Diabolus In Musica – A “wikified” excerpt from The Satanic Scriptures

June 25th, 2007 by info | Posted in Blog Feeds |

The longest essay in The Satanic Scriptures by Peter H. Gilmore is Diabolus In Musica, an introduction to the sinister aspects of classical composers and orchestral works. Peter is a classically trained composer who graduated from NYU with a Bachelor’s and Master’s in music composition. Diabolus in Musica begins with a short introductory paragraph, stating the authors love of bombastic music and instructing the reader that they might find the profiles of composers and lists of works to be rewarding and worthy of attention. We feature here just one of those profiles, that of Richard Strauss. This is just one of 6 major profiles, and the essay also includes shorter series of profiles or significant works of fifty-five composers. The Wikipedia links and Images are not included in the published version. Richard Strauss: Celebrating Himself Who could forget the thrilling opening music to Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey? Who hasn’t been moved by that sonic sunburst that Kubrick wisely used to herald the birth of conscious intelligence in Man’s ancestors, and underscored the first use of tools—a weapon, I might add? That magnificent fanfare was penned by Richard Strauss (1864-1949) as the opening for his tone poem Thus Spake Zarathustra, which was the composer’s effort at creating an audio equivalent to Nietzsche’s iconoclastic book. Strauss was known in his youth as a radical modern, shocking the critics with his voluptuous music, whether it be purely symphonic or operatic. In his final years he was considered to be an aging reactionary, co-opted by the Nazis, and thus generally ignored by a world that had moved to embrace less human music, that had lost the ability to appreciate splendor and skill. To the modern listener, he appears as an artist that created works of great beauty overflowing with the joy and struggle of life. (more…)