{"product_id":"hatzis-in-the-fire-of-conflict-sp-download-v-cro-digital-audio","title":"Hatzis-In the Fire of Conflict (SP+Download)-V\/Cro.\/Digital audio","description":"\u003ci\u003eIn the Fire of Conflict\u003c\/i\u003e is named after the theme for the 2008 Toronto Summer Music Festival for which it was composed. Set in two continuous movements, the live percussion part is performed with the rap music in the digital audio part, sourced from American rapper Steve Henry a.k.a. 'Bugsy H.', of the Christian rap group Poetik Disciples. The live percussion weaves constantly around the rap lyrics, often drawing melodic contours from the prosodic contours of the spoken text.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReflecting on this commission, the composer writes: 'I was becoming very concerned with the rise of gun violence in recent years in Toronto, my home city, but also with the constant rise of violence around the world in either organized conflicts, such as war, or spontaneous eruptions, exacerbated no doubt by food shortages, global warming and demographic explosion particularly in areas where daily survival is most difficult, and by the diminishing hope among the majority of people alive today that our current way of life can continue in its present form indefinitely.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Although my own spiritual focus has always been on the incoming Aquarian eon, expected to be an eon of peace and spiritual enlightenment, I am also aware of the fact that we are still in the closing years of the Piscean age, the age of enantiodromia or conflict according to Carl Jung; that things will get worse before they get better…much worse; that there will come a time soon when our faith in God will be the only life vest that will protect us from drowning spiritually in the vast sea of hopelessness that surrounds us already. This is the story I wanted to tell through this work, but I wanted to say it not from the vantage point of spiritual certainty, but from the impenetrable darkness of someone struggling to stay afloat amidst this sea of hopelessness. As I was trying to determine how to enter and understand this state of mind, I remembered a visitor to my MySpace site a few months earlier, a American Christian rap group called Poetik Disciples.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'I have always been fascinated by the prosodic rhythmic discourse of hip-hop music, but certainly not by its implicit endorsement of misogyny and violence that one so often encounters in hip-hop lyrics. Poetik Disciples used the same musical techniques to essentially create devotional songs and that was very inspirational to me. I contacted the leader of the group, Steve Henry, who, as it turned out, had experienced personally the \"bottom of the well\" by way of gang violence, loss and incarceration, and asked him if he could help me with this project. A few days later he sent me some rap tracks which he created for this specific project and I knew then that my work would be very much emanating from his specific material which has been incorporated into the accompanying audio playback component of the piece.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Text:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI can't smoke this away\u003cbr\u003eI can't ease this pain\u003cbr\u003eIt's dark,\u003cbr\u003eI can't see my hands in front of my face\u003cbr\u003eI turn around to face this invisible crowd.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeen stuck in one place for too long\u003cbr\u003eCan't move on\u003cbr\u003eAll these places and faces\u003cbr\u003eErase the friend in me\u003cbr\u003eNow I'm on my knees\u003cbr\u003eLord Please\u003cbr\u003eRescue me\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI can't see, it's dark\u003cbr\u003eI see a flame spark\u003cbr\u003eI can't think. All I hear is dogs barking\u003cbr\u003eI can't take the conflict.\u003cbr\u003eI can't take the violence.\u003cbr\u003eI can't take this blasphemy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI can't see, it's dark\u003cbr\u003eI see a flame spark\u003cbr\u003eI can't think. All I hear is these dogs;\u003cbr\u003eThey're barking and digging for my soul.\u003cbr\u003eOnto destruction I fall.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor me they set this trap\u003cbr\u003eAlong this dark path.\u003cbr\u003eConfusion and persecution:\u003cbr\u003e\"Nothing left to luck?\" I ask.\u003cbr\u003eOut 'f the belly of this flame, I call Your Name.\u003cbr\u003eIn the Fire of Conflict I call Your Name.","brand":"Theodore Presser","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43805246881846,"sku":"PE108","price":38.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0563\/3055\/1350\/files\/hatzis-in-the-fire-of-conflict-sp-download-v-cro-digital-audio.jpg?v=1783454782","url":"https:\/\/www.steveweissmusic.mom\/products\/hatzis-in-the-fire-of-conflict-sp-download-v-cro-digital-audio","provider":"Steve Weiss Music","version":"1.0","type":"link"}