The Year's End: A Musical Flight of Fancy

This work was intended to be the wedding music that I uploaded in my last video; however, the concept was too ambitious for me to finish it in time. I have repurposed this music to pay homage to the passing of another year.

When we mark the ending of another year, it is bittersweet. On the one hand, we are thankful to have made it, and we have much to celebrate. The lingering aura of Christmas permeates our lives still, with New Year's giving occasion for one final push of celebration before our lives return to their normal courses. In this spirit, I've attempted to capture some celebratory mirth in this work.

On the other hand, it is the dead of winter. While we have been preoccupied with festivities, the days have shortened and the weather has become frigid. What follows, and what we'll feel much more acutely once the celebrations subside is a long climb out of darkness into light, and out of death into life. We feel something of this within ourselves; to get up early and go to work feels unusually thankless - perhaps we get through the days with coffee mugs in hand, eager to soak up any spare energy it has to offer. Our thoughts, as the sap within the trees or the rabbits within their burrows, tend to turn more inward. Sometimes this turning inward can take on a frightful or traumatic component, with little in the outer world to draw one away from the relentless musings of their own mind. The creative inspiration to be found during this time of the year can be intense and profoundly cathartic, but also overwhelming and terrifying.

There's also retroactive considerations. Rarely does one's existence feel close to perfect, and the ending of a year often prompts grief and mourning. It also awakens questions of meaning or purpose. I am one revolution of the earth around the sun closer to my own death -- how did I do? Did I make it count for something?

Creatively, I feel as though I did a lot this year. I present this piece to you, my viewers, as the icing on the cake of the year's achievements. There's some thematic correlation between this work and my 'Interlude', written at the very start of the year (also on this channel). But far more importantly, I present this piece as a thanks to God, who brought me through so much this year, and showed me His love more than ever before.

Happy (almost) New Year!



Interlude:    • Interlude