meditations on moloch

[opening: distant city noise, slowly becoming rhythm] [percussion: metallic ticks, factory-like, irregular at first] [bass: low descending four-note ostinato] [choir: breath only, no words] [spoken whisper, many voices] “who did this?” [answering whisper, more voices] “no one.” [low brass: enters on a flat, brutal chord] [drums: slow march, kick like machinery] [solo voice: restrained] “the farmer burns the forest the merchant salts the sea the king builds higher towers and calls the shadow peace” [second voice] “the worker feeds the furnace the priest blesses the flame the child inherits ashes and no one bears the name” [choir: soft, relentless] “moloch, moloch not a face, but a game moloch, moloch not a hand, but a frame” [percussion: chains and clock ticks layered with snare] [strings: tense repeated notes] [bass: ostinato grows louder] [verse 2: ensemble, each line a different character] “i only kept my station” “i only served the law” “i only met the market” “i only named what i saw” “i only fed my children” “i only paid my due” “i only did what all would do” “if all were trapped there too” [choir: rising] “brick upon brick breath upon breath choice upon choice building death” [chorus: full, terrifying but beautiful] “moloch is the answer when no one chose the prayer moloch is the altar built from everyone’s despair moloch is the city where the gates are open wide and every soul is free to run but no one can step outside” [interlude: 4 bars] [square lead: distorted, plays a broken carnival-like melody] [brass: responds with descending doom chords] [drums: shift into faster 7/8 pulse, unstable] [choir: whispers fragments: “race,” “price,” “rank,” “fear,” “yield”] [bridge: sudden thinning to solo piano and ticking] [solo voice: almost tender] “i thought evil would arrive with eyes with teeth, with crown, with will but it came as ordinary things that ordinary people built” [alto voice] “it came as cheaper” [tenor voice] “came as faster” [baritone] “came as safer” [soprano] “came as more” [ensemble: tightening] “and every door we opened was another bolted door” [drums: return, larger] [choir: counterpoint begins, different lines overlapping] [choir layer 1] “who will stop first?” [choir layer 2] “who will pay more?” [choir layer 3] “who will stand down?” [choir layer 4] “who will lose the war?” [full ensemble: harsh] “not me, not me, not me, not me” [brass: giant hit] [organ/synth: enters with cathedral-like weight] [chorus reprise: more urgent] “moloch is the answer when no one chose the prayer moloch is the altar built from everyone’s despair moloch is the city where the gates are open wide and every soul is free to run but no one can step outside” [breakdown: percussion drops to heartbeat and ticking] [children’s chorus: distant, horrifyingly calm] “will there be gardens? will there be dawn? will there be stories when the old world is gone?” [adult choir: unable to answer at first] [long pause] [solo voice: from “shut up and do the impossible” energy, but quieter] “then someone must break the pattern someone must pay the cost someone must become the reason not everything is lost” [ensemble: not triumphant yet] “not by wishing not by purity not by naming the flame but by changing the rules of the game” [build: drums and brass gather] [strings: ascending against the descending bass] [choir: splits between doom ostinato and hope motif] [final section: conflict of motifs] [low voices: repeat] “moloch, moloch, not a face, but a game” [high voices: rising above] “change the game, change the game” [full cast: nearly shouting] “if the altar was built it can be broken if the law was made it can be spoken if the race is death then bar the gate if the price is blood then change the weight” [climax: huge brass, choir, industrial drums] “no god of ash no throne of gears no sacred right to eat the years” [ending: everything cuts except bass ostinato] [bass: descending four notes, slower each time] [choir: whisper] “not a face” [pause] “a game.” [final sound: metallic tick stops abruptly]