[Steem Diary] Final Entry - The Day of Arthur

Hello everyone! Yesterday was a particularly sad day for me because movements from my King Arthur String Quartet would have been performed at the all state festival in the Poconos had this whole situation not occurred.

*Pixabay.com: Licensed in the Public Domain

I was the first student in my school's history to win the PMEA composition competition (the statewide composition contest). Though several have submitted in the past (including myself for the last two years), this year was the first time a student from my high school won (and the first time I have ever won a composition contest). As a result, the movements that I submitted (1, 3, and 4) were going to be played by a professional quartet yesterday in the Poconos. Sadly, the world has shut down for better or for worse.

Yesterday, I discovered this list of past winners at all levels (middle school, high school, college, and adult), and I can't help but feel sad since so many of them got to go through this experience, and the year I win also happens to be the year that the plague decided to return. I also feel sorry for the other participants who were chosen and have to go through the same situation. I am sure it doesn't feel good for them either.

Here is a recording I made yesterday of the first movement on piano:

Fortunate

However, I do wish to count my blessings. Though I did not get the experience of seeing King Arthur performed in the Poconos, I did get the experience of witnessing the premiere performance at the Brandywine River Art Museum. For that, I am forever grateful! To follow, I will share the professional recordings which I received (and have yet to share) of each movement, as well as some brief description. First I want to acknowledge everyone involved:

Acknowledgements

The Art is by N.C. Wyeth

Performance from 8/21/2019

Thank you to the Brandywine River Art Museum for hosting the event!

Thank you to the quartet!
Laura Raffaele (violin 1)
Jennifer N. Campbell (violin 2)
Pamela Jacobson (viola)
Vivian Barton (cello)

Thank you also to my instructors in regards to this piece:
Mr. Andrew Desiderio
Ms. Jennifer Nicole Cambell

The King Arthur String Quartet

For anyone who missed the individual movement posts, I am going to talk about each movement.

Movement 1: The Orphan's Processional

"So the child was delivered unto Merlin, and so he bare it forth"

This movement is about Arthur being given away by his father (the king of England), who, for some unknown reason, no longer wishes to keep Arthur. Such an idea has always moved me greatly; the idea of not knowing one's biological parents; the idea of becoming an orphan, and not knowing why. It doesn't matter what happens after such a point. That would be a defining moment in anyone's life, and I can imagine that it would have an effect on who that person becomes. I felt incredibly moved by this part of Arthur's story, and that is why I chose it for the first movement (since it is also a good beginning point). The whole movement has a somber tone, but I used a coda at the end to shift from e minor to G major. I did this to symbolically show that even though Arthur has experienced hardship, he still has a bright future. If you wish to read more about this movement, here is the link to the original post.

Movement 2: King Arthur's Water Music

"And when they came to the sword that the hand held, King Arthur took it up"

This movement obviously (and intentionally) draws inspiration from suite 2 of Handel's water music. I chose to write music for this picture because it is yet another defining moment in Arthur's story. Though the famous sword in the stone scene was not illustrated by Wyeth ("why?" is the first thing I will ask him if we ever meet. My chances are slim since he is dead), this scene depicts similar events in which Arthur gets a new sword from the Lady of the Lake. I am rather pleased with this movement, and actually had the experience of hearing our school's string Orchestra rehearse this whole movement. I had expanded the whole quartet for a full string orchestra so that they could play it this spring. Sadly, that is also no longer possible. But, I got the pleasure of hearing this movement for full orchestra, and I was incredibly pressed with how they played it! If you wish to read more about this movement, here is the original article.

Movement 3: A Call to Arms

"It hung upon a thorn, and he blew three deadly notes"

I will admit that this is my least favorite movement. It depicts the Green Knight calling his squire by using a "trumpet" to blow "three deadly notes". For this movement, I used D-A-B as my three deadly notes because my generation has a dance move (rather old and unpopular now) called the "Dab". I decided to use it for the meme. Funny thing is I have also used that motif in one of my church compositions. But anyway, this scene is the only one in which Arthur is not present, and so I did not include his theme in it. If you wish to read more about this movement, here is the original article.

Movement 4: The Battle

"They fought with him on foot more than three hours, both before him and behind him"

I will admit, this movement is my favorite. It was my first attempt ever at composing a double fugue. At first, I did not like it, but then @remlaps suggested I slow it down, and I realized that I should continue writing it. This painting is also one that moves me a lot. Though Arthur is generally depicted as a virtuous man, this scene was not his brightest moment. He had four of his men attack this knight, and kill him. One of the things I remember talking about with my theory teacher when I first showed him the music for this movement, is how hard it must have been for those men to fight for over 3 hours in those heavy suits of armor. I chose to write a double fugue for this movement to try to depict the chaos that would ensue in a battle such as this, and I tried to depict the exhaustion that I can only imagine would occur at the return of the subject in the tonic key (in the cello). At this point, I also combined the two themes with the Arthur theme for the climax of the movement. This movement was really cool to see live! If you wish to read more about this movement, here is a link to the original article.

Movement 5: The Death of Arthur

"Then the king. . . ran towards Sir Mordred, crying, 'Traitor, now is thy death day come'"

In regards to this scene, I am overall impressed with the painting. Wyeth does not depict it like a death scene, he depicts it like any other. I am going to quote the first article here:

This scene doesn't read like a death scene the way it is drawn, and I think this is good. The sunset doesn't change color because of the death of any one man, nor do the birds sing a more mournful tune.

Overall, this scene is one of the more moving ones for me. Though Arthur has come this far, his arrogance and refusal to "live and fight another day" ultimately kills him. I wanted the music for this scene to be as moving as the story is for me, but I do not think I was successful. One stylistic choice I am proud of, however, was the decision to end this movement with the exact same coda that I ended the first movement with (remember when I shifted to G Major). The difference is that the coda now leads back to e minor rather than G major to depict the finality of the death of Arthur. In the first movement, that coda represented the bright future that Arthur had. Here, in this movement, the same coda now represents the bitter end that Arthur has met. It is the same man, but in a different situation. It represents the difference between what can be, and what could have been. If you wish to read more about this movement, here is a link to the original article.

On another note (pun intended), I recently discovered this depiction of the Battle of the Trident from Robert's Rebellion in "A Song of Ice and Fire". I really wonder if the artist (Justin Sweet) drew inspiration from the Wyeth painting depicting King Arthur's fight with Sir Mordred. The two are really similar (in my opinion). I will give a 100 percent upvote with @cub1 (worth about 20 cents) to the first person to tell me (in a comment) who the two fighters are in the picture. I am not embeding it in this article for fear of copyright violation.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading this! My schedule took some unexpected twists and turns in the last few days, and I have failed to set aside time to keep my Steem Diary going. I am considering this to be my last entry for this week. Thank you to everyone who has kept up with each entry, and thank you to everyone who has been offering support in this (interesting to say the least) time! Please remember that feedback is always appreciated! Have a nice day!

(Note) In order to encourage meaningful feedback on the platform, I will check comment trails of users who leave superficial comments (ie "Awesome post," or "Upvoted.") and will mute any users who exhibit a pattern of leaving "spammy" comments."