The Music Of Poligraf : Stonecutter

(“Quarryman” by Gustave Courbet)

"Stonecutter" is intended as an anthem to perseverance and is based on the following quote by Jacob August Riis :

When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.

It's one of my favourite quotes and it has helped me on several occasions.

The composition counts exactly 101 hits on the snare drum, with the 101st corresponding to the climax, the hammer hitting the rock one last time and breaking it.

The Music Of Poligraf series are reposts of writings and audio clips that have been originally published on The Goal Was So Near from November 2008 to April 2009, made available for those who missed the original Clip Of The Day series.

If you enjoy what you hear, you are invited to visit the Music section of our website and support our efforts by pre-ordering our first album entitled Samsara.