Epilogue (Juggernaut part 6)

[Christopher Stewart]

("Steamroller" by dam)

The closing movement of « Juggernaut » is entitled, simply, « Epilogue. »

Inspired by ELP's « Abaddon's Bolero » from their « Trilogy » album, this instrumental piece is based on a single theme that is played in harmony by all the instrumentalists over various but similar chord progressions.

The section starts with bass line and triangle, soon followed by the main theme on guitar, and then the various instruments progressively add their voice to the ensemble. The music crescendoes to a climax, and then slowly recedes to the point where only the melody remains, played on trumpet.

The challenge here was to stack as many voices as possible while making sure that the whole could be played by the quintet, knowing that three of its members can double on keyboards, the bassist also plays bass pedals, and the drummer can move from the sticks to the trumpet.

« Juggernaut » is a suite which clocks in at a little under 18 minutes and is made up of the following six parts : « Prologue, » « Heedlessness, » « Procession, » « Steamroller, » « Resilience, » and « Epilogue. »

The composition has originally been inspired by a most painful experience which involved a rented house shared by six young and not-so-young adults, unannounced extensive renovations, and frictions and miscommunications of all sorts. It's intended to illustrate the hamartia/metanoia principle :

Missing the point. Yes, hamartia which meant missing the point, missing the mark. Now that got translated as sin. And repentance was metanoia, meaning a transformation of the mind, and got translated as pain, right? Penitence, repentance. The point is that repentance is merely to understand that you missed the mark, you see? (laughter) Therefore evil is missing the mark, basically. It is confusion, right? Its ultimate source is the kind of confusion I described about thought. - David Bohm