OUTLINE - A Voyage to Arcturus (David Lindsay)
- The Seance -
- Introduction
-“A murmur of surprise passed through the audience as, without previous warning, the beautiful and solemn strains of Mozart’s “temple” music pulsated through the air. The expectation of everyone was raised.”
- Enter: Maskull and Nightspore. (loud crash)
- The Apparition. Krag’s Entry
- The Tower (Ascent of the Observatory at Starkness)
- “The Drum Taps of Sorgie”
- “He heard what sounded like the beating of a drum on the narrow strip of shore below. It was very faint, but quite distinct. The beats were in four-four time, with the third beat slightly accented. He now continued to hear the noise all the time he was lying there. The beats were in no way drowned out by the far louder sound of the surf, but seemed somehow to belong to a different world…”
- Ascent of the Tower -
- Twenty steps to platform. Sense of intense slow struggle.
- First level - the window is a lens-like view of Arcturus and its planets
- VOCAL: (At platform of Tower)
Voice-over : “Don’t you understand, Maskull, that you are only an instrument, to be used and then broken? Nightspore is asleep now, but when he wakes you must die. You will go, but he will return.”
- Krag’s Knife Wound. Easy Ascent of Remaining Levels of Tower
- Vocal: (from top of Tower):
“Suddenly there came a single prolonged, piercing wail, such as a banshee might be imagined to utter. It ceased abruptly and was not repeated.”
- On Arcturus
- “The radiant heat of Branchspell he found to affect every part of his body with unequal intensities. His ears awakened; the atmosphere was full of murmurs, the sand hummed, even the sun’s rays had a sound of their own - a kind of faint Aeolian harp.”
- Forest murmurs.
- Chaotic activity of entire orchestra, pianissimo
- Driven by fractal dynamics.
- “Then a sound, very faint and mysterious, seemed to come up out of the gnawl water from an immense depth. It was like the rhythm of a drum. There were four beats of equal length, but the accent was on the third. It went on for a considerable time, and then ceased. The sound appeared to him to belong to a different world from that in which he was traveling. The latter was mystical, dreamlike and unbelievable. The drumming was like a very dim undertone of reality. It resembled the ticking of a clock in a room full of voices, only occasionally possible to be picked up by the ear.”
- Acoustical analysis of drum hits, mapped to orchestra (as in Clarence Barlow‘s orchestra piece)
- The Mountains of the Ifdawn Marest
- French Horn, Alpine melody. Widely spaced.
“They impressed him like a simple musical theme, the notes of which are widely separated in the scale; a spirit of rashness, daring, and adventure seemed to call to him from them. It was at this moment that the determination flashed into his heart to walk to the Marest and explore its dangers.”
- Vocal. Panawe’s Recitative.
“Maskull could not make out whether he was singing or speaking. From his lips issued a slow musical recitative, exactly like a bewitching adagio from a low stringed instrument - but there was a difference. Instead of the repetition and variation of one or two short themes, as in music, Panawe’s theme was prolonged - it never came to an end, but rather resembled a conversation in rhythm and melody. And at the same time it was no recitative, for it was not declamatory. It was a long, quiet stream of lovely emotion.
“Maskull listed entranced, yet agitated. The song, if it might be termed song, seemed to be always just on the point of becoming clear and intelligible - ...in the way one sympathizes with another’s moods and feelings; and Maskull felt that something important was about to be uttered, which would explain all that had gone before. But it was invariably postponed, he never understood-and yet somehow he did understand.”
- Surtur’s Appearance (Slow March)
- Introduction
“A single trumpet note sounded in the far distance...It gave the impression of being several miles away at first; but then it slowly swelled and came nearer…at the same time as it increased in volume. Still the same note sounded, but now it was as if blown by a gigantic trumpeter immediately over his head. Then it gradually diminished in force and traveled away in front of him. It ended very faintly and distantly.”
- Offstage trumpet behind audience. Swell into onstage brass unison. End with offstage trumpet in wings.
- With growing complexity and decreasing silence between iterations, as in On Growth and Form.
- Sudden Silence
“He felt himself alone with Nature. A sacred stillness came over his heart. Past and future were forgotten...he had no thoughts and no feelings. Yet never had life had such an altitude for him.”
