Atlantis

Update: Jan 2022

There are now three distinct movements being worked on. "Seeing", the opening that was originally mentioned last year, "Fountain by the Moon" which depicts an interesting fountain discovered on a moonlit walk in Atlantis, and "Third Eye" , probing the metaphysical  hierarchy of the Atlantean people. The studio setup has been updated to better accomplish this project. Cubase is now version 11, soon to be 12, and I have acquired the Spitfire Audio BBC Symphonic Library Pro, (Thank you so much to Angus at Spitfire) for the orchestral samples. I have chosen the amazing template for BBCSO created by Christian Henson and Jake Jackson as my starting point for the symphony. The pc has been (finally) updated to Windows 10 ( I always fear change of an operating system on the studio computer having lost so much data in the past) so everything is up to date and ready to work.  I will add some audio samples from the work as it arrives at some level of completion worthy of posting. 

Concept: Jan 2021

I have been interested in the ancient lost city of Atlantis for as long as I can remember. First inspired by the fantastical stories in old pulp sci-fi magazines, which I have collected for half a century. Eventually I came to believe in the reality of the city and stopped thinking of it as just a place created for the fictional pleasures. When digesting Jane Robert's "Seth Speaks" and Frederick S. Oliver's "A Dweller On Two Planets" during my metaphysics phase of life, the idea that such magnificent civilizations could rise and then fall completely into obscurity put a decided spark into my consciousness, pointedly showing me the reality of our smallness and hubris in the grand scheme of things. Since that revelation I have endeavored to read as much as I could find on the subject, naturally leaving off from the study as other things grabbed my attention. I did always seem to come back around to the search for Atlantis though, and I have decided to write some music inspired by my impressions of the mighty Atlantis long lost. This may turn out to be a diary of sorts as I work through the project. To begin I am reading or re-reading several books, and will list them here for anyone interested in the subject.

 The two titles I mentioned above I revisited first, and found that I had confused the contents very thoroughly...making such a complete mess of what was from which source in my head that the two books might as well have been one where Atlantis was concerned. Of all my sources these two are perhaps the most unusual, as they are from the esoteric viewpoint.
Next I went to the most accepted "original" source, Plato's Timaeus and the incomplete Critias. There is a very good book by Christopher Gill, "Plato's Atlantis Story" which I hope to obtain as a follow up to the original Plato.
Ignatius Donnelly's "Atlantis, The Antediluvian World: Illustrated Edition"
"The Lost Continent of Mu" by James Churchward
Currently (February, 2020) I am reading  Gavin Menzies' "The Lost Empire of Atlantis" which I am finding to be remarkably well put together and a most believable study. 

On the musical front I have recorded a few piano themes so far. I usually need to visualize the entire story as I want to tell it first, then I will try to capture the images in sound. One thing I am confident that will remain in the piece is the opening theme. In this bit I see myself on the bow of a wind driven ship, rolling up and down in the uneven seas while approaching an island. I am amazed as a beautiful city of artfully crafted stone comes into focus. A feeling of great mystery and questioning accompanies the majestic view as unrecognized symbols and carvings of a seemingly  alien intrigue  appear....