Lion, Calf, Man, Eagle

"Lion, Calf, Man, Eagle"

I was always fascinated with Revelation when I was a kid. I didn't understand the symbolism (not that I do now), but the images it conjured up in my imagination were astounding. I wanted to capture some of that daydreamy wonder with this song. My normal tendency is to pile lots of stuff onto an arrangement to build it to a climax, but I decided it would be better here to give the listener the feeling of being dropped into this amazing scene that has started long ago and shows no signs of stopping or creating a crescendo.

I also went against my initial instinct with the words I chose to set. The "Holy, holy, holy" chorus is the obvious choice, but it's been set to music many times by superior composers. I ran the passage by an editor friend of mine, and he fixated on the "full of eyes around and within" phrase. As it's repeated, it can take on different meanings, which I love. When I first read it, I just imagined these heavenly creatures with many eyes. As I recorded the song and sang and heard the phrase over and over, its meaning shifted according to my mood and what else was on my mind. I hope the listener has a similar experience.

A few nerdy notes about the music: I came up with the rhythm section parts by using some serial composition techniques with the numbers in the passage. I love having numbers to help me set limits on my musical choices. The saxophone part was improvised as I looped the backing parts and thought about the passage. Sort of my own musical narration.