
Donald Knuth's Fantasia Apocalyptica - tosh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbvsKpPnQao&list=PLvixIGKr5sJffdfwecygYqhXsgz-EBCC8
======
tosh
just realized this was already discussed 2 months ago:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19950245](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19950245)

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tosh
""" 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

\---

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. """

via
[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvixIGKr5sJffdfwecygY...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvixIGKr5sJffdfwecygYqhXsgz-
EBCC8)

