The Second Coming (May 2001)
‘The Second Coming’ is the second work inspired by the W.B. Yeats’ poem of the same name. Unlike ‘The Ceremony of Innocence’, ‘The Second Coming’ directly describes the poem in a manner akin with a tone poem. However, the music goes significantly further than the poem in many ways as certain ideas are brought out for exploration while ignoring others and also add personal thoughts and views inspired by the poem. The work uses similar forces to ‘Ceremony’ with the significant addition of extra percussion. The size of orchestra (especially with the multi-divided strings) may appear adventurous and even over the top, but the main objective when composing the music was to illustrate the size and scale of the poem’s message. The music depicts stages of darkness and light with many passages containing extremely dense and chaotic writing. In such passages, the instruments are employed for their combine sound rather than their individual sound, (an idea developed from the scores of Stravinsky).
Much of the composition is texture based with ostinati forming the foundation for the appearance of themes that represent different aspect of the poem, and help guide the listener through. As with ‘Ceremony,’ John Adams was an inspiration behind the textural style, especially in the penultimate section with the slow changes of tonal centre.
Much of the composition is texture based with ostinati forming the foundation for the appearance of themes that represent different aspect of the poem, and help guide the listener through. As with ‘Ceremony,’ John Adams was an inspiration behind the textural style, especially in the penultimate section with the slow changes of tonal centre.
