2.8k words across 29 entries.

Sburb Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube (playlist)

Homestuck: (Bandcamp about blurb)

Presenting Homestuck's first solo piano album! Also comes with sheet music for all tracks.

Andrew Hussie: (MSPA news post)

Wanderers + Sburb

The first, an Exile-centric album brought to you by a collection of artists. The second, a solo album composed by James Dever and performed by Erik Scheele. Both are great!

Are you running out of room on your ipod yet? You might have to start deleting some of that crappy non-HS music soon.

Homestuck: (Bandcamp credits blurb)

Composed by James Dever, performed by Erik "Jit" Scheele

Cover art by Killian Ng

James Dever: (composer's notes - front)

Sburb is my proudest accomplishment. It is the bastard child of my hopes and dreams and my most recent accomplishments and ordeals. I set out to write music to capture everything going on in my life as well as find out who I am and what I am as far as a composer. What ended up happening was the creation of twelve powerful pieces that are close and dear to me and are a road map of my trials. The album has a biblical theme with the titles as to fit with the concept of the story of Homestuck being that of creation. Sburb ends up being the catalyst for the existence of our universes and every other one. I hope you appreciate them! These are my comments about each piece as well as a few comments on how exactly I played some of the crazier parts.

Enjoy!

James Dever: (composer's notes - back)

In Loving Memory of Linda Wright

Without her words of encouragement and pushing me the whole way, I would not be half the man I am today. She was my savior during the worsttime of my life. She inspired me to finish this album, which I almost could not bring myself to do after her passing away. I miss you more than anything, grandma.

Thank you so much:

The Quintanas, the Diguiseppis, the Emmons', Mr. Saliman and Mr. Spare for helping me survive the last year.

The Diguiseppis for giving me a roof over my head.

Jess, Mr. Emmons and the Farrells for putting up with me and teaching me everything I know about music.

Aunt Tammy for always protecting me and supporting any decision I make.

My friends for pushing me to not give up what I love the most.

Andrew Hussie for this opportunity. For Homestuck.

Jeremy Iamurri for beating sense into me and being a great friend.

Erik Scheele for being absolutely amazing at what you do and performing this album.

RJ Lake for pushing me to be better.

The music team for pushing me, and being the biggest group of bros in existence.

You. For listening.

James Dever: (Bandcamp rerelease)

Originally written for Homestuck in 2011, Sburb is the first major composition I ever wrote. The pieces were written when I was seventeen, over my junior and senior years of high school and performed and recorded the following summer. The album released about a month before I set off to college and the whole experience was phenomenal.

While I have long lost track with MSPA, I still am good friends with my fellow musicians from the Homestuck Music team including Erik "Jit" Steele, who performed on these recordings.

Looking back on it now, I love how obvious my early inspirations are but I do love the work I was able to create during one of the most tumultuous times in my life. Thanks for listening.

Michael Guy Bowman: (Michael Guy Bowman Talks About His Homestuck Music, adapted to text) 7/20/2024

(Continued from Gust of Heir)

I was really glad when [James] had that Sburb album come out, you know, he referenced Sburban Jungle on that, which was, you know, an honor of course, and hearing it performed by Erik Scheele on the piano... And I think that's my favorite piece of Homestuck music, that album, just because regardless of where the themes came from, it was just good listening. You know. Could put that on during breakfast. (laughs)

Prelude Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

James Dever: (composer's notes)

The Prelude is a piece that I formulated a long time ago. It actually came about from me trying to figure out the chords the harps play in the quiet last section of Saturn from Gustav Holst's The Planets. When I started writing Sburb I decided that it would fit perfectly with the theme that the game creates. The structure of the chords is not unlike how the game actually functions. They work as a juxtaposition of good and evil by using relative major and minor chords. It starts off quietly and on higher octaves to introduce the mood. The next section brings in the Homestuck Anthem as an introduction to the album itself, signaling the beginning of the entire process. The piece suddenly grows in intensity as the left hand C octave ostinatos enter the phrases followed by the calm of the storm. The piece does not resolve, however it does lead straight into the next.

James Dever: (Bandcamp rerelease)

The introduction to the suite lays the fundamentals and ideas present throughout the rest of the movements. A juxtaposition between major and minor are in every chord creating a backbone of polytonality that I wanted to explore as I formulated the album.

The main Homestuck anthem is weaved through the chords as this album was originally written for and published through MS Paint Adventures and What Pumpkin. The original theme was composed by Clark Powell.

The album in its entirety is performed by Erik Scheele.

