Upward (The Idler part 3)

[Christopher Stewart]

(Blue Morpho Butterfly by Martin Johnson Heade)

The third part of “The Idler” is entitled “Upward.”

The idea behind the movement is quite simple : once the necessity of evolution has been recognized and accepted, there’s only one way to go and its up.

To convey the feeling of somebody who is reinventing themselves, the music reintroduces some of the themes already presented earlier in the suite, but gives them new forms or turns them completely inside out.

There are no vocals in his section. Here's the associated poetry :

I only have myself to blame
As the mirror reflects my shame
I've seen the past and it was lame
Yet it defined a better aim

Walked on and on along this route
I know the place inside and out
So long a time spent in circles
I know by heart all the cycles

Exhausted of repetition
I'm ready for evolution
I recognize elevation
Essential to perennation

Pick me the flower yet ungrown
Map me the location unknown

Tell me the joke that's not absurd
Build me the floor undiscovered

Lead me up steps I never took
Fry me the fish I'll never hook

Reveal the cards as yet undealt
Evoke the sentiment unfelt

Write me the story yet untold
Warp me in time yet to unfold

Push me further than my intent
Touch me farther than my extent

Sanctify sinner yet absolved
Ask me the riddle left unsolved

Draw me the shadow of a doubt
Situate me outside of out

Tailor the skin that's yet unshed
Summon the spirit yet undead

Revive the man who never died
Mix me the color never eyed

Paint me the canvas yet unframed
Attain the goal yet to be aimed

Grant me the reward yet unearned
Teach me the lesson yet unlearned

Upward bent and forward headed
Purposeful until upgraded
Unending magic carpet ride
On winds of change unfazed I glide

And here’s what it sounds like when we perform it. Again, the live version is very different from the working version :