- Surtur’s Speech
- doubled voice - male & female
“A man stood, with crossed arms, right in his path. He was so clothed that his limbs were exposed, while his body was covered. He was young rather than old. … He was smooth faced. His whole person seemed to radiate an excess of life, like the trembling of air on a hot day.”
“He addressed Maskull by name, in an extraordinary voice. It had a double tone. The primary one sounded far away, the second was an undertone, like a sympathetic twanging string….Maskull felt a rising joy.”
“Maskull, look well at me...I am Surtur. You know that this is my world. Why do you think I have brought you here? … It is necessary for you to serve me, Maskull. Do you not understand? You are my servant and helper. This is for my sake and not for yours.”
- Surtur’s Departure
“These last words had no sooner left Surtur’s mouth than Maskull saw him spring suddenly upward and outward. Looking up at the vault of sky, he saw the whole expanse of vision filled by Surtur’s form - not as a concrete man, but as a vast concave cloud image, looking down and frowning at him.”
- Coda
“Now he heard the solitary trumpet note. The sound began this time faintly in the far distance in front of him, traveled slowly toward him with increasing intensity, passed overhead at the loudest, and then grew more quiet, wonderful and solemn as it fell away in the rear, until the note was merged in the death-like silence of the forest.”
- Oceaxe and the Living Landscape
- Call of the Shrowk
- “Oceaxe, standing graceful and erect, uttered a piercing and peculiar call...before many minutes he was able to distinguish the shapes and colors of the flying monsters. They were not birds , but creatures with long snakelike bodies, and ten reptilian legs apiece, terminating in fins which acted as wings. … they were flying without haste, but in a somewhat ominous fashion, straight toward them.”
- Shrowk Ride, Tumultuous Landscape (p.97)
- …”a large tract of forest not far ahead, bearing many trees and rocks, suddenly subsided with an awful roar and crashed down into an invisible gulf. What was solid land one minute became a clean-cut chasm the next. He jumped up violently with the shock.
- Murder of Crimtyphon, Crystalman’s face
- “The corpse lay underneath the tree with its face upturned. Maskull viewed it attentively, and as he did so an expression of awe and wonder came into his own countenance. In the moment of death Crimtyphon’s face had undergone a startling and even shocking alteration. Its personal character had wholly vanished, giving place to a vulgar, grinning mask which expressed nothing...It was identical with with that on the face of the apparition at the seance, after Krag had dealt with it.”
- The Seance p.122
- As if filmed though a warped lens. POV of victim on couch.
“He was lying on a wooden couch, in a strangely decorated room, lighted by electricity….His other self spoke to him. He heard the sounds, but he did not comprehend the sense. Then the door was abruptly flung open, and a short, brutish looking individual leaped in. ...A terrible expression came over the newcomer’s face; and he grasped his neck with a pair of hairy hands. Maskull felt his bones bending and breaking…”
- Tydomin’s Song and Murder
- Tydomin’s Song
“Maskull forgot his own tortures in his devil’s delight at Tydomin’s. “Sing me a song!” he called, “A characteristic one.”
She turned her head a gave him a long, peculiar look; then, without any sort of expostulation, started singing. Her was low and weird. The song was so extraordinary that he had to rub his eyes to ascertain whether he was awake or dreaming. The slow surprises of the grotesque melody began to agitate him in a horrible fashion; the words were pure nonsense- or else their significance was too deep for him”
- Use melody of Dream song (ca. 1982)
- Murder of Tydomin (p.147)
- Maskull’s blow. Crystalman’s face again.
- Surtur’s Drum. (Slow March)
- structured as a storm, approaching, climaxing, receding
- use Lorenz attractor for dynamics
- Approach
“While he was standing there, anxious and hesitating, he heard the drum taps. The rhythmical beats proceeded from some distance off. The unseen drummer seemed to be marching through the forest, away from him.”
“Surtur!” he said, under his breath. … The drumbeats had this peculiarity- though odd and mystical, there was nothing awe-inspiring in them, but on the contrary they reminded him of some place and of some life with which he was perfectly familiar. …The sounds were intermittent…”
- Interlude. Dreamsinter’s Message
“What is that drumming?”
“Surtur”, said Dreamsinter.
