A poignant orchestral film soundtrack in the form of a Baroque adagio epitomizing the epic journey of each individual soul, featuring 2 flutes, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon, harp, and strings.

Erik-Peter Mortensen
Journey of the Spirit06:13

Share Buy Queue Read reviews Lyrics Add Watch

Dear friends and influencers! This is my 3rd newsletter, and in a fairly brief time on NM1 you have shown my music amazing love! I’ve added 6 new songs since the last latter, and thanks your amazing support, all of them have moved up drastically in the charts to join my first 12 primarily classically influenced tracks in the NY classical charts - and they all SWEPT chart positions 1-18! 14 are in the top 18 for global classical charts and all are in the top 30! As icing on the cake, 10 songs are in the top 20 in NY charts for all genres. :-) Here are the track names and chart positions for NY Classical - if you haven’t heard one of these, I’d be honored if you gave it a listen! 1. Journey of the Spirit 2. Dragon Song 3. Crusade of the Battledragons 4. Fugue in bm-Gilligan’s Island-Guitar Quartet 5. Techno’cally Baroq’en 6. Hero’s Quest 7. Magnificat Octavi Toni 8. Concerto in C for Harpsichord-Allegro 9. Jupiter and Europa 10. Nico’s Waltz 11. Divertimento in E 12. Tancredi Mourning at the Tomb of Clorinda * 13. Ingrediente Domino 14. A Stroll in the Garden with Amadeus * 15. Blue Skies * 16. Verleih uns Frieden * 17. Fughetta on a Theme by Harry Potter * 18. Transformation Adagio * Journey of the Spirit reaches #1 locally to globally for the first time! There’s a companion video which I created for this music to enhance it’s emotional intensity. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVDU5JoZ2ok Here’s the Description: Erik-Peter developed Journey of the Spirit as one of his assignments for Orchestration I, part of several courses needed to complete his Master Certificate in Orchestration for Film and TV offered by Berklee College of Music's online extension. The 8 bar melody first heard in the oboe was given to the class by our instructor, Pinar Tobrak, and written by Berklee professor Ben Newhouse. it was up to Mr. Mortensen to arrange it in some combination of woodwinds and strings. He took the melody and transformed it into a full adagio in the Baroque and Classical style, using similar motifs in the woodwinds to create transitions between subsequent statements of the theme by full strings and then solo flute. Starting small with harp ostinato and pizzicato bass, the music itself journeys through many transitions, key centers, and harmonic tensions while at the same time following all the principal rules of tonality. The hoped for effect is to represent the journey we each must take in life, where we are rarely at rest and constantly evolving, yet generally retain the same sense of self that we were born with. By the end of the journey, both spiritual, and in this case musical, we have hopefully attained a state of resolution and hope as the journey on earth comes to a conclusion, and more likely, a new beginning in the realm of the divine. Adagios "Adagio" was a tempo indication from Italian literally meaning "at ease" and thus Adagios have come to be performed in a leisurely manner. Many adagios range in expressivity from sorrowful to meditative to inspirational. Some famous adagio's that influenced Journey of the Spirit included Albinoni's Adagio, Bach's Air on a G String, and even Mozart's Laudate Dominum near the conclusion of the work. Orchestration 1st and 2nd Flutes Oboe English Horn Clarinet Bassoon Contrabassoon Harp Strings Realized and produced by Mr. Mortensen with various Orchestral Sample Libraries and the Cubase Digital Audio Workstation. The tracks with asterisks were newly added since my last newsletter: Tancredi Mouring at the Tomb of Clorinda: This is a tragic opera aria I wrote and hope to place in a feature film for a director friend of mine! I selected a famous Italian poem by Giaches de Werte on the anguish of Tancredi, a knight who slays his beloved Clorinda (another knight) in battle without realizing it. In this poem, he laments at her tomb. Below is the text and a possible English Translation! Giunto alla tomba (prima parte) Giunto alla tomba, ov’’ al suo spirto vivo Dolorosa prigion il ciel prescrisse, Di color, di calor, di moto privo, Già freddo marmo al marmo il volto affisse. Al fin sgorgando un lagrimoso rivo, In un languido ohimè, proruppe e disse: ““O sasso amato tanto, amaro tanto, Che dentr’’ hai le mie fiamm’’ e fuor il pianto””. Tasso, Gerusalemme liberata, XII/9697 Arrived at the tomb, where heaven had prescribed A grievous prison for his living spirit, Bereft of color, warmth, and movement, Like cold marble he set his visage on the marble tomb. At last, disgorging a river of tears, He have vent to a languid ““alas,”” and said: ““O stone so beloved, so bitter, That has my passion within, my lamentation without.”” A Stroll in the Garden with Amadeus: For Week 2 of my Film Scoring Class at