged. These are the people who were warned - convert to Islam or be put to the sword.
Even families that pay the tax, mandated by ISIS for Christians who remain, are now being victimized. The women are allegedly being taken from their husbands and made into "wives" belonging to the ISIS fighters. This means they can rape them and even kill them, if they do not subsequently agree to convert to Islam.
Not all Christians could flee, perhaps because they were caring for elderly relatives or small children or had some other reason they could not walk out of the city and trek across the desert. Perhaps some thought paying a tax would save them and their homes and businesses.
Still, in another part of Iraq, refugees retreated into the mountains where they have been surrounded by ISIS rebels who are now waiting for them to starve and die from exposure."

Religion without grace creates two types of people: those that become prideful because they can keep all the “rules,” and depressed people because they cannot. Religion in itself doesn’t bring peace and that has become quite apparent. 
This is what Martin Luther King Jr called “The Drum Major Instinct” in his last sermon before he was murdered. The desire of the human heart to be first—the pride and self-righteousness that people perpetuate onto others more often than not result in violence and hate for another as they themselves attempt to reach supremacy. It’s just so easy to take that form through religion. The idea that “we” know right and are better because of what “we” believe. Love doesn’t insist on its own way, and so in the absence of that, people will kill those that are different.
One mistake that a people can make is to think that they can never get to that point. That these types of behaviors only belong to primitive people. We have to remember that through one of the most educated and technological advanced societies of the world in the early 20th Century, Germany has done many similar atrocities over an ideology that they were greater than the rest. 
My point isn’t meant for pessimism, but rather to remind and encourage, because through these stories there is a hope and a renewed focus to live abundantly by serving others in Christ. --Justin Eberhart


A park in Mosul

Grief's greatest music.

“First thought, best thought,” Allen Ginsberg
A piece conceived through an improvised piano part that you’re listening to now.

"waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ," Titus 2:13


Hope

Pareidolic War

For Glenn & Amanda Gonzalez

A Threnody.
Beauty is measured by subconsciously knowing that all things evaporate eventually.



Piano and Violin 
Composer: Justin Eberhart
Produced by Justin Eberhart

Piano: Justin Eberhart
Violin: Diane Kucharczyk

Recorded by Justin Eberhart at Dakota 3 Productions, Roselle, IL
(Violin recorded by J. Eberhart and Eric Yoder at Horse-Drawn Productions, Berwyn, IL)
Mixed by Justin Eberhart at Dakota 3, Roselle
Mastered by Larry Kucera at Garden Sounds, Chicago

"I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you." Isaiah 44:22

Return

What is heard first is an improvisation based off of Chopin's Prelude in E minor that you later hear in the second half of the piece.
Chopin's prelude is played by yours truly on my grandmother's old, out-of-tuned piano; recorded by my iphone. Not that I didn't have access to a proper microphone, but it was meant to strike an image of a pianist playing alone as the world outside celebrates another year...
I was looking for an unclean approach to the mix not because I'm a "dirty" person, but rather because I find that to be best in describing the imperfections in us. 
Hence these choices are merely symbols, such as the desert winds underneath the piano and a crowd anticipating midnight that sound at moments to be crying. I'll let you complete the picture yourself to find the meaning.

Photo by Sean Shimmel
http://timestandstillstudio.com/

A new year for the lost

A cover and remake in its original key and tempo:
G minor
106 bpm
For people that always thought the original ended too quickly:
This project started out as a learning tool. I wanted to figure out why I liked “Son of Flynn” so much by recreating it to the best of my ability using my own sounds. But then I thought, “why just do a cover?” If I wanted to listen to this, I probably would go back to the original, and that is when I decided to do something a little different.
I wanted to learn how the sounds are structured, and perhaps to find something interesting in the theory behind it. I still don’t know why I enjoyed it so much upon my first listening of it back in 2010. The first two chords, G minor to a D minor chord in its first inversion, isn’t really that significant. But the energetic arpeggios and pad synth/strings must be the big reason why. Compositionally this is simple, but the emphasis is in the layering. 
By the way, and as I digress, layers make everything better such as in photography, music, clothes, and cakes… 
For the first arpeggio section I have 5 Different synths and the bass has 4. 