“Is it advisable for me to follow it?”
“Why?”
“Perhaps he intends me to. He brought me here from Earth.”
Dreamsinter caught hold of him, bent down, and peered into his face. “Not you, but Nightspore.”
- Vision of Maskull’s death..
“ The now familiar drum rhythm was heard, this time accompanied by the tramp of marching feet.
“Maskull saw, marching through the trees and heading toward them, three men in single file, separated from one another by only a yard or so…. They were naked. Their figures were shining against the black background of the forest with a pale, supernatural light - green and ghostly…. He perceived who they were. The first man was himself - Maskull. The second was Krag. The third man was Nightspore. Their faces were grim and set.”
- Long Orchestral crescendo.
“ At the same time, a low, faint music began…
Its rhythm stepped with the drum beats...It resembled the subjective music heard in dreams.. Rendering all his experiences emotional. It seemed to issue from an unearthly orchestra, and was strongly troubled, pathetic, and tragic. Maskull marched, and listened.; and as he listened it grew louder and stormier. But the pulse of the drum interpenetrated all other sounds, like the quiet beating of reality.”
“His emotion deepened… The music pulsated violently. Krag lifted his arm, and displayed a long, murderous-looking knife. He sprang forward and, raising it over the phantom Maskull’s back, stabbed him twice, leaving the knife in the wound the second time. Maskull threw up his arms and fell down dead. Krag leaped into the forest and vanished from sight. Nightspore marched on alone.”
“The music rose to a crescendo. The whole dim,. Gigantic forest was roaring with sound. The tones came from all sides, from above, from the ground under their feet. It was so grandly passionate that Maskull felt his soul loosening from its bodily envelope.”
“ He continued to follow Nightspore. A strange brightness began to glow in front of them. It was not daylight but a radiance such as he had never seen before… Nightspore moved straight toward it. Maskull felt his chest bursting. The awful harmonies of the music followed hard one upon the other, like the waves of a wild, magic ocean… His body was incapable of enduring such shocks, and all of sudden he tumbled over in a faint that resembled death…”
- Recession
“Through the black quiet aisles of the forest, the drum beats came again. The sound was a long way off and very faint. It was like the last mutterings of thunder after a heavy storm. … The drumming faded into silence, and did not return.”
- Coda
“He smiled queerly and said aloud, “Thanks, Surtur!” I accept the omen.”
- The Legend of Swaylone’s Island (melodrama)
- “In a far-back age,” began Geameil, “when the seas were hot and clouds hung heavily over the earth, and life was rich with transformations, Swaylone came to this island, on which men had never before set foot, and began to play his music- the first music in Tormance. Nightly, whenthe Moon shone, people used to gather on this shore behind us, and listen to the faint, sweet strains floating from over the sea. One night, Shaping (whom you call Crystalman) was passing this way in company with Krag. They listened a while to the music, and Shaping said, “Have you heard more beautiful sounds? This is my world and my music.” Krag stamped with his foot and laughed. “You must do better than that if I am to admire it. Let us pass over, and see this bungler at work.” Shaping consented, and they passed over to the island. Swaylone was not able to see their prescence. Shaping stood behind him, and breathed thoughts into his soul, so that his music became ten times lovlier, and people listening on that shore went mad with sick delight. “Can any strains be nobler?” demanded Shaping. Krag grinned and said, “you are naturally effeminate. Now let me try.” Then he stood behind Swaylone, and shot ugly discords into his head. His instrument was so cracked that never since has it played right. From that time forth Swaylone could utter only distorted music; yet it called to folk more than the other sort. Many men crossed over to the island during his lifetime, to listen to the amazing tones, but none could endure them; all died. After Swaylone’s death, another musician took up the tale; and so the light has passed down from torch to torch, till now Earthrid bears it.”
“An interesting legend,” commented Maskull, “But who is Krag?”
- Who is Krag? (song)
“They say that when the world was born, Krag was born with it - a spirit compounded of those vestiges of Muspel which Shaping did not know how to transform.. Thereafter nothing has gone right with the world, for he dogs Shaping’s footsteps everywhere, and whatever the latter does, he undoes. To love he joins death; to sex, shame; to intellect, madness; to virtue, cruelty; and to fair exteriors, bloody entrails. These are Krag’s actions. So the lovers of the world call him “devil.” They don;t understand, Maskull, that without him the world would lose its beauty.”