Berlkeemusic.com, we were given a deleted scene from "Sense and Sensibility" starring Hugh Grant to score with our own alternate versions. This is based on Jane Austin's novel and is set in 1790's England, so I came up with two versions for this scene. This is the classical period romantic setting I came up with in the style of Mozart. Here’s the deleted scene from “Sense and Sensibility” with this tune as the underscore :-) https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=8GYVuSOB_ak Blue Skies: Blue Skies is to be part of a larger collection called "Fantasy Realms". As the name implies, the tracks for this collection embrace a wide variety of musical styles to evoke a collective consciousness (or subconsciousness) in the listener that is ageless, mythical, transcendent and heroic, and at the same time deeply personal, even divine. With lyrics contributed by singer/songwriter Phil Robinson, this track is a mixture of Flamenco, Gregorian Chant, the Latin Rhumba, the Film Western, the Chamber Orchestra, Pop and a variety of other styles. The "blue skies" imagery throughout can be seen as a state of mind which the hero, and perhaps each of us, strives for in our journey through life for knowledge and self-realization. To reinforce this journey and longing, Erik-Peter also added the Latin text below to the chant-like background vocals to evoke the primal call each of us makes at one point or another to a cosmic, redeeming power. Lyrics I woke up this morning in the middle of a dream Of how my life and how my love would be I saw progress made, foundations laid, and goals and dreams achieved And through it all, a voice was calling me But I woke to a bitter world of pain and memory, I'm hurt and lost and aching all the time As I push forward everyday in my struggle to be free It feels much better just to be outside... (With) Blue skies all around me Blue skies, on my own Blue skies, come surround me Blue skies, (come) take me home So many times it saddens me, the differences between Who I am and who I want to be I search for something beautiful that's lost in memory In the rays of light that stream out through the trees I'm looking for the missing words to a promise I must keep That I'll be the man I know that I can be And someday, I pray, I'm gonna find that missing key Someday, I'm gonna find the key Blue skies all around me Blue skies, on my own Blue skies, come surround me Blue skies, (come) take me home (With my) Blue skies all around me Blue skies, on my own Blue skies, please surround me Blue skies, (come) take me home Latin Text (sung by chorus) Rorate coeli (or Rorate Caeli), from the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 45:8) in the Vulgate, are the opening words of a text used in Catholic and, less frequently, Protestant liturgy. It is also known as The Advent Prose or by the first words of its English translation, "Drop down ye heavens from above." It is used frequently sung as a plainsong at Mass and in the Divine Office during Advent. where it gives expression to the longings of Patriarchs and Prophets, and symbolically of the Church, for the coming of the Messiah. Throughout Advent it occurs daily as the versicle and response after the hymn at Vespers. ℣ Rorate coeli desuper et nubes pluant justum (Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just) Verleih uns Frieden: An a cappella motet I wrote in a High Renaissance style on a famous prayer in German (“Grant us peace in our Day” - boy do we need it). German text Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich, Herr Gott, zu unsern Zeiten. Es ist doch ja kein andrer nicht, der für uns könnte streiten, denn du, unser Gott, alleine. English translation In these our days so perilous, Lord, peace in mercy send us; No God but thee can fight for us, No God but thee defend us; Thou our only God and Saviour. Close Fughetta on a Theme by Harry Potter As the name implies, this tune was given to us for a weekly assignment at Berkleemusic.com for Orchestration II. The goal was to take the tune and orchestrate it with simple instruments and then full orchestra. I took it to the next level and created a complete fughetta on this famous and popular tune! :-) Transformation Adagio This is a score I wrote to support my friend Nena Tahil’s slide show based on transforming her own abstract paintings into circular evolving “mandala” images (a little like the kaleidoscope effect). Just as her images morph and evolve, the theme I constructed also evolves from very simple to quite complex orchestration, a favorite technique used in the famous “Palchabel’s Canon”. Here’s the video “Imagery Transformation” with the music I created: https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=Ghqf-W_YJpU I plan to keep adding at least 1 or 2 tracks every week for your enjoyment and I'm always excited to receive feedback from you so I encourage you to send me a note on anything you'd like to talk about! I promise I'll do my best to respond to every message. :-) God Bless and Happy Listening! EP