This song was, in small part, inspired by "The Western Wall". That number culminates in full-throated rock counterpoint, complete with an electric guitar soloing over not one, but two riffing vocalists. When I first saw the piece, I remember that musical climax pushing me right to my saturation point, and relenting right when I felt I couldn't take in any more information.
"It's Coming Down" was an exercise in pushing past that point, and accessing total musical overwhelm as a dramatic affect. The counterpoint is too dense with layers for the audience to grasp; the richness and dissonance of the texture makes it impossible to catch anything more than fragments of lyrical and melodic information. Just when the ear has had enough, the counterpoint muscles forward with renewed ferocity as the band slams out huge stabs, a thundering heartbeat. The effect is totally disorienting and overwhelming, and simulates for the listener how Archer is trying, and failing, to "block out the noise". In the heat of the moment, he can't center himself, so neither can the audience's ear.
If Johann Joseph Fux were alive to hear this, he'd have a heart attack, which delights me to no end. Dramatic music affords the adventurous composer the freedom to pursue musical ideas that wouldn't hold up to standards of clarity and cohesion in a piece of concert or pop music.
When I was looking for visual references for Magpie's Song, I found this painting of Hou Yi shooting down the suns. I loved the imagery of the Emperor's sons being birds, and the undeniable pile of broken bodies accumulated in frame. This idea never found its way into the show, because the sons being birds gets confusing when Vega is a human woman, but the image has always stuck with me, so I wanted to share it here.
"Just hold on tighter to keep my hands from shaking..."
