Christopher Stewart's Blog – August 2009 Archive (8)

(Erie Steam Road Roller scanned by Andy Dingley from the "New Catechism of the Steam Engine.")

“Steamroller” is probably the most busy piece of poligrafic music…

("Between the waves" by Ivan Aivazovsky)

The seventh chapter of "The Dam" is entitled "Flow" and presents our protagonist/narrator having passed the test, overcome the obstacle, levelled the dam, and…

(Pocket Stereoscope by Joaquim Alves Gaspar )

“Stereoscopy” is the definitive title of a song which I used to refer to as “Point Of View.” I changed my mind about the title while writing and singing the melodies, thinking that the word doesn’t get the chance to be…

("Introspection" by Alberto Baumann)

"Introspection I" is the third part, and first vocal section, of "The Chrome Lake," which itself constitutes the core middle chapter of the "Entering The Stream" trilogy.

The title of the whole suite was inspired by Voivod's…

(Daniel-Johnson's Manic 5 dam in Quebec, Canada - photo by Pierre cb)

Part 4 of The Dam is entitled simply “Dam.” In the storyline, this is when the obstacle is recognized and the necessity of dealing with it is…

("The Winged Man" by Odilon Redon)

"The Winged Life" takes its name from the following verse by William Blake :

He who binds himself to a joy

Does the winged life…

Clocking in at 22 minutes “The Dam” is my longest composition thus far. The piece uses the metaphor of water flowing from source to ocean to illustrate this mysterious process that we usually refer to as life. It comprises eight distinct movements, identified as follows :

• 1. Source
• 2. River
• 3. Rapids
• 4. Dam
• 5. Immersion
• 6.…

(Globe of Integration by Eugen Hofbauer, Herbert Kalleitner, and Susi Müller. Photo by Manfred Kielnhofer)

“The Chrome Lake” is the core middle part of “Entering The Stream,” the trilogy which begins with "Into The Ashram" and is completed by "Leaving The…