Discords of Melkor

First Movement

Quote: “….the biggest case he argued never got written down in the books, for he argued it against the devil, nip and tuck and no holds barred. And this is the way I used to hear it told.” The Devil and Daniel Webster by Stephen Vincent Benet, The Saturday Evening Post (October 24, 1936)

Daniel Webster VI felt anger mixed with fear and panic after he scanned the audience. Sara Moore was here, all the way from Chicago! This meant that anyone that counted in the music industry, knew of this. Damn that University of Wisconsin professor. Give the guy a mid-rate dinner and a few beers and he spills like a wet paper sack. “I should have known better and moved faster. Who else was here?” Daniel scanned the audience. Then he saw another one!

“Oh God, there’s that guy from A.S.C.A.P and he probably is moonlighting as a scout for someone big besides. I hate that back stabbing prick,” he mumbled to himself. Daniel looked the audience over further. That woman in the fourth row looked familiar. She probably was from the industry as well. Oh yes, now Daniel remembered. He met her before. She was from Disney or someone huge like that, here all the way from California. “Why don’t we just organize a tailgate party after the event? Oh God, Sara just recognized me and she had the temerity to wave.” Time to do the false, diplomat thing and act like she was his best friend in the world.

Daniel got up to go and to talk to her. There was enough time before the concert started and who knows what information he might be able to pick up? Then Daniel noticed someone else in the audience. “Crap, there is that tactless promoter from New York, (doesn’t believe in personal body space). This is going to become WWIII before it is all over,” he thought to himself as he headed toward the competition with a fake smile. As he walked he noticed several industry people that he hadn’t identified before. They saw him, saw where he was headed and got up to join the fun. “Looks like all of the generals are gathering under a truce flag to share insults before the multi-army battle at Armageddon” he thought to himself while smiling and waving. “There will be blood up to the height of a horse’s bridle before all is done” he reflected sadly behind his grin.

The Susanna Wesley Auditorium in George Whitefield Hall, a part of G.M.C. (Georgia Methodist College) in Asbury, Georgia, is your usual big auditorium found in most colleges. The school is located in the gorgeous hills of northern Georgia, not far from North Carolina. Tonight’s event was sold out, not a seat left, and the college must have hired additional security because this was going to get crowded. The security force was beginning to show in numbers which meant that the college leadership was worried. This was a small, religious school that usually had “hot” events like the Beekeeping Institute and their related convention. Now, through no fault of their own, they would be the debut location of all people, HER.

The crowd soon to be descending upon the tranquil little campus like an incoming swarm of locusts from a prophet’s curse had all come, largely only informed by word of mouth. Everyone that mattered in the musical recording and performance industry were going to be here to see HER. What would happen when the regular News got ahold of this?

“Did you see them,” Sara wanted to know when Dan got close enough?

“See who?”

“The network satellite trucks pulling up!”

It was then that Dan realized that this all might be bigger than he could handle, which was a major admission for a guy like Daniel. His heart sank, and here he thought that he had the treasure of the ages all to himself. What to do?

Daniel watched as other industry insiders started showing up to this impromptu music expert’s convention. His competition were kids Daniel grudgingly admitted. He was the old guy here which brought up a good question. Why was he still in this game? With all of the incoming competition showing up in the huddle, Sara was conveniently distracted. That gave Daniel time to think. He wasn’t the identifiable leader in this industry because he just went along with the flow. Daniel had an idea! He smiled at the thought that old age and treachery always beats out youth and enthusiasm. Daniel acted as if his phone just buzzed and lied to anyone who was listening in. “Got a call, I’ll be right back.” Sara heard him and nodded though right at the time she was hugging the California lady. (It was generally known throughout the industry that they despised each other.)