Genesis Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

James Dever: (composer's notes)

This song begins with a c minor chord that both resolves the last piece and immediately sets the mood for this piece. Genesis marks the beginning of the biblical terms as well. The Book of Genesis is the first book of both the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament. It is interpreted as the Chosen People being lead to the Promised Land. Sburb is the pathway that leads the kids into the game that is suppose to eventually grow a new universe. It starts off quietly and builds into a fast paced journey. Genesis also introduces my favorite music technique: hemiolas. The right hand plays a melody in triplets while the left hand harmonizes in eighth notes. This creates a strange rhythm and continues the juxtaposition theme created in The Prelude's chords. Continuing the concept of two extremes but together, the song goes into legato, quiet phrases that are immediately followed by staccato, loud phrases.

James Dever: (Bandcamp rerelease)

The previous track sets up the resolution that the opening measures provide here. This movement introduces the two against three polyrhythm idea that continues throughout the album as well as a few choice hemiolas. Coming from a percussion background, I find a lot of melodic potential in rhythmic content and this whole suite was a place for me to test that out.

Eden Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

James Dever: (composer's notes)

The Garden of Eden is where the first man Adam, and his wife Eve, lived after their creation. It is suppose to be a beautiful, blissful utopia. It also becomes the origin of sin. The piece reflects that concept. The flowing and adventurous nature of the piece is suppose to reflect the beauty and majestic qualities of the land. As far as the kids story goes, it represents the infinite potential of Skaia. This song also continues the same hemiola motif as Creation with triplets played by the right hand and eighth notes played by the left. The glissandos at the beginning and in the middle is an E flat pentatonic run, which basically means I only played on the black keys. Since it's completely ad libbed I wrote out a small little example. Basically, the left hand just continues up normally while the right hand goes back and forth while slowly climbing up (if looking at the sheet music, each note alternates on the hands).

James Dever: (Bandcamp rerelease)

The goal here was to feel like a breath of air after the first two movements had a much more minor modal center. The three over two polyrhythm keeps powering through the movement as I start introducing bass ostinati that act as the pedal tone to the melodic content.

Still in love with those flourishes after all these years.

Exodus Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

James Dever: (composer's notes)

The Book of Exodus comes after the Book of Genesis. It narrates the mass journey out of Israel by Moses. In Sburb, the players must go through a set of tasks to escape impending doom. This song reflects the process of entering the medium. This is why I encorporated Sburban Jungle into the beginning and end. The first time Sburb is booted up you hear a bit of Sburban Jungle, just like at the beginning of the song you hear the bottom chords. Later, when John enters the medium (as well as Rose) you hear the song in more complete forms like the end of the piece. When playing, the trickiest part is definitely the triplet ostinato that continues throughout the entire song. The best method to pulling this off is by playing the note on the beat (which will always be either E flat or G) with the left hand and the rest of the notes on the right hand. You will notice that when there are lower notes, there are rests in the ostinato so that you can quickly jump down the piano.

James Dever: (Bandcamp rerelease)

Continuing the Homestuck homages, this piece prominently features the bassline from Michael Guy Bowman's Sburban Jungle.

When I was writing this movement I really wanted to explore how much I could utilize the different registers of the piano while keeping a constant ostinato running through the middle register.

Requiem Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

James Dever: (composer's notes)

Requiem masses are masses for the dead. Requiem is the anthem for everything and everybody lost. One portion of Homestuck never focused on is the direct aftermath of the destruction of the Reckoning. Requiem is a theme for all the people and things lost on Earth. The song itself could be very tricky to play depending on how familiar you are with time signatures. The piece is in 4/4 for the majority of the first half. It enters a 5/4 section with a 4/4 continuation of the "siren" effect overlapping. The hemiola only occurs the first time, the second time bringing in a 5/4 melody to accompany it. Immediately afterwards the piece shifts into mixed meter. The 7/8 section is briefly interupted by an apostrophe of 5/8. The ending shifts to 6/8 as the tone shifts from minor to major.

James Dever: (Bandcamp rerelease)

Continuing my quest to explore rhythm and melody, Requiem's goal was to keep a melody whipping between different time signatures while not feeling jerky or sudden.

I tried to hide the resolution at the end by having a quiet final note low in the bass after the bell like ringing of the final major arrival to add finality while also trying to let the unresolved final chord linger. Erik's performance really nailed it.

The Meek Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

James Dever: (composer's notes)

"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." The Meek is the theme for the Exiles. They are the ones left to fix and save the Earth 413 years after its destruction. It starts off solemn as the concept occurs to them that it is their duty to repopulate and rebuild. As the piece goes on it gets more intense to reflect all of the shenanigans and gun pointing that occurs as they all converge and meet. After the tension dies away the mood from before is recapped before resolving at the end. However, the last run ends in dissonance, because we don't know how the exile's story will play out.

James Dever: (Bandcamp rerelease)

A really terrible engraving job on the sheet music by yours truly created a repeated note in the beginning motive that I ended up actually digging more than the original version.

