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Storytelling prog. metal

Act I - Ambition

A Melody through Time and Space (instrumental)

prelude Maine, winter 1995. A welcoming well-decorated bedsitter attic, warmed by a slow-burning fireplace. The pendulum clock on the wall keeps ticking Time away, while the echo of the last passage switching from an Bb major to a C minor still resounds in the air, soon to be slowly absorbed by the maple-wooden walls. Outside, the snow keeps pouring down on the immortalized landscape, moderately but constantly, as if winter would last forever. Peter gently caresses his still-vibrating grand piano, and then he closes the sheet score: his latest composition is finally ended. Peter’s soul has just tasted such a flawless serenity in the exact point where love meets art and merge with it, creating an altogether: that stainless perfection of his latest artistic inspiration. Art: the heavenly way to depict in abstractness the perfection of Diana’s eyes.

Art: the most delightful addiction which relentlessly conceals a dangerous ambition… the kind of ambition that threatens to carry Peter away from Diana’s eyes. Meanwhile, far from that place and that Time, another artist is striving by himself on his latest composition. Montefioralle, Tuscany (Italy), winter 1823. The young poet Tristano stares at the slow-burning candlelight, while a few drops of wax pour over the yellowish paper. His lips are getting drier and drier, lamenting for more green poison, while a painful headache is being dramatically increasing, like a rising landslide. The echoing voices are getting louder and the faceless demon is sorely disappointed because of the vacuous sheet of paper. Also for Tristano art means addiction, but that kind of gloomy addiction that punishes us, enslaves us and condemns us to seek and pursue forever the perfect inspiration.

Perfect Inspiration

[Peter Light]:



[Mr. Shadow]:  
Day after day
Seeking a dream, my own purpose of life
Facing the strife
Of balancing love with my passion for art
Cause love on its own
Is not enough!
[Peter Light]: 
 
I pave my way
Chasing perfection in each note I write
Carrying the light
With enthusiasm, passion and zeal for my art
But art on its own
Is not enough!

[Oak of Wisdom]: 
 
Reality, fantasy, calling thee
Reality, fantasy, inspiring

Thy dream
And ardour
Thy fervour
A genius’ gleam

[Peter Light]:
 
I have sought it for a lifetime…
the inspiration,
A flawless rhapsody
Now it is Time to fulfill my ambition
The perfect melody
Always hunting for my dream!


[Tristano, the accursed poet]:
Sonnet I 
 
Rifulge nella stanza il fioco lume
(The dim light glitters in the room)
Trasuda la candela che arde lenta
(The slow-burning candle sweats)
Riflette il calamaio un tal barlume
(The inkwell reflects its shining)
L'essenza d'assenzio il labio lamenta
(Lips are lamenting form more absinthe’s essence)

Plasmando tal pensieri a cor che duole
(Molding these thoughts with aching heart)
Con vacuo nudo foglio e man che obietta
(With naked-empty paper and doubtful hand)
Mi struggo per forgiare le parole
(I struggle to forge the words)
Riverse in versi in rima perfetta
(Reclined in verses with perfect rhyme)

Rivivrò l'eterna maledizione
(I will live again the eternal curse)
Servirò le voci da liberare
(I will serve the voices to be rescued)
Plasmerò pensiero con espressione
(I will mold my thoughts with expression)

Placherò la mente da un tal vagare
(I will stop my mind from roaming)
Muterò tormento in liberazione
(I will turn my torment into liberation)
Volgerò a lesto pacificare
(I will return to a quick peaceful state)

[Peter Light]:
 
Reality, fantasy, calling me
Reality, fantasy, inspiring, my
[Oak
of Wisdom]: 
 
Thy dream
And ardour
Thy fervour
A genius’ gleam

[Peter Light]:
 
I have sought it for a lifetime…
the inspiration,
A flawless rhapsody
Now it is Time to fulfill my ambition
The perfect melody
[Peter Light
& Mr. Shadow]:
 
Always hunting for my dream!
Wales, year 1606. Laboring indoors an ancient disheveled workshop in the heart of Cardiff, and ambitious craftsman is carefully assembling together various tiny clockworks and components, aiming to create another model of his new pendulum clocks. Clogan is enthusiastic. His burning zeal has already been quintessentially fulfilled, but such a perfect moment of purest gratification and pride will last very little. Clogan knows that ambition is something we have to feed for a lifetime… something we will never completely satisfy… something that will hinder forever our pursue of happiness. Anyway, he also knows that such overwhelming longing can be only fought with a continuous improvement of his art, trying to getting better day after day and never ceasing to chase what ambition dictates us. Another splendid and supreme masterpiece has been completed. The customers will pay a fortune to have such a marvelous pendulum clock. But the perfect Cloc Amser is still far from being crafted; hence, it is Time for Clogan to get back to work.

It apparently seems just an ordinary evening of March in Maine. Peter Light is coming back from a working day at the academy. He gets off the bus and approaches to the familiar stone path in the wood, on his way back home. The surrounding landscape is getting darker, colder and silent. Only the rustle of the nascent foliage echoes in the air, together with a distant cawing of a crow and the constant resonance of water drops dripping from the melting winter snow. A normal day of Peter’s routine; everything is ordinary, except for that sheet of paper clenched in his fist. And a smile on his face: a bizarre childish giggle, which seems to hide jealously his everlasting yearning. 

