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JM09 · Show · Judas Maccabaeus

Sound an Alarm!

Purple 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.

1:21 · with a spoken intro

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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

New Seleucid armies come in on the road from Antioch, Judas calls the brave, and the people charge the whole length of the house to meet them.

It opens on the warm tableau Sion Now Her Head Shall Raise (JM08) ended on (TABLEAU, from JM08: change both together). Judas, alone: "Sound an alarm!", and his brass gold kindles on Left, in the hills, flaring on every note. The orchestra answers with its fanfare and the warmth drains from the house: at the free end of Right, the road from Antioch, the Seleucid purple starts to pour in, helmet glints sparking in it, and it comes on all through the air, the length of Right and round the corner onto Porch Right, with hoofbeats under the music. Judas calls again, "your silver trumpets sound!", gold rays running from him along Left on each stroke of the orchestra, and on "And call the brave, and only brave around" the blue and white lights of the brave kindle round him on Left, one with each run of his voice. His last "Sound an alarm!", alone, held: his gold flares the length of Left.

Then the chorus answers, "We hear, we hear the pleasing dreadful call", and the blue and white ranks charge: a step along the house on every "hear", led by Judas's gold, up Porch Left, across the Temple and down Porch Right, until they meet the purple at the corner of Right. From then on every stroke of "And follow thee to conquest" and "If to fall, for laws, religion, liberty we fall!" is a clash where the colours meet, white sparks thrown both ways, and the purple is driven back down Right a little with each, until on the last "fall." it is gone off the free end. The orchestra's close holds the house in the people's blue and white, and in the last seconds it settles into the tableau We Never Will Bow Down (JM10) opens on: blue and white bands the length of the house, the grey idols standing in the Temple over the faint glow of the lights.

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 · 1.0 MB.mp3

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