JJTownleyComposer

I found myself outside the remnants of a graveyard. I say remnants because most of the tombstones and monuments were crooked or pushed over and in a remarkable degree of decay. A crumbling archway with a rusty half-opened gate beckoned me enter the ruins, which I did despite misgivings. On entering the scene immediately transformed. The oppressive atmosphere I'd felt outside the gate gave way to an astonishing array of evocative images within. I looked straight ahead and a young girl with flaming red hair framed in a dark frayed reddish hood stood before me. She glanced in my direction and then turned her back to me as something caught her eye. Floating down a stairway made of splintered pine logs littered with dead leaves were the whitish forms of four translucent girls dressed in what appeared to be shrouds. But what startled me as I watched their garments sway in the wind was that below those ragged knee-length shrouds...I could see no legs. The spectral figure at the front of this curious parade had pale flowing hair and was, to my gaze, startlingly beautiful. As she reached the bottom of the stairs she leaned casually on a broken wood fence and began to stare at the Red Riding Hood girl. Red Riding Hood, not demurring, matched her gaze. This standoff went on for several minutes with neither flinching. At the top of the stairs stood the ruins of a dilapidated mansion ringed in flames. The wraiths descending the stairs might have been fleeing the structure for all I knew, though they didn't seem alarmed. On the contrary their hollow white eyes were somehow calm, even indifferent to the drama playing out above them. But I had no time to dwell on all this for at that moment the spirit leaning on the fence caught sight of me. I gasped. My eyes locked with her whitish orbs and I feared that in an instant she would be upon me. I took a step backward and past under the archway to the outside of this peculiar graveyard and immediately everything was as it had been before I entered. I was alone once again. The animated scene I'd been privy to moments earlier had vanished. The wind whistled a sad ghostly waltz. I immediately felt alone and abandoned. What had those visions done to my mind, I thought. Now, against everything rational within me, I found myself wanting to become a part of what I had just witnessed. I didn't care if reentering the graveyard meant losing my life. I'd have a life in death with these mysterious seductive specters. I stepped forward, passed through the gate and once more everything was as I'd left it. My eyes fastened on the beautiful phantasmal girl still at the fence and again our eyes joined. This time I did not waver. With my stare I invited her to approach and she did. Let her do to me whatever she wanted. I welcomed it... Full orchestral score available to view/download on IMSLP International Music Library's website at the link below: https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Townl... 1. Waltzing for Eternity 0:00 2. A Sad Vampires' Waltz 3:13 3. Boy Loves Ghostly Girl 7:20 4. Waltzing With Spirits 9:46 5. Le Cirque des Spectres (Circus of Ghosts) 12:33 1. Waltzing for Eternity A decaying castle with its ballroom draped in dust, tattered window coverings and worn antique furniture. A bell tolls the midnight hour. Dark rhythms stir the spirits from their slumber and beckon them to the ballroom. They glide down the staircase, pair, and begin to move around the great room, swirling to the strains of a melancholy valse triste. Dawn's first rays peek just above the horizon. Shards of sunlight steal through the torn drapes and creep across the ballroom floor. As lingering strains of the waltz ebb the specters bow to their partners and then fade, awaiting the next stroke of midnight when dark rhythms will once again summon them from their eternal abode. 2. A Sad Vampires' Waltz 3:13 This short tone poem tells the story of 3 undead Mistresses of the night, Felina, Diabulus, and Alquimia who inhabit a deserted 9th century castle that sit atop a desolate plateau overlooking the steppes of Anatolia, where the infamous Silk Road winds its way from the Orient to Europe. They have inhabited this long-forgotten citadel for four-hundred years. The sun has set; it is twilight. A bell tolls the approaching night. 3. Boy Loves Ghostly Girl 7:20 A lonely boy falls in love with the spirit of a beautiful dead girl who comes to console him. 4. Waltzing for Eternity 9:46 A sumptuous ballroom. Humans whirl arm-in-arm to the strains of a ghostly waltz. A clarinet plays the spectral theme. An English Horn takes over with a new theme as unbeknownst to the dancers the music has summoned spirits from the beyond who join in the festivities. Humans and spirits swirl and spin side by side as both themes are combined. 5. Le Cirque des Spectres (Circus of Ghosts) 12:33 A spectral carnival passes through a small village and entertains its inhabitants with all sorts of ghostly haunts.