Prospitian Folklore
By Alex Rosetti
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Cover art by Rikuru
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Released 10/23/2012.
Duration: 3:38.
Listen on Bandcamp or YouTube.
Read artist commentary.
Tracks that Prospitian Folklore references: Tracks that this one references:
Tracks that reference Prospitian Folklore: Tracks that reference this one:
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Artist commentary:
"Though we adore Him we shall never enjoy His beauteous Croak. We spill our blood on acres of black and white so they may cross the yellow yard. At last in Skaia's reflection through broken glass He may find the pond in which He's meant to squat." – Book in Prospit Library (from Seer: Descend)
This piece is a musical retelling of the above passage. If you read it while listening to the music, the tone should match for the most part (as long as you are reading very, very slowly). This track's melody appears several more times throughout the album, and represents the "folk tale" and more legendary aspects of the Genesis Frog as seen through His followers. Because of this I tried to make it sound like a genuine folk tune, and ended up with something vaguely resembling a tune out of Eastern Europe. It's a melancholic sort of melody, which suits the grim tone of the text it is based on. It is passed through several instruments: first a solo oboe, then the violins, a soprano recorder, and a trumpet.
After the main section is over, the piece shifts into a short woodwind chorale, and then into what I can only call a cadenza made up of tense suspended figures in the strings with an out-of-meter pulse underneath. I kind of wrote this last section accidentally, since it somehow started flowing out of the chorale and I just went with it. It seemed to have an air of urgency and importance to me, so I kept it in to represent "Skaia's reflection through broken glass", which is such a fascinating image. Broken glass has been a recurring motif in Homestuck and seems to hold important consequences every time it occurs, and the text implies it will be significant in the Genesis Frog's final destination. So the atmosphere of this final section felt significant and fitting to me.