Let Us Assemble!

Christopher Tin's album, Calling All Dawns (you can read about it on his website and listen to it here), is without a doubt, my favorite collection of songs every composed. It's a "classical crossover" album, which essentially means at its core it's classical, but is composed in such a way that it is more accessible to the common listener than a Tchaikovsky symphony. Each song on the album is sung in a different language and has musical influences from that language's respective culture. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra plays in every song, but because each song is in a different language, the singing group varies from song to song, making each number that much more unique and special.

Before singling out a specific song, it's important to note that the album is split into three movements: day, night, and dawn. Each movement also corresponds with a different phase of life as well: life, death, and rebirth, respectively. And while there are technically 12 songs on the album, the album itself acts as a single song, because each song transitions seamlessly into the next. The steady stream of music reflects the cyclical nature of the day-night cycle, and also life itself: it goes from the musically varied day cycle, with all the complexities of life represented by each individual chord, to the slow, sorrowful night cycle, to the exuberant and triumphant dawn cycle, and then ends on the same chord that the album started on, bringing everything full circle. Tin strove to create a musical representation of humanity and life in Calling All Dawns, and he succeeded.

There is one song on the album that is a personal favorite of mine, however, and that is the final song in the movement of the day, "Rassemblons-Nous", or "Let Us Assemble". "Rassemblons-Nous" is written in French, and is one of only two songs on the albums with original lyrics (the other original being the Portugese "Se É Pra Vir Que Venha", and the rest of the songs' lyrics being adopted from traditional texts such as the Torah, Bhagavad Gita, and cultural proverbs) and is musically interesting in a lot of ways, but that will have to come later. You can find a full translation of the song on Tin's website. You have to scroll down to Calling All Dawns and then click lyrics. He also was kind enough to write a bit about the inspiration for the song as well as some of what it means. If scrolling around Tin's simple website seems like too much, though, you can also find a translation here, though there's a little discrepancy in the translation, so I suggest sucking it up and checking out Tin's website.

The lyrics are simple and straightforward -- the speaker doesn't use metaphors, similes, or any obscure literary technique to try to illustrate some sort of symbolic message. I believe that that is completely intentional. The song itself was inspired by the French Revolution and the 2005 riots, both of which were notable for being started by the French masses. By using simple language, the song reflects the grassroots nature of both of these social movements, and the idea that freedom and equality are for everyone, even the common man. So, the song is easy to understand regardless of education: the best plan for progress is unity. "Our thousand faces/ on one screen/ to declare/ with a single voice/ we mustn't yield/ we mustn't disappear". It's pretty hard to misinterpret its literal meaning.

Christopher Tin, however, is a clever little man, and his song has a double meaning. When looking at the song from a historically tinted lens, the lyrics tell the listener how to properly hold a revolution. But he never specifically references any historical event or political institution -- instead, the song is just about gathering to face some nameless evil or opposition. This is where knowing the context of the album is helpful. "Rassemblons-Nous" is the last song of the day, and, consequently, life. The album is illustrating the transition from day to night, life to death, and "Rassemblons-Nous" shows that people aren't willing to succumb to death without a fight. This is where his diction gets fun. The only reference he makes to what the people are assembling against is "deepest darkness", which, while simple, has a bunch of different angles that it can be approached from. The most apparent meaning is night itself -- the album is transitioning to the movement of the night, and "darkness" foreshadows that. Darkness, however, is also associated with death, especially when referred to as "deepest darkness", because you can't get much darker than death. Additionally, darkness itself is confusing -- you can't see when it's dark, so by creating that image, Tin is able to create a sense of chaos and fear of the unknown. The people are uniting against death, and "Despite my fear/ of giving up/ I go forward/ to rise up/ at the moment/ of truth/ we mustn't yield/ we mustn't disappear".

Christopher Tin shows how unified all of humanity is in the face of death. The entire song is a call to arms for everyone, people "From foul prisons/ from nameless cities/ from sacred rooms/ in silver towers/ on every front/ all at once/ let us sound the wake-up call/ in constant struggle/ our voices unite/ our steps are sounding/ behind the scenes/ with neither fear nor hate/ these coming days/ let us take the stage". Everyone is equal in death, and that equality trumps any arbitrary form of inequality created by society. The speaker is constantly talking to the masses, using "us" language, which helps create this sense of unity. Whether you're a prisoner or a priest, you're called upon to march against death, to show that humanity is strong and will fight and will unite no matter how bleak or inevitable the future seems. The simplicity of the language applies here as well -- everyone needs to hear this call, so it must be straight forward.

I know this post is already long, but I wouldn't be doing this song justice if I didn't at least touch a little bit on how the song's composition enhances the meaning. There are at least two compositional traits of the song that I think are essential to understanding the true meaning of the song: the use of more modern, pop instruments like the drum set in conjunction with the orchestra and the use of tense sounding chords followed by resolutions.

The most unique part of "Rassemblons-Nous" from a sound standpoint is the use of modern mixing and instrumentation. The song starts with a remixed type of sound from the orchestra, which signals a change in tone for the album as it starts to transition to the movement of the night. The drum set starts out as a soft tapping in the background, keeping the pulse going, but then grows into a heavy, driving force that comes close to dominating the song. It gives a constant feeling of forward motion, almost as if the listener is getting pushed against their will. They're heavy, and certainly not joyful, but they're not aggressive either. They just march forward, and there is nothing that can stop them, just like death.

In the song, there is a constant feeling of tug and pull. Many of the chords in the song sound minor, tense, and foreboding, but just as you think you have the song figured out, he resolves it to something that's major and uplifting. This is Tin's way of illustrating the story he tells in his lyrics through his music: a frightening darkness is approaching, but there is some sense of hope as we unify under our humanity and face it together. The song ends with an aggressive minor, tense sound crescendos into a triumphant sounding major chord, marking victory in some form for humanity. The song ends with a soft brass call that fades into nothingness, signaling that, although the day has ended, there is still hope for an eventual dawn, an eventual rebirth.

I highly recommend this album.