Home Community Music Blog Old MJ More...      
Lamentations by Tom Atwood [Email]
Genre: New Age

Get Flash to see this player.


Having playback trouble, try the Quicktime player:

Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial

SONG STATS:
Hits: 1763
Comments: 23
Votes: 29
Plays: 237
Last Played: Jul 27, 2008 - 04:00:29 PM
Downloads: 118
Fans: 9
Uploaded: Apr 23, 2005 - 08:02:08 PM
Last Updated: Apr 23, 2005 - 10:45:09 PM



Description:
Sometimes grief remains unexpressed for years. The three selections in this piece explore grief and sorrow while at the same time giving voice to hope and redemption. All three were written during Lent 2005, at the same time I was recording "Larger Than Life," an elegy for my father, who died 20 years ago.

The three selections feature the Fitch cello, and have a looped feel, while using only three loops, just in the first section. This all started as a contest entry for TUMi, but grew from there into something else.

I. Three Loops
II. Common Bones
III. The Road to Emmaus

Artwork: "Jeremiah" (by Marc Chagall)

Hardware:
Casio Privia PX-300
G5

Software:
GB1
You must be registered and logged-in to comment.

evokes &mdash 04/24/05 - 07:59:51 AM
the feelings of sadness and then hope...
compositionally...i would say u have succeeded. i enjoyed
the phillip glass style middle... great work!

[ Reply to This ]
very emotinal and dramtic &mdash 04/24/05 - 09:20:29 AM
this is perfect!! very emotinal and dramatic. and the great
cello tunes. again, this is perfect Mr. Atwood! thanks for
sharing your great song!

- Hawks

[ Reply to This ]
Quite beautiful &mdash 04/24/05 - 12:04:16 PM
This is a really lovely piece of music..very ambitious in its
scope and drama. Thanks for sharing it
S

[ Reply to This ]
Quite beautiful &mdash 04/24/05 - 12:09:47 PM
This is a really lovely piece of music..very ambitious in its
scope and drama. Thanks for sharing it
S

[ Reply to This ]
Darkly atmospheric &mdash 04/24/05 - 12:28:02 PM
There's an amazing variety in the tone and dynamic
here, even within each piece. The first one is
particularly elaborate but the recurring theme of
descending notes helps it all to hang together. All
three have a heartfelt quality to them, deep and sad
but with something uneasy and edgy going on in the
background. It's a very skilful blend of sounds and a
very beautiful lament ... I'm very impressed.

I love Marc Chagall! Great choice of artwork.

[ Reply to This ]
Deep, dark, resonant &mdash 04/24/05 - 03:04:35 PM
Very, very nice piece... love the rich minor textures, and
the deep bass of the cello, with the synthy bells
juxtaposing in the middle (would that be a bass relief?)
Well thought out, and the parts go together nicely.
Especially like the melodies in the opening of your 3rd
movement (cello, then piano). The only critique I can
think of is It seemed very slightly muffled, not as much
crispness as I would have liked (thus the low "7" on
production :-). Downloaded & Faved. Washes over me in
sweet waves of watermeloncholy.
9-7-9-8
ttfn,
Drakonis

[ Reply to This ]
Deep, dark, resonant &mdash 04/24/05 - 10:12:56 PM
I think some of the 'muffled' sounds come from the very low notes, almost
pedal tones, of some of the synths. I have noticed on different speakers the
notes sometimes seem a little distorted. It was a tough mix, especially on
Three Loops.

Thanks for the comments, and for letting me know how you voted. I
appreciate that. (I may start doing that in my comments on other songs.)

[ Reply to This ]
an inspiring sadness &mdash 04/24/05 - 04:27:57 PM
beautifully done. nice to hear this in it's entirety-the 3rd
piece doesn't seem to carry the weight of the first two, but
still finishes very nicely. looking forward to more of your
compositions

[ Reply to This ]
Emotions... &mdash 04/24/05 - 04:56:56 PM
Thank you for this one! Strong and really interesting!

As before with your compostitions I appreciate the
honesty ... the will to face life and to meet what is difficult
... to stay honest by emotions.

One of Beethovens strenghts was his ability to depict
emotions. In many of his works you can feel how different
feelings succeeds and interacts. Sometimes there are
almost nothing but emotions taking over one after each
other.

That was long ago and the emotions were often grand,
stormy and changeable - emotions in which there was the
risk to drown. My assosiation with your music is that it
instead depicts emotions of a thoughtful, consideate man
of today.

