Scott D. Strader – Page 22 – An Echo That's Reversing

Symphony No. 1 – The cautious walk to the end

I began the final section, the first movement, on 17 Dec 2020.

Мечте навстречу (1963)

Мечте навстречу (mech-‘tyay nav-‘stray-chew, *Towards a Dream*)*, Begegnung im All, Dem Wunschtraum Entgegen (Encounter in Space, Towards a Dream)*, image from IMDB

The Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn

15-1/2 years ago I braved the early days of video streaming and its constant buffering to watch the transit of Venus in the middle of the night. Athens Greece was providing the video and the Exploratorium in San Francisco the science-y narration. I had first heard about the transit from, of all places, Thomas Pynchon’s book Mason & Dixon.

Star Pilot (1966)

image from IMDB, artist Mario Piovano (found here)

Symphony No. 1 – From finish to start

Finishing up the last movement in the next day or so and knowing that the first movement is the final music that will be written is… confusing. Songs for the rock operas were always dramatically out-of-order, and endings could come before beginnings, but having done it before doesn’t diminish the creative uncertainty. The order of music-to-paper dictates which themes will become themes and so the first melodies written will seed the subsequent sections. My compositions are always dramatically structured–and built off of a general blueprint of sonic techniques–but the musically thematic ground gets laid when the first notes get written.

And yet writing the first movement last means that I can hint at what I know is to come. It can’t be a camp, musical overture type of collage, rather a reverse echo of the future.