About "Chasing Dusk," a song written in 30 minutes

Jun 09, 2008

Ah, well. Hello, everyone. My name is Ben. I guess I'll start off this blog by telling you a bit about the first song that I upped.

This song, called "Chasing Dusk," is a song that I composed in thirty minutes, then recorded in about an hour. It features synthesizer and Euphonium (an interesting instument that is like a small tuba). You can tell how good of a player I am by the screwups and out-of-tuneness and mistakes and stuff. Later on, I'll up a better copy, but right now it's all I have. Sorry.

I originally wrote this song in my head when I was bored one day in Band class. Well, parts of it anyway. Then, towards the end of the semester, my English teacher gave us a project. He told us we had to stand up in front of the class and perform a talent for him. Then he sat down next to me and said, "So I bet you'll be playing Euphonium for us in class, huh?"

And I thought, "HELL no!"

So I decided to just record something instead, and this is what came out.

"Chasing Dusk" is a song that is written in a circle. That is, the end and the beginning come together. It is like a palendrome. It is written the same backwards as it is forwards. I've always liked this kind of writing. I think things that come full circle have more meaning to them. Anyways, the title comes from a game I used to play in elementary school.

Back in elementary school, during the more cloudy days, my friends and I would line up at one end of the grass field that was the centerpiece of the school. We would wait for a cloud to pass in front of the sun, and then try to outrun the shadow that zoomed across the field. Whoever got the farthest was the winner.

A stupid game, I know.

But when I was writing this piece down on paper, I was reminded of that game. "Chasing Dusk" is written in a circle, like the circle of life (cheesy, I know). When we are young, we are constantly chasing that unreachable future. We want to be older, we want to be grownup. We chase those unreachable last fringes of light before dark. The Dusk. We chase it and chase it. Yet when we finally reach the Dusk of our lives, we turn and go back. We want to be younger. And, in the end, the Dusk is chasing us. That is what I felt about this song.

LOL, hella cheesy. Just listen to it and comment, plz.