For the slight remix, I didn’t want to add too much right away, because the beauty of the original is in its simplicity and its gradual addition of instruments. 

Tron: The Son Of Flynn Cover&Remake

"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price"-Isaiah 55:1

"but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."-John4:14

"Almost feel like I'm in some spiritual documentary about the purpose of our existence."-dem0lecule

"this is the track I'd use if I were to show the growth of the first tree in an earlier very desert-like area. I also imagine a waterfall. Maybe it's the waterfall which is born from a "had been" dried river, which in turn makes it possible for life to grow on the place once again?"-LucidShadowDreamer

Water from the Rock

Throughout literature, autumn has always been used as a symbol for the latter years of one's life.
Emily Dickinson in "Because I could not stop for Death" wrote:
We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring – 
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain – 
We passed the Setting Sun –
Each line used as a description of the different stages in one's life. I'd recommend reading that poem in its entirety. 
But I also think about the Haystack paintings by Monet and I'm drawn to them when I visit the Art Gallery here in Chicago. The different colors used with the same wheatstacks are always striking to me because of that still object reflecting the changes of the season's light. Autumn has always been my favorite.
And so this piece is a dream and a hope I have amid the seemingly fading light of this world. Obviously I think about the attacks since Paris, but I also see my friends and how fragile our time is spent here together. I'm not so foolish to assume that any of this will remain for much longer as our lives are but a vapor.

In regards to the technical:
The beginning to about 1:55 is what I call the filter. What you hear is a recording of my friend playing viola near the bridge with my piano. A Classical approach, but I can imagine not many liking it. But I don't mind. I never cared to write a hook right off the bat to grab someone's attention. I like to reward the individual by carrying them through a journey by allowing the music to unfold over time. I like telling a story so I didn't write in a structurally practical way. This was just yet another journal entry of mine through music and I hope you will make it your own as well.

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."-Jeremiah 29:11

Picture by Sean Shimmel:
http://lifeascinema.blogspot.com/

An Autumn Dream

Dedicated to my fiancée, Mayya Slonimskaya.

"Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm,
for love is strong as death,
jealousy is fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
the very flame of the Lord.
Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.
If a man offered for love
all the wealth of his house,
he would be utterly despised." - Song of Solomon 8:6-7

For Love Is Strong As Death

8dio Instruments Used:
-8W for flute, synths, orchestral design, and percussion
-1969 Legacy Piano
-a touch of Barbary

Is it any wonder that when we shot out a spacecraft to reach potential extraterrestrials that we put a disc of music to convey what it is to be human? With classical, rock, pop, and blues accompanying nature sounds and different dialects of earth people, it is only fitting that if an alien from out of this world would intercept our message that they could only get a more accurate picture of the human experience by hearing music that we have created.
Music has a way to welcome a listener to someone else's heart and mind.  Just like an astronaut exploring unknown frontiers, music can only allow us to observe and admire the experience. “For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him?” - 1 Corinthians 2:11

And the more I understand about music, the more I appreciate the math hidden in our natural world and universe. 
Our duty as composers is to understand the patterns in sound so we can convey a story or play that hypnotic beat.  Speak to a mathematician and they would tell you that they thrive in seeing patterns in numbers.  According to some Physicists, math makes up the universe.  So it is logical to assume that as we come up with a technique to create music that the most pleasing music to our ears best follow mathematical formulas found in the environment that we live in.
The Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci numbers found in nature have been inspirational to humanity in proportion to their  music and in the creation of the instruments that make the music. 
Pythagoras of Samos (c. 570 – c. 495 BC), best remembered for the Pathagoras’ Theorem, discovered harmonic musical intervals by seeing its pattern through whole number ratios. He believed that the universe itself makes music, and oddly enough NASA may agree. 

