ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marcus Lund lives in Oakland, CA, where he is an MFA student at Mills College. His work has appeared in 34th Parallel, Boneshaker: A Bicycle Almanac, and Xenith Magazine, among others.

A Sinfonia do Circo

By Marcus Lund


Movement One: The Volcano

Key: There is no key signature, only chromatic cluster chords.

This movement is measured in geological time. What occurs takes billions of years. It begins with one tectonic plate rubbing against another. They do this for some time, before one eventually slips down. It decides that its role is to pull conduction heat from the Earth's core. The plate on top agrees and so they move into their respective positions.

They continue to slide against each other, one below the other, and heat flows to the Earth's surface. 

Land masses are formed and forgotten all within days due to the geological time scale. 

Soon, the Earth's core becomes too hot, and the orchestra performs the crescendo of geothermic activity. Lava rock slowly moves to the surface, where it is quickly cooled by the ocean's waters. Volcanoes appear overnight. Nine of them in all. 

The orchestra quiets. All that can be heard is the sound of the bow of one tectonic plate sliding across the strings of the other. Soon we hear the soft sound of rock boiling out of the nine volcanoes and cooling on the Earth's surface. It is faint. To the untrained ear nothing can be heard. We hear it build slowly until all of the nine volcanoes play together, and soon, the theme emerges. The two tectonic plates rub against each other and the nine volcanoes continue their melody. The audience is finally given the full picture when the orchestra, comprised of one earth, two tectonic plates, nine volcanoes, one ocean's waters and one dense atmosphere reveal one Volcano, colossal in size, surrounded by a green island dotted with brown.



Published December 2011