As soon as Daniel could find a semi-private place he swore into his phone like a mullah that just had climbed all of the way up to the top of the minaret and realized that he forgot his bull horn. “…and Traci, I want you on the next plane down here….what…I don’t care what it costs….yeah…yeah call that private plane guy. I like it, maybe I can somehow grab HER and put HER on the plane before anyone else realizes it. Good! Do it now!” He turned his phone off and shook his head. If he pulled this one off, he ought to retire. But, this type of find only happened once in a life time and to be honest, Daniel relished the challenge. He walked out of the building to think and set strategy. Daniel watched the satellite trucks setting up in the open green space next to the George Whitefield Fine Arts Building to a college facilities guy’s great dismay. Daniel’s phone buzzed. It was his assistant!

“What are you calling me for Traci? You are supposed to be getting us a plane!”

“Dan, stop yelling at me and I got you one better.”

“Huh?” Daniel didn’t know if he should object to his assistant’s rebellion or find out what she meant.

“I got you one better Dan!”

“What do you mean?”

“We got a helicopter and I am working on getting permission for it to land somewhere on that little college campus of yours!”

“Wow, all that already? Traci, I owe you my life!”

“Dan, I don’t want your wretched life. Give me a big raise instead.”

“If we pull this off, you will get your raise, I promise.”

“I want the raise whether or not we pull this off.”

To think, Daniel got out of the lawyer business into this because he hated the stress of being a lawyer.

Daniel needed an office. He was staging warfare in the battle of Tel Megiddo here after all. The John Wesley Chapel was just across the auditorium parking lot and somewhat hidden in a cluster of trees. Even if this was a religious college, if the building was unlocked it wouldn’t be in use because it was a chapel. Daniel smiled at the funny thought that religious school chapels often are the least used buildings on campus.

Thankfully the chapel’s main entrance was unlocked. The red brick historic building with large wooden pews, huge windows and a stage in the front was a gorgeous place to contemplate the higher ideas of theology, (that queen of Sciences). The front stage of the chapel also coincidentally was a fantastic place for Daniel to spread out his stuff. After scouting it out, Daniel ran back out to his car to get his equipment. From largely being abandoned about two hours ago when Daniel pulled into the George Whitefield Hall parking lot, the place was absolute chaos now. People were ignoring the gesturing college students in glow in the dark, green, parking lot attendant vests, and often simply just parking on grass over the student’s objections. Daniel hurried back through the mayhem with multiple bags strapped to him. He found an outlet to plug his power strip in on the chapel stage. It was as Daniel was unfolding his work table and pulling his carefully packed electronics out that a voice came from the back chapel pews. Daniel jumped as if shot. He’d been so busy that he didn’t see the guy sitting in the back. Then again, he should have seen him when he had come in. How did he miss him?

“Daniel, did you ever hear of the Mississippi crossroads at Dockery Plantation?”

“Uh…no?”  Daniel looked at the guy.

The guy was dressed all in black but when he smiled, he had the pearliest white teeth. The guy stood up from the pew. When he got up he was shaking his head.

“See, they don’t even know their own classics, let alone other cultures. I’ve seen it all before.”

The guy was tall, very tall. Lifelong training helped Daniel keep his wits. “Do I know you?”

“Yes you do.”

“I do?  H-mm, what’s your name?” Something primal bothered Daniel about this guy.

“Well, I have many names but I guess, around here they call me Scratch.”

“Scratch?”

“Yes sir”, by now the creepy guy had gotten to the stage. The man was big, at least seven feet tall. He had giant hands.

Daniel looked him over. “Sir, I don’t recognize you.”

“Oh I know that! You wrote a whole, idiotic paper in college on my non-existence.”

“Your non-existence?”

“Yes, entitled no less, An Argument Against the Existence of a Biblical Devil, yet behold, here I am!”

“What, are you kidding?”

“Kidding? Kidding the fruit fly asks me. No Daniel Webster VI, I am not…kidding…as you say.”

“Yeah, and how do you know my name?”

The guy held out his huge hand to shake Daniel’s, “because sir, I am also known as Lucifer and therefore know you quite well.”

