In Progress – The God’s Script
New Shorts Composer, Justin Tierney, writes:
The February 9th performance of “Escritura del Dios” at the Issue Project Room presents the final two scenes of this 14 scene monodrama. These last two were chosen because they are the most telling and are narratively (and hopefully musically) satisfying by themselves as they sum up the drama and themes of the story.
In Scene 13 [A Formula of 14 Words] Tzincán finally decodes ‘the god’s script’ in the Jaguar’s spots and reflects on the power this could provide. But in the final scene, he decides, after witnessing the inner-workings of the universe, how everything is connected in a cosmic fabric (even the Spaniards who tortured him) he can no longer “think in terms of one man, of that man’s trivial fortunes or misfortunes, though he be that man” so he decides that instead of using his new found power to take back his empire and become all powerful, to await, in the posture of his death, the end destined to him by the gods.
The goal was to express and embed or even foreshadow the themes of the story musically, at the structural as well as the surface levels. I strove to unify the musical drama by deriving all the motives of the piece, both those of light and those of darkness, from the same materials. Perhaps this will also reflect the revelation in the story that all that exists springs from a single source.
To hear excerpts of Escritura del Dios, visit JustinTierney.com