Things are really happening in your music. And they are
happening in some logic way. I sense a progression as it
goes along. A progression in the logic of emotions. Not
the stormy way, but a more dependable way.

Wisdom require living emotions but not any emotions. It is
a beliefe of mine that the most important factor of
wisdom is some ground of strong and reliable emotions. I
hope not anyone think I am taking this too far, but my
association is that Atwood owns someting of that.

Anyway ... to be less solemn, I feel that music like this is
good for me!

I wish you had a real orchestra. Or at least a set of better
synthesizers. This talent of yours can go far.

[ Reply to This ]
Emotions... &mdash 04/24/05 - 10:14:26 PM
Thanks Johannes. I emailed you.

[ Reply to This ]
Astonishing... &mdash 04/24/05 - 05:24:37 PM
What a really, really great piece of writing; really
unconstrained. I am gobsmacked. I love the pianos going
at each other in the early section; the two electric piano
patterns; the way you use that lovely cello sound. Really
brilliant work. One of the most original pieces I've hard on
MJ.

[ Reply to This ]
Astonishing... &mdash 04/24/05 - 10:17:22 PM
Thanks for the kind words, William. You made me pull out the dictionary
again with 'gobsmacked.' (Last time it was 'twee.')

[ Reply to This ]
Paff &mdash 04/25/05 - 05:17:11 AM
That word gobsmacked really existed in my dictionary too.
Swedish for gobsmacked showed to be PAFF.
I wonder what it is in other languages.

Well I was also paff when I first listened to this song.

[ Reply to This ]
Paff &mdash 04/25/05 - 07:54:39 AM
I think I'll call my imaginary band Paff...

Nice word.

[ Reply to This ]
Amazing &mdash 04/24/05 - 06:39:51 PM
Tom- great work here! You capture the whole range of
emotions brilliantly. Sometimes, in between the hope and
the redemption we encounter "moments" where the grief,
anguish and heartache come rushing back unexpectedly
for a short, excrutiating time. You even managed to
capture that.

[ Reply to This ]
Amazing &mdash 04/25/05 - 01:26:00 PM
Adam,

I deeply appreciate your comments re: grief and this piece. I know that you
write from experience, and I am very sorry about that. Thanks for listening
and taking time to comment.


[ Reply to This ]
Nice &mdash 04/25/05 - 07:39:30 AM
I like the whole piece but I especially like the last part.
It really seems quite melodic in a quiet sort of way.

Nice going

Thanks much for sharing



[ Reply to This ]
Amazing... &mdash 04/25/05 - 10:53:08 PM
how you move through different ranges of emotions with
such seemless segways. Bravo. Thank you for sharing this
song here.

[ Reply to This ]
Unbroken mood &mdash 04/26/05 - 06:25:04 AM
I enjoyed these pieces separately. Maybe it was my mood,
maybe I'm into songs with words and singing more, and I
consider myself a fan of yours, but all three strung
together was just too much for me. Kind of boring. Not
to take anything away from what others have said, but in
stringing all three together, maybe a faster or more
melodic section stuck in somewhere would have helped.
Or maybe it would have broken the mood.

[ Reply to This ]
Unbroken mood &mdash 04/26/05 - 06:34:00 AM
Thanks Eva. I'll sing again. Promise. Bronco's on me, too.

[ Reply to This ]
What restaint &mdash 04/28/05 - 05:45:03 AM
Impressive. Never too much. Diving through water
without needing to breathe. A waking dream. Walking
into a Chagall painting. What a brush you use!

[ Reply to This ]
Words … &mdash 05/07/05 - 09:09:55 PM
… are much too limited for these tones, they always are and they should be.
yet I'm typing!
It gives satisfaction on all senses. All moods in one symphony. You're a great
artist. Very colorful, tasteful and sensitive timing.
Only thing I've missed is an agressive mood, which is an essential part of our
lives. But that's only my anticipation, which off course is very personal. I
adore contrasts.

---
"The diatonic system lives, even in bi-lingual communities"
(Frank Zappa)

[ Reply to This ]
Putting sadness in perspective. &mdash 09/01/05 - 11:50:33 PM
There is a yearning --almost a bitterness -- in some of
the later cello passages. Grief beheld and expressed.
And then, as the first notes of the piano enter in the final
selection, they fall like rain--gentle, cleansing and
renewing, while the synths shimmer softly like slender
shafts of light.

All things are passing.


Moving, poignant, beautiful music...

thank you.


[ Reply to This ]
Copyright 2008 Simig Media, Inc.