Tarot! Tortuous Tarot! - Cory Band

'Tarot! Tortuous Tarot!" was the winning entry of the 2017 RWCMD Cory Band Composition Competition. The work is based on the reading of the mystic occult cards of the same name.

From the sixteenth century onwards Britain saw an increase in the number of Romany travellers arriving from Europe. With them came the practice of cartomancy: using ‘Tarot’ cards as a process of divination to gain insight into the past, present or future by posing a question to the cards.
Tarot cards were historically viewed with suspicion across
British society as an occult practice and the practice of card
reading was eventually banned by the Protestant and
Catholic church as an act deemed 'mystic, heretical, semiotic and hermeneutic'. Despite this, many would still seek out the Romany fortune tellers to know their fate.

The work opens with a haunting music box theme, setting the thematic material for the rest of the piece. The power of the cards suddenly erupts as the reading begins and, from this, the music follows the twists and turns of the prediction. As each card is revealed, a new variation and vision begins. We then finish with the inevitable, as the haunting music box theme returns one final time and, along with a faint heartbeat, solemnly slows to a stop.

As recorded on the CD "Art of Brass".
Full Album: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brass-Cory-B...