Sheet music- The Waters of Babylon

Greetings all! Hope you're doing well.

We're getting into winter here so it is cold and miserable. Melbourne does grey in winter like no other city I know, which is funny given everyone here wears black. And for those of you from out of town I'm not making that up. Everyone does really wear black. I frequently play at functions where you would assume the invitation listed a dress code of all black whereas in fact it's just a room full of Melbournians.

That really is an aside. The purpose of today's post is the arrangement of 'Waters of Babylon' promised a month or so back. You can read about my reasons for this arrangement here.

Hope you like it- feedback is always welcome!




The Waters of Babylon

What's on the stand: William Walton Belshazzar’s Feast

I wrote a few weeks back about my Mesopotamian month of May that began with Don Mclean’s Waters of Babylon. You can check out that post here.

Well the theme of the month was rounded off with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast.

I’m going to assume that Walton needs a little more introduction than Don Mclean. Either way he was a British composer who life lasted for most of the twentieth century.

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He wrote Belshazzar’s Feast in 1931. And it is massive. 34 minutes long with an orchestra bigger than Ben Hur including 2 harps (yah!), massed choir, baritone soloist, an organ with literally all stops out, and not 1 but 2 off stage brass bands. And just as well they were off stage as there simply wasn’t any room left on the stage.

The sound of everyone playing was HUGE. Love it!!!

C.B.Rees commented on the man and this work: ‘No man, I thought, as slim and pale as that could possibly be strong enough to write music of such savage splendour’. I think that was a compliment.

Anyhoo, it’s roughly in 3 parts- the first has the exiled Israelites bemoaning their fate by the waters of Babylon (and it’s so hard to not suddenly start singing the Boney M version here but we can conquer that catchy tune and keep going. Can’t we??)

So after all the downcast lamenting set by Walton with brilliant heaviness we finally get to meet Belshazzar. He’s not nice. Not nice at all. During a wild party he profanes the artefacts of the temple that his father King Nebuchadnezzar took from Jerusalem.

And he gets his judgement in the form of a ghostly hand that writes on a wall ‘You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.’

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And so he meets his end.

The celebrations surrounding this form the conclusion of the work.

Here it is on YouTube so grab yourself a coffee and have a listen. Check out the three sections and how it all fits the story.

PS The lyrics are taken from the Bible so have a read of Isaiah 13 and 39, Psalm 81 and 137, Revelation 18 and Daniel 5.

YouTube Faves- Harp Autopsy

How to destroy dissect a concert harp in 4'35. What can I say?- some people have all the fun.

Many thanks to Mike at harptech.com for agreeing to share this one.

It does remind me in part of a concert two friends of mine gave for the Melbourne Fringe Festival which premiered a new work for piano, sledge hammer and wire cutters. It's the only concert I've ever attended where the performers wore protective eye wear and the audience had to sit behind a screen. And yes, I'm afraid the piano died...