Dystopia and Music
Discover on this page how author Éric Monin conceived the music for the novel The Hymn of Truth.
“Finding myself in the shoes of my hero Daniel de Tastel, as he composes his Symphonic work in ten paintings, was one of the most powerful moments of my life: transforming the words of the novel into music. Isn’t this the quintessence of artistic creation?”
— Éric Monin
Compositional techniques: from Beethoven to Mahler
The musical journey of any budding composer always passes through the same stages: the study of the masters Bach, Beethoven and… It all depends, of course, on the style of music you want to create.
In Eric Monin’s case, it was Gustav Mahler, whose three-volume biography by Henry-Louis de la Grange (over 3,000 pages) he read avidly at the age of 20. He was totally captivated by the composer’s life, his works, his compositional techniques, his demented orchestration… And, above all, by the symphonies as a whole, which undeniably tell the story of the composer’s life. So the writer decided to go the other way round: tell the story of his hero’s life and graft onto it a symphonic score that would reveal the twists and turns of his existence, his quest for Knowledge, his emotions and his loves, just as Mahler did during the last years of his life for Alma, his wife.
The symphony is thus structurally based on the novel, and faithfully follows the story and its inflections. The composer uses Richard Wagner’s leitmotif technique: a theme, a musical idea, a chord represents a character, an emotion, a place. You can get an overview of some of the main themes at the beginning of the work (Source painting) in the slideshow below:
Some themes from Painting I (Source) of the symphony
Theme of Hymn of Truth (top left, flute) and theme of François’ death (middle right, English horn) Source, painting I, movement 1
Symphonic work in ten paintings
Theme of Gensia (top left, solo violin)
Source, painting I, movement 1
Symphonic work in ten paintings
Sophie’s theme in the minor mode (theme antecedent on the left, theme answer on the right)
Source, painting I, movement 3
Symphonic work in ten paintings
Clearing theme (on the top, bassoon) and Knowledge theme (on the middle, trumpet)
Source, painting I, movement 4
Symphonic work in ten paintings
Dies irae theme (top left, flute), left tunnel theme (middle bottom, full orchestra, marked as ff) and reminiscence from the third movement from the second symphony of Mahler (full orchestra, just after)
Source, painting I, movement 4
Symphonic work in ten paintings
Listen to movement 1 of painting I Source from Éric Monin’s Symphonic work in ten pictures
By purchasing the novel The Hymn of Truth, you’ll have exclusive access to the entire symphony, free of charge!