- Maskull plays Swaylone’s Organ (instrumental) (p.185)
“His ideas were now rushing out into the lake so furiously that his whole soul was possessed by exhilaration and defiance. … A huge spout shot up, and at the same moment the hills began to crack and break. Great masses of loose soil were erupted from their bowels, and in the next period of quietness, he saw that the landscape had altered. … The noise of the unseen tempest was terrifying, but Maskull played heroically on, trying to urge out ideas which would take shape. The hillsides were cleft with chasms…
“The radiance grew terrible. … He thought that it was becoming localized, preparing to contract into a solid form. He strained and strained…”
“Immediately afterward the bottom of the lake subsided. Its waters fell through, and the instrument was broken… The water in its descent had met fire. Maskull was lifted bodily in the air, many yards high, and he came down heavily. He lost consciousness…”
- Matterplay - Land of Transformation
“Creation, Transformation. Eternal Mind’s Eternal Recreation.” (Goethe, Faust pt 1)
- Miracle of Creation. Birth of a Thought.
“ The sun was obscured by masses of cloud which filled the whole sky. This vapor was in violent and almost living motion. … some parts were far denser than others, as the particles were crushed together or swept apart by the motion. The green sparks… could be distinguished individually, each one wavering up to the clouds, but the moment they got within them a fearful struggle seemed to begin. The park endeavored to escape through to the upper air, while the clouds concentrated around it,,,trying to create so dense a prison that further movement would be impossible. … A complete ring of cloud surrounded it, and in spite of its furious leaps and flashes in all directions - as if it were a live, savage creature caught in a net - nowhere could it find an opening, but it dragged the enveloping cloud stuff with it, wherever it went. The vapors continued to thicken around it, until they resembled the black, heavy, compressed sky masses seen before a bad thunderstorm. Then the green spark, which was still visible in the interior, remained for a time quiescent. The cloud shape...became nearly spherical… it started to descend toward the valley floor. … a few feet off the ground, its motion stoppped altogether. Suddenly, like a stab of forked lightning, the great cloud shot together, became small indented and colored, and as a plant-animal began waling around on legs and rooting up the ground in search of food.”
- Creaturely Transformation
(FIRST THEME)
“Presently however, he was confronted in mid-stream by a hideous monster, of the size of a pony, but resembling in shape - a sea crustacean.
“He was looking right through the animal’s body and could distinguish its interior parts. The outer crust, however, and all the hard tissues were misty and semi-transparent; through them a luminous network of blood-red veins and arteries stood out in startling distinctness.
(SECOND THEME)
“...The naked blood alone was visible, flowing this way and that like a fiery, liquid skeleton, in the shape of the monster.. Then this blood began to change too. Instead of a continuous liquid, Maskull perceived that it was composed of a million individual points…They seemed like a double drift of stars, streaming in space…”
“...still looking, lost in amazement, the starry network went out suddenly like an extinguished flame. Where the crustacean had stood, there was nothing…
(THIRD THEME) (MUSICAL CLIMAX)
“…(it) began to be felt by emotion. A delightful spring-like sense of rising sap, of quickening pulses, of love, adventure, mystery, beauty, femininity - took possession of his being.
(INVERSE RECAPITULATION )
“...The sensations died away, there was a brief interval, and then the streaming, starlike skeleton rose up again out of space. It changed to the red-blood system. The hard parts of the body reappeared, with more and more distinctness, and at the same time the network of blood grew fainter…. The creature stood opposite Maskull in all its formidable ugliness…”
- Faceny’s Nature (vocal sprechstimme)
“...He faces Nothingness in all directions. He has no back and no sides, but is all face; and this face is his shape. It must necessarily be so, for nothing can exist between him and Nothingness. His face is all eyes, for he eternally contemplates Nothingness. He draws his inspirations from it; in no other way could he feel himself. For the same reason, .. men love to be in empty places and vast solitudes, for each one is a little Faceny.”
