Tag: QNP

Topical Then, Relevant Now … or is it?

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

– (generally attributed to) Edmund Burke

Exegesis (from the Greek ἐξήγησις from ἐξηγεῖσθαι ‘to lead out’) is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text.

Quicksilver Night’s 2015 album Reliquary touched upon several subjects that might seem atypical, depending on your personal listening proclivities, and the song “Exegesis” is an example of one such. In general terms the song “Exegesis” is a broad message of warning at our societal predisposition to manipulate the props on the geopolitical stage with all of the attendant jingoism and scapegoating that energizes the process. History plainly shows where this often leads yet we blithely move ahead, unwilling or unable to discern the likely consequences of our meddling.

The first verse speaks to the process by which we look the other way as our civil liberties erode under the steadily rushing stream of “national security” and we compromise our societal values in service to some titular “patriotism”.

So expedient, slowly deviant…
Though subordinate, we all compromise…
Inarticulate, we still recognize
shadows rising…

The second verse refers to the unforeseen consequences of imperialistic meddling with sociopolitical dynamics in an environment where fanatical religious fundamentalism and/or deeply ingrained ethnic and sectarian resentments were suddenly liberated after simmering under decades of systemic oppression. To those unfamiliar with history it might seem that I was solely referring here to the rise of the nominal Islamic State but it goes far beyond that to encompass any number of historic events that can be characterized as having been thusly catalyzed.  For the record here, the Latin Hic sunt dracones (literally “here there are dragons”) is the warning on medieval maps about unknown dangers in an uncharted territory.

Protest innocence, ghosts of ignorance…
Bread on depths obscured, what do we dare bait?
Sinking unobserved, Hic sunt dracones
Pearls cast to swine…

Historically a scapegoat is an animal that would be symbolically burdened with of sins a community and driven away into the wilderness, carrying those transgressions away with it. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? – Latin for “Who watches the watchmen?” or, perhaps better, “Who guards the guards themselves?” – is indeed the long-standing admonition to be wary of those in positions of unrestrained power.

So vicarious, martyred surrogates…
Drive the goat away (Quis custodiet…)
Blind, the sheep remain (ipsos custodes?)
Bleating the lines…
Marching in time…
Soft chime the bells…
Straight into hell…

I felt a strong desire to add some sort of summarizing paragraph but I sort of think what I’ve already presented here stands on its own and if it doesn’t then, rhetorically, what more could I possibly add anyway?

…except perhaps look around you and consider whether or not it might be happening now.

The Word of the Day is “Ambience” 🙂

Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon was perhaps the seventh or eighth album I’d ever gotten in my young life (long ago, yes) and had a huge impact on the way I listened to music and my understanding of what popular music could be in terms of content and production. An element of this that I’d long ago internalized was the use of spoken voices and ambient sounds to enhance the message of the music whether this noise is beneath the music, almost subliminal, or if it is prominent enough to obscure the music itself. There are other albums in the Pink Floyd discography that I could use as a reference here – as well as numerous other artists that also have used these techniques to great effect – but I refer here specifically to Pink Floyd primarily because Dark Side of the Moon laid the conceptual foundation in my head and also because I imagine that the music of Pink Floyd is familiar to most people and the best possible touchstone for this blog entry.  I once saw a snippet of video documentary in which Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour said something about how his band mate Roger Waters would not hesitate bury a musical moment underneath factory noises and the like if he thought it served the song.  It has stuck with me ever since.

I’d be a fool to try and deny the Pink Floyd influences across my catalog as Quicksilver Night because it’s self-evident throughout much of it but I think it’s doubly apparent when it comes to the song “Homecoming” from the Presque Vu mini EP. If you listen you’ll likely be struck by an overall gospel-like quality to its main themes – and I hope this is the case because it was intentional – but there comes a point when the tonality shifts to B minor (around 2:39) and the song assumes a deeper melancholy as the plaintive piano sounds while the pastor intones gentle words of hope and comfort. These words and the solo piano are soon overtaken by powerful chording and an insistent solo guitar that fairly drowns out everything else. As composer and producer I meant for a guitar solo – as it is wonderfully played here by Jason Cale – to evoke the sense of mental cacophony that obliterates all the sympathies and words of condolence that are heaped upon us at such times. The first verse lyrically touches upon that same thought; if you’ve ever sat numbly at a memorial service while well-intentioned people offered you half-heard words of consolation then you know exactly what I mean.

Rain whispers softly graveside, mute and yet unrelenting
(Echoes in your head, meaningless and so confused)
And you hear the words spoken from a page (makes no sense at all…)
Lines from an actor on the stage, curtains fall…

Stand in the open doorway; breathe of the dust and shadow
(And then say good bye to the ghosts that fill this room)
With your hand on the lines that marked you grow (turn and walk away…)
Mind on a child you used to know, yesterday…

Paint spatters on the carpet, free by a careless brushstroke
(Searching for a sign of what lies hidden here)
Like new skin covering those old dead scars (layered, buried deep…)
Thin, and you know just where they are, underneath…

As an aside I’d like to add that an acquaintance of mine experienced the loss of a loved one contemporaneously to his hearing this song and it resonated with him enough so that he played it on his podcast and quoted the lyrics with a catch in his throat. I’m still not quite sure how to feel about that; I was unaware of the timing and feel somewhat badly about it in spite of his assurances that no harm was done. Still, admittedly, it seems to me that there’s universality to the experience that I hope I’ve tapped into as a songwriter.

If you’re interested in perhaps checking out other such instances throughout the Quicksilver Night catalog then here’s a list of most (I likely missed something, TBH):

Symmetry (2018)
“The Symmetry Overture” (track 1): children at play
“Quicksilver Night” (track 3): a Sudanese camel market
“The Ship of Theseus” (track 4): waves and wheeling gulls
“Child of Spring” (track 8): ticking clocks

“Exeunt” (single, 2016): traffic

Reliquary (2015)
“Ultima Forsan” (track 1): ticking clocks
“Sojourner” (track 3): footsteps
“Exegesis” (track 4):  rain, distant thunder, church bell, sheep, & birds

Lucent (mini EP, 2012)
“Again the Cusp” (track 3): desolate winds

Some are more original than others, admittedly, while some are almost de rigueur in progressive rock (e.g. a ticking clock to evoke the passage of time, etc.)

You know, “Latest News” and all that… 🙂

The “Presque Vu” mini EP is approaching 80K cumulative streams on Spotify but the curve of that approach has largely flattened; it might well hit 100k by the end of the year but unless something else happens to goad things between now and then I don’t expect much more from it as I turn my attentions more fully to the “Asymptote” album.  I intend to submit “October Skies” to Sirius XM for consideration in July but have no expectations in that regard. (Addendum 6/28/2019: I just discovered that Sirius XM bought Pandora, completing the acquisition in February of this year, so I am not sure it makes any sense for me to submit the music separately. I need to do some additional research on the subject. – wcr)

I’ve been looking into various musical licensing services such as Taxi (https://www.taxi.com) and am thinking of going that route. I’ve read conflicting accounts as to their efficacy and several customer reviews of both Taxi and numerous others but nobody seems to agree on any of these kinds of services so it looks like I’ll just have to pull that trigger and see what happens. Such seems to be the story of my life, doesn’t it? Offhand I think I have two or three vocally-driven songs that might lend themselves well to being included in a movie and a several instrumentals that might work for advertisements or videogames but I’ll never know if I don’t put my foot in the door first, will I?

Things are moving forward just as they should be and I am content. Let’s hope that I didn’t just jinx that. 🙂