Impressions of a Day - 6th Movement (Part 2)

Written in 1985, 1989 and 1990 / Recorded in 1990

In the video version, 6th Movement is divided into two parts. However, the original demo recording was consistently written under a principle that each Movement basically accommodates three deferent ingredients, and the same principle is applied to this 6th Movement as well. The reason why I divided this Movement into two video parts is, on one hand, I thought the total running time of the whole work is too long to be featured in a single video and, on the other hand, I wanted to expose the intro section of the part two video in the most effective way. Anyway, in the original scheme, the following three ingredients were assigned to the 6th Movement: i) drinking in a pub, ii) a girl and iii) new morning. Among these, Part Two of the video version only covers the third ingredient, ‘new morning’.

Having said that, yet this ‘new morning’ section can be also divided into three different elements and the first elements of them can be further divided in three, as it could be described as following with video counter’s time indication:

The first element 0:00-4:02

(0:00-2:33, 2:33-3:30 and 3:30-4:02)

The second element 4:02-5:51

The third element 5:51-7:01

The first element starts with the ‘synthesizer fanfare’, which signifies the transition from the ‘ii) a girl’ section to the final section and its first division describes the impressions of after midnight for about two and a half minutes. This division is all about thriving side of a night out consists of impressions such as dance floors, girls, mirror balls, lights are flashing and so on, which may involve potential violence and dangers that are represented by insertion of the images of a flashing knife blade in the dark. Where euphoric temptation emphasised by alcohol and a threat to one’s life meets, you have to run. Run away from the danger, run into the dark or, perhaps more likely, run for seeking for something you’re not sure, in other words, run for nothing.

 

Dramatic ending of the thriving side (2:33) is followed by the quiet side performed by the acoustic guitar and a couple of pipes, which lasts for shortly shy for a minute. This is another reprise of the main theme presented in previous Movements, especially with the same arrangement in the 2nd Movement. The video simply captures a still picture of a tree in the night, which could make you think that you still have little more time to go before dawn, though you may have exhausted a bit. Where to go? What to look for? You halt for a while, before the tree, and take time for reflecting the whole impressions of a day so far.

Having gone through the two opposite sides of a night out, here comes a small conclusion that starts from 3:30, bringing back the image of wobbly stairs from the previous Movement. Now is the time where you make a decision if you climb up the stairs or not. Going up the stairs simply means to go back to your normality whilst as long as you stay there at the bottom of the stairs, you can still pursue the world currently you belong. As everybody knows, nothing lasts forever and nobody can remain in the drunkenness of the night forever. If you dare to choose the latter, you have to prepare for taking its consequence (actually, this philosophical theme was the core issue for the original work I had failed to complete in the previous year). Needless to say, the video only shows the former option, to climb up the wobbly stairs.

The second element, 4:02-5:51, is all about dawning; transitional moment between the time of darkness filled with mysterious ingredients and the time of normality and – perhaps mostly – of boredom. Needless to say, this part is a reprise of the 1st Movement in a different arrangement. In the video, I used a couple of photos taken by one of my friends, who is quite good at getting up early in the morning and loves to take pictures of dawning skies. To be honest, getting up early in the morning is the last thing I am good at.

The third element 5:51-7:01 is also a reprise of the 1st Movement featuring different guitar arrangement, which has the common theme with the second section of this 6th Movement titled ‘ii) a girl’, replacing the dark theme of the 1st Movement. This implies a subtle difference between the previous day and the new day with knowledge of ‘a girl’ you might have come across during the night out. Obviously this final element represents the impression of another brand new day, where you would start your day with your personal morning routines. There’s nothing new under the Sun, therefore there’s no new theme presented in this section.