“Thoughts flow perpetually from Faceny’s face backward. Since his face is on all sides, however, they flow into his interior. A draught of thought thus continually flows from Nothingness to the inside of Faceny, which is the world. The thoughts become shapes, and people the world. The outer world, therefore, which is lying all around us, is not outside at all, as it happens, but inside. The visible universe is like a gigantic stomach, and the real outside of the world we shall never see.”
- The Three Gods
- Poetry
- Pity
- Thire - foretells Maskull’s Death
- Surtur’s Drum
- Crystalman’s Triumph
- Muspel Light (Surtur’s Drum)
- Sunrise: Alpain’s Morning
“Daylight is like night to this other daylight. Within half an hour you will be like a man who has stepped from a dark forest into the open day.”
- Maskull’s Death
- Heart Beat
“Don’t you comprehend, Maskull, that your death has arrived?”
- Krag’s Hammer
“He floated toward an immense perpendicular cliff of black rock, without top or bottom. Halfway up it was Krag, suspended in mid-air, was dealing terrific blows at a blood-red with an huge hammer. The rhythmical, clanging sounds were hideous.”
“Presently Maskull made out that these sounds were the familiar drumbeats. “What are you doing, Krag?” he asked.
Krag suspended his work, and turned around. “Beating on your heart, Maskull”, was his grinning response.
- On the Ocean
“What is that Ocean called?” asked Maskull, bring out the words with difficulty.
“Surtur’s Ocean”
Maskull nodded, and kept quiet for some time… “Where’s Nightspore?” he asked suddenly.
Krag bent over him with a grave expression. “You are Nightspore.”
- Maskull Dies
“… with an effort, he murmered, “Who are You?” Krag maintained a gloomy silence.
...a frightful pang passed through Maskull’s heart, and he died immediately.”
“Nightspore gazed long and earnestly at Maskull’s body. “Why was all this necessary?” he asked.
“Ask Crystalman,” replied Krag sternly. “His world is no joke. He has a strong clutch - but I have a stronger… Maskul was his, but Nightspore is mine.”
- Nightspore and Krag on The Ocean Raft
- Surtur’s Drum
“Nightspore felt a strong, silent throbbing of the air - a rhythmical pulsation, in four-four time. “There is the drumming,” he exclaimed… “I half understand, but I’m all confused.”
“…the sound comes from Muspel, but the rhythm is caused by its traveling through Crystalman’s atmosphere. His nature is rhythm as he loves to call it - or dull, deadly repetition as I name it.”
“The drumming grew loud and painful. The light resolved itself into a tiny oblong of mysterious brightness in a huge wall of night. …
“I can’t face rebirth,” said Nightspore. “The horror of death is nothing to it.”
“...the drumming was now like the clanging of iron. The oblong patch of light grew much bigger; it burned fierce and wild.
“… the thunderous clangor of the rhythmical beats struck on his head like actual blows. The light glared so vivildly that he was no longer able to look at it.”
- The Cosmic Tower - Seven Stages
- “a mocking, vulgar laugh… the rhythmical vibration of the air - the silent, continuous throbbing of some mighty engine”
- “Double Rhythm - March (“bitter, petrifying”) vs. Waltz (“gay, enervating, horrible”) “The ascent grew more and more exhausting ...he frequently had to sit down, utterly crushed by his own dead weight.”
- Sphere of Luminous beings (“Horror and Wrath”)
“There were a myriad of green corpuscles,...all striving in one direction. Their action produced the marching rhythm.”
“...larger swirls of white light gyrated hither and thither...Their whirling motion was accompanied by the waltzing rhythm.”
- World of Rocks, Minerals, Plants, Animals, Men
(Opposition of March and Waltz continues as opposed forces within man)
- Unification of Opposing Streams into a Single force. Crystalman’s Shadow.
- “The Muspel Stream was Crystalman’s Food”. Life as Food for Death. Vision of Hell.
- The Void. Nothingness. Opposition of Muspel and Crystalman.
- Toward Rebirth
- “Crystalman’s Empire is but a shadow on the face of Muspel. But nothing will be done without the bloodiest blows…. What do you mean to do?”
- “Are you not Surtur, Krag?”
- “But what is your name on Earth?”
- “My name is Pain”
“He was silent for a few minutes; then he stepped quietly onto the raft. Krag pushed off, and they proceeded into the darkness.”
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