GREAT DAY Stephen Arthur Allen

Musicians have long been fascinated by the 13th century plainsong sequence DIES IRAE - from Hector Berlioz to Rachmaninoff to Vaughan Williams to Edward Gregson to Stanley Kubrick's musical scores for A Clockwork Orange and The Shining and on and on it goes.

Historically the chant survived the Reformation and Counter-Reformation but was banned by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s for having a tone that was at variance with the joy of the gospel.

In my version here I wanted to explore the challenge of confronting and absorbing something of that complex history into a piece that, while having an air of melancholy to a degree, also glows from within with the burning light of the gospel - a purifying fire of unconditional love.

In making it a chorale, the focus falls on both the chordal shifts as they are gradually revealed along with the text itself. Each of the visual images accompanying the verses illustrate the progression: verse 1 the heart of God breaking in molten love; verse 2 the 'phoenix' (Christ and the Soul) rising from the fire of testing 3. the analogy of the fire images with the open tomb of the risen Christ 4. "Our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29) - either a fire that burns up what is not 'of it' or the fire of unconditional love and value for those that freely choose come to it with all their heart, mind, soul and strength 5. the crown of fire - a life of testing and proving of faith - that we will cast at Jesus' feet on the last Great Day. The testing will be done and overcome, life eternal in the new Heaven and Earth the only reality. Praise God!

Finally, GREAT DAY is the second of seven songs that make up my original 1999 CD ACROSS THE RIVER. It follows the first, HEROES    • HEROES by Stephen Arthur Allen (Full ...  , and creates an appropriate 'distance' from the overt positivity and energy of that congregational anthem. GREAT DAY is more personal and interior, and so is scored for solo quartet (SATB) and small choir (SATB).

Thanks so much to my dear friends Simon Smart for the production and Zachary Detrick for the visuals. Thanks also to REVIVAL and my friends pictured within. GREAT DAY is dedicated to my two nephews, Greg & Will.

[Theological note: the reference to going up the clouds towards life's great victory is a metaphor for what happens immediately after death - the soul temporarily 'ascending' into Paradise - before it is bodily reunited at the GREAT DAY and eternal life begins bodily in the new Heaven and Earth, which is the completeness of "life's great victory". Also "Down to Satan's fiery sea" does not indicate that Satan is immortal or owns the fiery sea - indeed he is judged and extinguished in it - it is not an eternal realm or state.]

© 1995 Stephen Arthur Allen. Laurel Songs (Admin. by Song Solutions www.songsolutions.org) All rights Reserved. Used by permission. Not to be further used in other product without permission.

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2. GREAT DAY    • GREAT DAY Stephen Arthur Allen  
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4. ONE AND ONLY    • ONE AND ONLY (Full Mix) Trad. Arr. St...  
5. REJOICE!
6. HIS LOVE ENDURES FOREVER (PSALM 136)
7. THE GOD WHO DARES