The theme of my piece is that humans are destined to look beyond themselves.  Despite current affairs and how bleak a situation may seem, it is in the spirit of humanity that keeps us from constantly looking down and strive by looking up into the stars.  It is the imagery of space that I used to describe our journeys here.  I even added a sound from Saturn’s radio emissions for one of the musical breakdowns. And in case you're not already familiar with this concept, NASA records sounds from our galaxy through devices designed to transfer electromagnetic vibrations to audible frequencies for our ears. 

"Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend." - Luwig van Beethoven

But even more fascinating than life itself, is the mystery of love, and thus why I dedicated this piece to my wife. Call me a hopeless romantic if you want, but it is love that makes this continual study worthwhile.  And if Math makes up the universe, then it is only fair to say that music shall transcend the stars… figuratively and literally. 
Stay inspired, romanticize the opportunity, and love one another.
"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
 what is man that you are mindful of him,
    and the son of man that you care for him?" -Psalm 8: 3-4

8Dio 2016 Stand Out Contest Submission: “Mayya Malyshka" by Justin Eberhart

Dedicated to my son.

Twin Helix was initially conceived with two alternating notes on the piano, F# & A, while the other notes appearing around this consistent ostinato created what eventually became the harmonic structure.

The first two notes start on the down beat, but because the bass note plays the root of the chord while on an off-beat, the rhythm skews our perspective on what really holds this composition together.
The first two notes in the left hand are mirrored with the first two notes played in the right.
Because the left hand alternates with D and C# in the bass while the F# and A are repeated, this outlines either two chords (D & F#minor) or a single chord as DMaj7. Labeling these notes as chords really isn't the point here as my writing process was determined by the notes that float around the short motif. The right hand's melodic contour is determined by this as you can hear in the beginning. The top note starts in the right hand with F# in a descending motion to E, D, C#, G#.

I humbly wanted to share with you how this piece was first conceived so it can be understood how the building blocks in music shall mimic life's negentropic nature.

The process in writing this piece of music started on piano, and it represents the DNA that is formed to create a new being. As insignificant those first two notes may seem to our ears, it is essential for this music's existence, yet these two notes alone are not enough to give the whole picture of what is seen and heard of an individual. And like in nature, I did not have to conceptualize nor think of how it ought to be for it to exist. I had to learn how to perceive it naturally. This is the discipline in all art; that to practice and learn from the craft, so that eventually we can remove ourselves from it, allows the art to reveal itself without our cursed frailty. This is how I interpret what Beethoven had said, "Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine."


This was played and recorded on my grandmother's old Sohmer upright piano with some felt between the strings and hammers.

Twin Helix

The title came from an idea of being on a spiritual voyage where an individual travels in solitude to find meaning in the chaos of one's mind. The music reflects the protagonist's hesitation, but finally does leave to seek the unknown in spite of the advice and wishes given from others.

"The true voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." -Marcel Proust

Musically, I've been interested in finding unusual rhythms created with ease via physical intuition on the piano to mimic a synth; an offbeat that reminds me of some dance music.

I Go

As I walk and hide my inward thoughts

The warmth of my doubts and fears blanket me.

While the winds shall scatter what I sought

I crawl to cover my skin with prestige.

When winter weighs all ground, my temple there lies agape

Before the mortician to prepare with lipstick for the fire. 

What remains are the deeds that were hidden:

A vessel full of dreams and despair left alone in the mire

---- ---- ---- ----

Written and recorded on my old, upright piano.
I play this music, because I don't know how to speak.
Here I offer these notes, because in my flesh I don't know how to reach out.
And because I don't know how to live it out in my daily life, my love towards all can be more easily heard in these tones.

Vessel Full Of Dreams

Striving for beauty in reticence.
Contrasting with sounds in ostinati keys, heavy furniture music, and dead contemporary.  With each note, I walk a tightrope. 

A little bit of what I've done:
-Composed demos for the music sampling company, 8Dio.

-Wrote and performed keys for soul/R&B band White Lucy

-LP release of the modern classical, "Speirō"

-Composed for grandma

Justin D. Eberhart

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