Comments on Mid-Summer Celebration at Angband

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A very grissly and I would say masculine piece indeed, reminiscent of Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain; this music featured as part of the finale in Disney's Fantasia and featured a similar scenario to your own... a demonic lord overseeing a night of debauched revelry set to music.  Ironically, to counter this Disney ended with Schubert's Ave Maria: I mention this because it feautures a procession of lamp carrying pilgrims and an abstract ascention to paradise, and if you have or havent seen it I would recommend that you look again as the procession scene is almost a direct replica of the departure of the Elves from Rivendell as seen in Peter Jackson's Two Towers...

I would add also that my comparing your work to Fantasia is by no means meant as a trivialisation on my part.  The piece mentioned above is still regarded by most animators and film makers alike as a high watermark in cinematic history.  You certainly have painted a very vivid and lively picture... mostly in red.      



I am very honored by any comparison to Fantasia, a movie that I have always considered to be classic and amazingly excellent, and one that I have seen numerous times over the years of my life.   Existence in Angband was no walk in the park, but all creatures like to celebrate, they just take their extremes in different directions.  The prompt just begged me to pen something totally different - the Dark Side of the moon, in essence instead of the usual flowery Elven celebrations or the delightful hobbit or human ones.  

Balancing Mussorgsky with Schubert was Disney's way to show the dark/light dichotomy.  Having my usual Elven sensibilities balanced by orcish chicanery I suppose is my own balance.  I find it interesting that you qualify this as a masculine sense of piece since this one story had a male beta instead of my usual female ones.  

I appreciate your comments and insight a great deal and thank you very much for offering them to me.  

- Erulisse (one L)