Pixelhome by cjimti

JM01 · Show · Judas Maccabaeus

Overture

The house in Seleucid purple, the Temple grey with idols; the armies march in from the road from Antioch, and in the hills the fugue wakes the Maccabees' blue lights one voice at a time.

1:17 · with a spoken intro

Drag to orbit · scroll or pinch to zoom · ↑ ↓ to change sequence
Loading…
0:00.0 / 0:00

Judas Maccabaeus

JM01OvertureIntro1:17The house in Seleucid purple, the Temple grey with idols; the armies march in from the road from Antioch, and in the hills the fugue wakes the Maccabees' blue lights one voice at a time.JM02Mourn, Ye Afflicted ChildrenIntro1:27Mattathias has died. The people's blue and white lights on the porch dim in long falling phrases, a slow lament flowing toward the Temple, and his light on Left goes out.JM03O Father, Whose Almighty PowerIntro1:17The people pray for a leader. The blue lights gather on Left and steady; Simon's deep blue names Judas, and a single brass-gold light appears among them.JM04Arm, Arm, Ye Brave!Intro1:23Simon calls the Maccabees to arms, and blue and white lights step into ranks along Left; the chorus answers 'We come, in bright array' and the ranks march in place on the beat.JM05Call Forth Thy PowersIntro1:23Judas takes command: his gold follows his voice up and down the ranks on Left, and every light it passes flares and stays brighter, until the whole rank shines.JM06Disdainful of DangerIntro1:22The Maccabees go out to fight: three voices step out ahead of the ranks on Left, then the chorus takes it up and the whole column marches round the corner and down Porch Left, Judas leading.JM07Fall'n Is the FoeIntro1:23The first victory: the Maccabees' blue and white sweep onto the field on Right, and every 'Fall'n' breaks a block of Seleucid purple, which scatters back to the road from Antioch.JM08Sion Now Her Head Shall RaiseIntro1:23After the victory, warm light rises from the porch toward the Temple while the Woman sings, harp glints climb the porch on every 'Tune your harps', and the chorus lifts the whole house.JM09Sound an Alarm!Intro1:21Purple armies pour in from the end of Right while Judas's gold calls the brave on Left; the chorus answers and the blue and white ranks charge across the house to meet them, steel clashing at the front.JM10We Never Will Bow DownIntro1:17Grey idols stand in the Temple on the porch. The people, blue and white across the house, refuse to bow, and on every 'stock' and 'stone' an idol cracks and falls, until the Temple is empty and clean.JM11Father of Heav'nIntro1:17The Feast of Dedication: the Temple on the porch is clean, and to the priest's prayer its olive-oil light comes back, slowly, from the middle outward, until it fills Porch Front.JM12See, the Conqu'ring Hero ComesIntro1:19Judas's gold walks up the road to the Temple with three voices beside him; then the people line the road, the whole chorus greets him, and the trumpets and drums light the whole house.JM13March, and Sing unto GodIntro1:26The people's blue and white march toward the Temple along every run, a pace on each beat, and gold joins them; then the chorus sings God's praise and the whole house swells with every chord.JM14O Lovely PeaceIntro1:22The purple is long gone: soft pastoral light, ripe corn and green pasture, slow and wide, and two voices of peace, white-silver on Left and sky blue on Right, coming together at the Temple.JM15Rejoice, O JudahIntro1:23Simon's deep blue calls Judah to rejoice; the chorus answers, and the whole house fills with blue, white and gold through Hallelujah and Amen, then settles back to the lights on the porch.JM16IntermissionIntermission5:00The house waits in blue, and white fills it from both wings toward the porch over five minutes, the lights' glow steady on the Temple, until the white meets in the middle and the set begins again.

About this scene

The Seleucids hold the land and the Temple; in the hills, the fugue wakes the Maccabees one voice at a time.

The house is in Seleucid purple, and the Temple on Porch Front is grey with four idols standing in it, the glow of the lights dim beneath them. In the Grave the armies march in from the road from Antioch, the free end of Right: every dotted step of the bass sends a wave of heavier purple rolling up Right toward the porch, the upper strings' quick upbeats glint on the helmets, and each bar lands on the idols. On Left, in the hills of Modein, a few blue lights are barely there.

Then the Allegro, a fugue, and each of its voices enters as its own light. The first violins alone: two blue lights on Left flicker with every sixteenth of the subject. The second violins answer, and the people on Porch Left and Porch Right wake, small blue and white lights brightening note by note, with a third blue light on Left. The basses take the subject in the purple, which pulses heavier on Right and Side with every note; the violas join with the last two blue lights on Left. On the cadence the music holds an F major chord, and Mattathias, the old priest whose refusal starts the revolt, appears as a white light among the blue on Left: that is where Mourn, Ye Afflicted Children (JM02) begins.

The music is Handel's own, every part note for note: the Grave's first four bars, bars 18-19 and its second-time chord, then the Allegro's first 29 bars, cut on the F chord halfway through bar 29, transcribed from the 1769 full score (London: William Randall, successor to J. Walsh) into overture.musicxml, numbered straight through (the Grave 1-7, the Allegro 8-36), and timed by scripts/score_excerpt.py at a Grave of crotchet 60 and an Allegro of quaver 112. The first violins are doubled by oboes in the Grave, as the score marks, and the Allegro is for strings alone; a harpsichord plays the continuo with the basses. The last chord is held for a stage pause.

For your own show

Short, bright pieces meant to be watched. The FSEQ (v2, zstd, 40 fps) plays in Falcon Player on a house with the same layout; see About for how it is made.

.fseq · 1.1 MB.mp3

Its spoken intro, to schedule before it: .fseq · .mp3