Eli Evans Soundcloud

The Unseen Realm (https://faithlifetv.com/the-unseen-realm) is a 2019 documentary film adaptation of the book by the same name. It covers biblical topics from a fresh angle. Parts of this track appear in the original score I wrote for the film.

POSTED BY PERMISSION of the copyright holder, Faithlife Films.

A ribbon of light stretching out in the darkness, maybe never ending, growing, shrinking, undulating. An old track, newly refurbished.

A loved one had a major mental health break, got some better medicine, and started back on a path to recovery. I wrote this in the middle of it all. Comes in three sections: 1) a little off; 2) increasingly manic; 3) reintegration.

Duet for two flutes, in Bb major.

Performed by ziczuc, who was timely and professional and very easy to work with. Find her Fiverr profile here: https://www.fiverr.com/ziczuc/can-play-any-melody-on-flute-and-piccolo

Chorale and orchestra setting of the first of the seven utterances of Christ on the Cross: Father, forgive them, for they know not what it is that they are doing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayings_of_Jesus_on_the_cross

Composed for a Composer Club challenge from the prompt "Alice goes down the rabbit hole." I took the approach that I thought Lewis Carroll would -- absurdist commentary on contemporary society. I think you'll find all of this very thinly veiled. Story with timecodes that correspond to the music below.

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Down the [Rabbit] Hole

[0:00] I was contemplating a nap on a Saturday afternoon, when a rabbit caught my eye. It was wearing a hat and and had a camera. [0:15] Every few hops it would take a picture and say, "What a story!" I decided to follow.

[0:43] A tunnel?! I looked inside: It was dank and there was a strange light emanating from below. [1:06] I was thinking to turn back, when it was as if the world rotated so that forward was now down, and I was falling falling, through roots and moss, then a subway system, then pipes and wires. Some of the wires let off puffs of steam.

[1:43] One of the puffs softened my landing onto the ground. I found myself in a field, which looked like it was either for battle or sports, or both. [1:53] There were two teams, one red and one blue. The game was throwing tiny birds at one another. The two sides mirrored each other's movements, volley for volley. I saw banners on the field that showed the blue team was playing for the Old White Woman of the Woods, and the red team was fighting for Father Toad. They got farther apart as they went, so I ran through the middle.

[2:35] I ran in the direction that I thought the rabbit had gone. [2:42] I soon found myself on a hot, sunny beach. The sun was so hot and bright I could barely see. [3:05] As I squinted, I saw the sand covered in crabs, clattering their claws as they went back and forth into the ocean. They were gathering pearls, fighting each other to see who could make the biggest tower and then sit atop it. The biggest crabs pushed the smaller crabs off of their towers and the pearls spilled all around.

[3:24] Then the toads came, flanked by rabbits with trumpets to herald their approach. They were giant warty hopping toads, and they jingled as they hopped, as if they had swallowed many coins. [3:51] Immediately they began slurping up the crabs and their pearl towers, and spitting out the shells. I feared for my life, but they ignored me.

[4:03] At once they all stopped, and stood as if at attention. The largest, ugliest, most repulsive toad I'd ever seen came glumping onto the scene. He was as large and as warty as any three of the other toads, who burped up coins and pearls in front of him as he passed by. Everyone waited eagerly for him to speak.

[4:10] He hesitated, and then let out a powerful belching croak. Out gushed a river of swampy water and pearls and crab shells, washing everything (including me) away from the beach.

[4:15] We were washed back onto the field of combat, and as the water dissipated, I saw that Father Toad was being coronated King. The red team sang "All hail King Toad!" while the blue team cried. There were thousands of rabbits rejoicing and taking pictures and saying "What a story!". It was a Fool's Ball! Everyone was dancing and swirling and twirling and belching and croaking and throwing birds and chittering and clacking faster and faster and faster -- and oh! By now you've probably figured out that I took that nap after all.

A pastiche, inspired by Joaquín Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez," a work that made me fall in love with classical music at a very young age. I subtitle it "Joy of Discovery" as it sounds like my memories of playing in fields of wildflowers as a young child. The meter is a fast 5/4, structured as a 3/4 + 2/4 polymeter. The form is ABA with coda. The harmony is fairly standard. Soli deo gloria.

God decides to make mankind:

Genesis 1:26-27 And God said, “Let us make humankind in our image and according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of heaven, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every moving thing that moves upon the earth.” So God created humankind in his image, in the likeness of God he created him, male and female he created them.

The first man is lonely:

The choir sings Genesis 2:7 in Latin: Formavit igitur Dominus Deus hominem de limo terræ, et inspiravit in faciem ejus spiraculum vitæ (English: "Yahweh God formed the man of dust from the ground, and he blew into his nostrils the breath of life")

The creation of the first woman, and the first wedding:

Genesis 2:18, 21-25 Then Yahweh God said, “it is not good that the man is alone. I will make for him a helper as his counterpart.” ... And Yahweh God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. While he slept, he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh where it had been. And Yahweh God fashioned the rib which he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. And the man said, “She is now bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh; she shall be called ‘Woman,’ for she was taken from man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cling to his wife, and they shall be as one flesh. And the man and his wife, both of them, were naked, and they were not ashamed.

Finale: Exodus 20:11, God rested on the Seventh day, the first Sabbath. Then Creation responds with praise, "Laudate Dominum" (Psalm 148:2).

Based on Ge 1:11: And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

Text from the Latin Vulgate, select phrases from Genesis 1:11-12 and 1:29.

Germinet herbam virentem (Let them grow, green plants) lignum pomiferum (flowering trees) proliterit terram herbam virentem (and the earth grew green plants) dedi vobis omnem herbam afferentem (I give you all the plants as food) faciens fructum juxta genus suum (bearing fruit, according to their kinds).

Genesis 1:24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.