[88 BPM] | [Neoclassical Shred Metal] | [A harmonic minor] [Mood: Grandiose] [Energy: Building] [Intro | unaccompanied classical guitar | slow arpeggiated baroque figure | rubato | no drums] [Theme | electric guitar enters clean, states the main melody slowly | Hammond organ sustaining beneath | bass low | brushed cymbals only | Energy: Low] [Verse 1 | declamatory tenor, precise | full band at moderate tempo | organ doubling the lead in counterpoint | wide vibrato on guitar answers] Ludwig, listen — no, you can't, and that's the whole of it, You wrote the roar of oceans from the hollow of a pit, You scored the door of heaven with a hand that never heard it, And ignored the fervent gentlemen who swore that you'd disturbed it. You put your teeth against the wood to feel the string, And the world got Elysium from a man who got nothing. [Pre-Chorus | tempo lifting | double kick entering | descending harmonic minor run | organ swelling] They turned you round to see the hall. You never heard a thing at all. [Chorus | 152 BPM | full band | sustained held notes | sweep-picked arpeggios beneath | Energy: High] Wake up, wake up, the strings are on fire, Wake up, wake up, they wired the lyre, Two hundred years and the hall's still shaking — Ludwig, the world's still awake and it's aching. Wake up. [Verse 2 | declamatory | driving rhythm | guitar answering at phrase ends] You raged against the tempo, you deranged the given form, You dragged the sacred pattern out and made the pattern mourn, The academy was adequate, the adequate was cursed, And you savaged every etiquette that ever came first. You went from courtly minuet to something like a fist — And every wall you knocked apart is where the rest of us exist. [Pre-Chorus | riser | organ climbing | double kick building] They said the man has lost his mind. The man had lost his ears. He's fine. [Chorus | full band | sustained held notes | Energy: High] Wake up, wake up, the strings are on fire, Wake up, wake up, they wired the lyre, Two hundred years and the hall's still shaking — Ludwig, the world's still awake and it's aching. Wake up. [Instrumental Break | Part one, 152 BPM: guitar and Hammond organ trade four-bar phrases in strict call and response, the organ answering each guitar run with the same figure inverted, double kick relentless beneath. Part two: sweep-picked arpeggios ascending through a diminished sequence, four passes, each starting a third higher than the last, rhythm section locked and driving, no melody, pure velocity. Part three: everything drops to unaccompanied guitar in free time, a cadenza of tapped legato runs and wide vibrato building in speed and intensity, no drums, no bass. Part four: the band crashes back in on the downbeat at half speed, guitar holding one long sustained bend over a full Phrygian dominant chord, organ at full volume, crash cymbals. Energy: High] [Verse 3 | 3/4 | tempo drops abruptly | clean guitar with long delay | organ playing a slow chorale beneath | brushed drums | vocal close and reverent | Energy: Low] They buried you in weather, and a city came to stand, Twenty thousand gathered for a stranger with a hand That shook and wrote and shook again through everything it lost, And you never knew the number, and you never knew the cost. There's a page they found in Vienna where the ink went through the sheet — You pressed so hard the paper tore. You never heard a beat. [Bridge | free time | unaccompanied electric guitar | vocal entering close and reverent over a sustained note | Energy: Building] I know you'd hate it. I know you'd call it noise. I know exactly what you'd say about the boys With the wire and the current and the six strings in a row — And then you'd sit down at the front. And you would not go. [Build | 4/4 | rhythm section slamming back | ascending harmonic minor sequence climbing each pass | double kick building | orchestral tom fills | Energy: Building] It's the same four notes. It's the same short fury. It's the same man knocking. It's the same damn door. [Final Chorus | largest arrangement | guitar and organ in unison | highest sustained bend of the piece | Energy: High] Wake up, wake up, the strings are on fire, Wake up, wake up, we wired the lyre, Two hundred years and the hall's still shaking — Ludwig, the world you couldn't hear is still awake. Wake up. [Outro | full band final statement of the main theme | grand and unhurried | ending on a sustained A harmonic minor chord | long decay]