The Meek continues the idea of bouncing between time signatures while trying to keep a sense of structure. Where Requiem was more about a constant pulse, I decided to play with elongated pauses to stretch the phrases.

The second section was during a time where I was really starting to love the idea of modes and modal mixture and just had fun with it. Still one of my favorite passages from the entire album!

I also really love not resolving these movements, if you haven't noticed.

Chronicles Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

James Dever: (composer's notes)

A chronicle is an account of chronological events. Homestuck does not follow a chronological structure in the slightest. Chronicles is a piano version of Candles and Clockwork. Candles and Clockwork in itself is a massive hemiola as each voice exists in a different time signature. The melody is adapted in this piece to match the 3/4 arpeggio. The piece keeps changing to reflect each leg of the journey the kids have to experience in order to finish the game, not necessarily in order.

James Dever: (Bandcamp rerelease)

Chronicles is an adaption of an earlier Homestuck track I wrote, Candles and Clockwork. It was one of the first compositions I ever finished and, true to form, is a big hemiola. I wanted an ostinato in a different time signature than the melody which is what I focus on during the first section as I introduce the melody.

The second part of the song introduces the final major motive of the suite, a sextuplet accompaniment outlining the tonic and dominant. A staple of the western art canon, it was a good foundation for me to work on some melodies that weren't purely rhythmic noodling.

Rapture Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

James Dever: (composer's notes)

Boss fight music! Kind of. The rapture starts off quietly and peacefully before the sirens break the silence. The sirens lead into a fast paced hectic section before dying down as quickly as it appeared. A sudden destructive force that comes and goes in an instant. This song uses two motifs throughout the album: the siren and hemiolas. Measures 17-19 are more than a little tricky to play. I left a note in the sheet music to help with the ending line.

James Dever: (Bandcamp rerelease)

Rapture was the boss tune of the suite. The big bad of the album, it brings back the bass and sustain pedal heavy ostinato while trying to juxtapose a simple and quiet melody that bookends it.

Creation Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

James Dever: (composer's notes)

The song that means more to me than any song I've ever written and possibly will again. Sburb is all about creating worlds, thus the resolution of the album comes after the storm (Rapture). No matter how harsh the process may be, the result is beauty and endless potential. This song is completely based around the hemiola motif and the origin of it. It is also designed like a day. The song starts off quiet and slow as the sun rises and slowly gets more complex and full fledged as it rises until mid day when it is most busy. As the sun sets into the later half of the day the song slows down and gets quieter toward the sunset. It resolves with the Homestuck Anthem to imply the loop to the beginning. Worlds are created and the process of Skaia starts again.

James Dever: (Bandcamp rerelease)

This movement is framed as a sunset. Starting off quiet, building to a peak before shying away to where it started.

You can definitely see that I was influenced into writing music from the works of Philip Glass and that is in full force here, but even in retrospect I feel like I put a great personal spin on it.

As the sun sets, there's a final recall of the Homestuck Anthem. This movement was originally the last movement before I added the Revelations movements but it fit too well and I could not bring myself to remove it.

I wrote this the weeks following the passing of my grandmother. It will always be for her and for everything she did for me.

Revelations, I Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

James Dever: (composer's notes)

Revelations is the afterthought of Sburb. The three songs were added months after the original nine were finished and pieced together into the album. They are a standalone piece from the rest of the album but still fit the concept of Sburb and Skaia. Revelations is the equivalent of The Ultimate Riddle. Solving and understanding is the purpose behind the entire concept, however it can completely be overlooked and is not necessary to completing the rest of the process. Thousands of people can play the game and create their own universes but never quite solve the riddle. In this sense, it completely is a separate entity because the other nine songs can loop freely with or without its presence. Each of the movements is based around the same arpeggio pattern featured in Chronicles. They are another journey completely.

The first movement starts off as a note in the distance, a growing concept. To the sound of a siren it grows and rushes into a full blown idea. The Homestuck Anthem is briefly mentioned to imply a connection but it just keeps going leaving it in the dust. There are better things to get to. It slowly breaks down and flows into the next movement.

James Dever: (Bandcamp rerelease)

Revelations is a three part finale that is completely centered on the sextuplet dominant/tonic motive introduced earlier in the album. Each movement was more exploration of how I can use the same general accompaniment but completely change the melody.

Revelations, II Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

James Dever: (composer's notes)

Movement II is the process of solving it almost. It's the path to enlightenment; overcoming obstacles and finding yourself along the way is part of the challenge.

Revelations, III Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

James Dever: (composer's notes)

Resolution comes in the third movement, which is the enlightenment. One simple arpeggio starts and powers the entire piece, which also brings it to an end. The discovery of the answer brings enlightenment but also ends the journey and the entire process of Sburb/Skaia. Thank you for listening.