At the Mountains of Madness, Op. 4 (2022)

Program notes:
This work is heavily based on the story At the Mountains of Madness by Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Major spoilers for the story follow.
The piece begins by depicting the barren Antarctic landscape. Low strings depict the desolation of the land in C minor, but the music quickly modulates to E and C major with the “Terra Australis” theme. The flute solo represents Professor Dyer’s reported “bizarre musical whistling or piping over a wide range,” at first believed to be the wind, but later revealed to be the speech of the alien Elder Things. At the end of the prologue, the flute plays the four notes C - E - A - F♯, heard throughout the piece as the “Tekeli-li” motif. In “Lake’s Discovery,” we first hear the explorers’ theme in 4/4 time, played by the double reeds and heavy brass. The music then modulates again from C to E major, and we hear the contrasting Elder Things’ theme in 5/4 time, representing the unearthing of the Elder Things by Professor Lake and his men. The weather then begins to worsen, and Dyer loses contact with Lake. He fears the worst, and leads his men to Lake’s camp. There, the explorers find that every scientist at Lake’s camp has been killed, and all suspect the Elder Things to be the perpetrators. At this point in the piece, we hear the explorers’ theme, this time in F minor, with the three flutes again representing the piping wind. Closing out this section is a reiteration of the Terra Australis theme, portraying the destruction brought forth by the world’s largest desert.
The chapter “Crossing the Mountains,” reminiscent of Strauss or Wagner, depicts the moment when Professor Dyer and the student Danforth cross a gigantic barrier mountain range in their airplane. The music, set in E♭ Mixolydian, builds to a climax in which the listener anticipates a culmination in A♭ major. However, expectations are subverted as we hear the Elder Things’ theme not in A♭ but in C major, as Dyer and Danforth finally reach the other side of the mountains and see the vast, abandoned City of the Elder Things. This apotheosis is the nearest we get to optimism throughout the entire piece, although amazement may be a better word. The music subsides as the plane lands and the two men begin to explore the city. The explorers’ theme is heard again, this time in 5/4, alternating with a more eerie theme played on the strings. Eventually, as the two men learn more about the Elder Things and their civilization, they grow more and more uneasy, and the second theme dominates. Near the end of this chapter, the note C is sounded on the timpani twice. This anticipates the appearance of the monstrous shoggoth. As the explorers descend into a natural tunnel, they grow more and more unsettled, but carry on until they discover the bodies of several Elder Things in the abyss. We now hear the Elder Things’ theme again for the first time in a minor key, followed by a setting of the Terra Australis theme, which is very similar to the ending of Tragedy at Lake’s Camp. This represents Dyer’s change in perspective regarding the Elder Things - previously he thought of them as dangerous and potentially evil monsters, but, upon seeing them for the first time in this state, he realizes they too were innocent, inquisitive beings, terrified of the horrific shoggoth.
As the two explorers realize that it was the shoggoth who murdered the Elder Things, the monster itself appears. We hear the Shoggoth motif several more times on the timpani, followed by a grotesque scene in which the shoggoth chases the men out of the abyss and back to their airplane. Following this is a dissonant section, yet more calm than the previous chase sequence. But as Dyer flies the plane back to camp, Danforth looks back to the city. What he sees may only be a mirage, but this final sight is enough to make him go mad. In the Epilogue, we hear pieces of the opening low string theme before the piece ends squarely in C minor. When the band of explorers leaves the southern continent, not a single one of them is better off. A dozen men and several Elder Things are dead, Danforth is sent to a mental institution, and the surviving explorers have to live with forbidden knowledge, to which no human should ever be exposed.
0:00 Title cards
0:09 Prologue - Terra Australis
2:03 Lake's Discovery
3:41 The Windstorm
4:30 Tragedy at Lake's Camp
6:26 Crossing the Mountains
7:48 The City of the Elder Things
8:47 On the Plateau
10:36 Into the Abyss
11:16 Whatever they had been, they were Men!
12:25 The Shoggoth
13:39 The Return Journey (The Madness of Danforth)
15:36 Epilogue - Terra Australis
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