Z. RANDALL STROOPE; SSAA/Piano; (Also available in SATB/Piano as of May 2024); SSAA version performed by EWHA Chamber Choir, South Korea (posting of their video); U.S. publisher, Alliance Music Publ. 0765; duration 5:15
COMPOSER'S NOTES (www.zrstroope.com)
I have an undergraduate double major in voice and piano, and understood early on the critical collaboration of the piano when it is included in choral performance. The piano is an equal player in the drama and expressive outcome of a work. "Revelation" is based on a part of the book of Revelations, one of the most controversial & difficult descriptive accounts of future apocalyptic events. The severity & cataclysmic nature of the events is staggering. The work isolates one of those "apocalyptic sequences" - the sounding of seven trumpets, each one (until the seventh) heralding a more horrific event the the trumpet before it!
First trumpet - - - - - - - - Land: Hail and fire thrown down on the earth
Second trumpet - - - - - Sea: Mountain of fire thrown into the sea, destroying
sea creature and all ships
Third trumpet - - - - - - - Rivers and Springs: All water becomes bitter
Fourth trumpet - - - - - - Heavens: Moon and stars turn black
Fifth trumpet - - - - - - - Abyss: Out of the earth comes locusts like scorpions
Sixth trumpet - - - - - - - Death: A third of humankind is destroyed
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Seventh trumpet - - - -Final triumph and holy kingdom is established.
An SATB/PIANO version is now available - Alliance Music Publ.)
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