Everlasting Yearning

[Peter Light & Clogan]:
I feel crawl the shiver!
[Peter Light]:
I feel crawl the shiver
Nothing lasts forever
Now it’s Time to play all out

I feel my passion’s burning
The everlasting yearning
Now it’s Time to play all out

[Clogan, the clockmaker]:
Sonnet II 
 
Now the pendulum swings in constant motion
The hands pervade the dial marking each trice
I've put in all this my entire devotion
Cloc Amser, Cloc Amser, the lifetime device!

The last son of the horologe tradition
In ancient runes and arcane druids my descent
I craft these gears to eke out my ambition
Tad Amser, Tad Amser, grant me your consent!

I will craft the perfect device of lifetime
I'll convert abstractness into materia
I will forge the depiction of the sublime

I will shape the eternal phantasmagoria
I'll rejoice at hearing the pendulum's chime
I will scout the abyss of Time's
euphoria

[Peter Light]:>
 
I feel crawl the shiver
Nothing lasts forever
Now it’s Time to play all out

I feel my passion’s burning
The everlasting yearning
Now it’s Time to play all out

[Peter Light]:
 
I craft my art with my two hands
I will find my promised land
In one single note a limitless force
[Clogan, the clockmaker]:
 
I keep alive the days of yore
I revive the ancient lore
In one single sound of “tick tock, tick tock”
[Peter & Oak of Wisdom]:
 
I craft my art with my two hands
I will find my promised land
In one single note a limitless force
[Clogan & Oak of Wisdom]:
 
I keep alive the days of yore
I revive the ancient lore
In one single sound of “tick tock, tick tock”

[Peter Light]:
 
I will craft the perfect device of lifetime
I'll convert abstractness into materia
I will forge the depiction of the sublime

I will shape the eternal phantasmagoria
I'll rejoice at hearing the pendulum's chime
I will scout the abyss of Time's euphoria

[Peter Light]:
 
I feel crawl the shiver
Fame comes now or never
My career is a rising sun
[Clogan, the clockmaker]:
 
I feel crawl the shiver
The clock hands tick and sever
Pride and honour to my clan

[Peter Light & Clogan]:
 
I feel crawl the shiver
Nothing lasts forever
Now it’s Time to play all out

I feel my passion’s burning
The everlasting yearning
Now it’s Time to play all out
They say home is where the heart is. While entering his Canadian-style chalet, Peter’s face gets cherished by a delicate halo full of unique and familiar scents, memories and emotions that go straight to the heart and coil it with a welcoming candid veil. Before closing the entrance door, Peter unusually turns back; only for a while, he stares at the edge of the stone path in the wood, as if it marked not just the end of the day but also the end of an entire phase. Indoors, he heads directly upstairs to his opulent attic and gently lays the wrapped sheet of paper down on the grand piano. Then, he takes off his black woolen coat and drops the academy bag on the desk. Just one long full sigh which releases all the tensions of a normal working day, before turning to Diana who stands looking at him with joyful lovely eyes. A hand on her left cheek and a kiss on her forehead. Peter waits just a few instants for her to ask him about his working day and, as soon as she does so, he heads back all in a hurry to pick up the sheet. Then, Peter unrolls it in front of Diana. On the page, it is clearly readable an official invitation by a renowned Russian music agency for the New England Piano Academy’s tour across Europe. The invitation is followed by a six-months itinerary and by all the descriptions of the theaters in which the academy will have to perform: starting from Moscow to St. Petersburg, then Berlin, Prague, Munich, Rome, Milan, Paris and many others. The voyage would start at the beginning of September and it is supposed to finish by April 1996, unless further schedule changes. …Title of the opera: “A Melody through Time and Space”. Name of the official orchestra director: “Mr. Peter Light, music professor at the New England Piano Academy, with a BM (Bachelor of Music) and a BFA (Bachelor in Fine Arts)”… At reading this, Diana’s delicate lips crack a smile… but her eyes don’t. Peter knows too well the smile of his fiancé, and he knows for sure that one was not sincere. But in that very fraction of a second, a chilly shock pierces through his mind… and his eyes widen in concern. The wedding! Peter and Diana should get married in September. It is just so bizarre: even the most joyful thing in the world, the one we are used to keep inside ourselves as if it were the reason for our daily serenity, it may one day reveal itself as the worse obstacle against our personal gratification. However, before Peter could mutter a single word, in a soft and sympathetic voice, Diana reassures him that she perfectly knows the importance this tour has for Peter: it is the opportunity of a lifetime for his career. And their wedding can obviously wait.

During the following weeks, an odd unusual silence falls on the chalet. Every night, thoughts and doubts haunt the young musician’s mind, making his slumber nervous and restless. Diana has been lovingly understanding and, as she wisely said, such voyage may be the occasion of a lifetime. But, on the other hand, they have dreamed this voyage for such a long Time. Peter finds himself once again torn between two worlds, two loves, two selves.

One April morning, Diana wakes up as usual at 6.20, ready for a working day at the hotel. But the left side of the bed is strangely cold. She gets up and notices Peter sitting by the window who is looking at the daybreak with an absorbed gaze. After a while, the young pianist turns his head towards her: with resolute look and half-smiling lips, Peter declares that he will accept the offer and tour Europe.