Dmitri N Smirnov

The Seven Angels of William Blake Dmitri N Smirnov

The Seven Angels who trumpet about the end of the world in "The Book Revelation" of St John of Pathmos are also described in the prophetic books of William Blake, where they are given the following names: Lucifer, Moloch, Elohim, Shaddai, Pahad, Jehovah and Jesus. All of them are listed in the following short passage from Blake's poem "Vala, or the Four Zoas," Night the Eight, lines 394-406. (p. 107 [115]: 38-50): Rintrah & Palamabron Cut sheer off from GolgonoozaEnitharmons Moony space & in it Satan & his companionsThey rolld down a dim world Crusted with Snow deadly & dark Jerusalem pitying them wove them mantles of life & deathTimes after times And those in Eden sent LUCIFER for their GuardLucifer refusd to die for Satan & in pride he forsook his chargeThen they sent MOLECH Molech was impatient They sentMolech impatient They Sent ELOHIM who created AdamTo die for Satan Adam refusd but was compelld to dieBy Satans arts. Then the Eternals Sent SHADDAIShaddai was angry PACHAD descended Pachad was terrifiedAnd then they Sent JEHOVAH who leprous stretchd his hand to EternityThen JESUS Came & Died willing beneath Tirzah & Rahab These lines served as a source of inspiration for the piano cycle "The Seven Angels of William Blake", written by Dmitri N. Smirnov in April-June 1988 in Moscow. There are eight movements in the cycle, representing the musical portraits of these Blake's characters: 1. Prelude (Angel), 2. Lucifer, the Morning Star, 3. Moloch, the executioner, 4. Elohim creating Adam, Adam creating Elohim, 5. Shaddai's Anger, 6. Pahad's Fear, 7. Jehovah appealing to Eternity, 8. Jesus, the Lamb of God. The composer also realized here his idea of the extraction of musical material from English language itself by establishing a relationship between letters and melodic intervals. The following musical alphabet was used, where each letter corresponds to a musical interval, in semitones from small seconds to an octave, ascending (up) or descending (down). The premiere of the cycle took place on 23 November 1989 in Glasgow performed by pianist Susan Bradshaw, to whom it is dedicated. The first edition of the score (100 copies) was produced in Moscow by the publishing house "Kompozitor" in 1996.