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The Easter Man
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The Easter Man is one of favourite pieces and their are some points I feel you need to be aware off.

  • The file is large, around 11MB, so unless you have a high speed internet connection this will take about an hour download.
  • The file is the video soundtrack, which was left to run undisturbed for the performance.
  • Despite the above, it is a very clear recording and well worth downloading.

Easter Man Facts

This was the first decent piece of music I had written for about three years. The three years prior to that barren patch, had seen an explosion in creativity, which resulted in (amongst other things) nine symphonies. Due to various reasons, you could say I then suffered from "Burn Out". Fortunately I joined Chiltern Church in Sutton, Surrey, UK, which accepted me as I was, imagination and all and about a year later, after a couple or churchy songs,  I wrote this.

The first song to be written was Gethsemane, and it was the idea behind this that acted for the slant the production took, in that it concentrated on the emotions of those involved at the time.

The choir that performed this, was a scratch one as Chiltern doesn't have a regular choir. This meant that the music had to be kept fairly simple, hence no official part singing, although if a member felt they could harmonise the tune, then I let them do it. The only stipulation being that they harmonised in the same key as I was playing.

Rehearsals started six weeks before Easter 1995, I finished writing it three weeks later.

At the risk of sounding like an Oscar winner, there are many people who I'd like to thank. There is no point listing their names, because unless you know me, you will have no idea who they are. But just in case anyone ever reads this, I would name Val Theo for her encouragement, and Susan Atkins, the assistant pastor at the time, whose idea it was for me to "write something for Easter". So I did, and this is the result

Download "The Easter Man"

Lyrics to be posted shortly.

 

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Copyright © 2003 Tony Matthews
Last modified: 10-Aug-2005