Daniel refused the hand. “Get the hell away from me man!”

The guy smiled with his pearly teeth and slowly retracted his outstretched hand. “Interesting choice of words” was all that he said. Daniel suspected that his teeth were sharpened but he couldn’t tell for sure.

Daniel looked at him from his place of partially set up equipment and said nothing.

“Well”, the guy said, “it looks like I have a concert to catch. It is my client’s debut after all.”

“Wait”, Daniel felt a sinking heart. “She is your client?”

The guy stopped as he was headed down the chapel isle, “Oh yes, signed, sealed and delivered.”

“You are bluffing,” Daniel almost yelled.

“Oh no,” the big guy turned to face Daniel. “Though I am known to lie, torture the truth, accuse baselessly, hurt little children and kittens, etc., in this case it is the truth.”

“Stop that crap,” Daniel growled.

The guy in black laughed and it nearly set Daniel’s hair at end. “Look for yourself.”

What looked like orderly blocks of words but written on thin air appeared in his hand. The big guy gave them to Daniel. At first Daniel didn’t know how to receive them but the words felt like they were on a paper scroll. Daniel just couldn’t see the paper so he dumbly unrolled the thing. He stared at the glowing words written on thin air before he snapped out of his daze. Daniel tried to read them.

It was a contract of sorts. The “scroll” was signed by HER and also someone named Abaddon-Great Red Dragon and Prince of this World. Daniel looked at the big guy.

“Your special effects are astounding. This has got to be the best business counter ploy that I ever saw.”

“Oh, it is,” was the smug answer.

Daniel looked at the words floating in the air. This was a really good trick. Then he smiled. “My God wouldn’t have a Devil in his world so I needn’t worry about your imagery here do I?” The big guy smiled knowingly. He seemed to be smiling much.

“Your God is imaginary so it doesn’t matter. In the real world, I obviously exist so yes you do need to worry.” The big guy grabbed the “contract” back from Daniel. It disappeared in the big guy’s hand. Daniel was too dazed to answer. The big guy’s eyes glinted evil. “This really is only an amendment. I actually have a source document from way back that already claims HER. Oh, and I have one on you as well!”

“Get away from me!”

“Ah, I am going anyway. I really love HER music you know. Do you know that music in general is an expertise of mine?”

The guy got up from where he had seated himself on the edge of the chapel stage and left the building. Only then did Daniel realize that he had been shivering cold. For no reason at all, Daniel thought of the "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by Vassar Clements and the Charlie Daniels Band. Why did he think that?

The devil went down to Georgia
He was lookin' for a soul to steal
He was in a bind
'Cause he was way behind
And he was willin' to make a deal

When he came upon this young man
Sawin' on a fiddle and playin' it hot
And the devil jumped
Up on a hickory stump
And said, "boy, let me tell you what!

Even as the music echoed in Daniel’s brain he pondered.

“What to do? Was this guy serious?”

Daniel began to determinately set up his field office. “What to do? What to do?”

The violin 1st chair stood stiffly and with authority. Her long blond hair was carefully combed out, making a statement about her beauty and her outlook of life in general. Everyone in the orchestra knew that she deserved this position of respect and extreme responsibilities because she was very good at what she did and worked damned hard to get there. The Chinese foreign student sitting with the rows of violins knew that she wanted, no, she needed to reach that position someday. So she decided right then and there that she had to get up another hour earlier to practice even more.

The first chair nodded. As always, the oboe played the “A” for the very necessary orchestra tuning. The entire orchestra set themselves by it. “Hum-m-m” all the instruments spoke as aligned by the oboe. They were somewhat in order but also somewhat discordant. Though people were still coming in, the huge audience was silent, waiting expectantly. The first chair wasn’t satisfied and nodded at the oboe player. A second “A” clearly echoed in the auditorium. Now the orchestra’s answer was dead on. The first chair smiled and sat in her seat. This after all was “her” orchestra, well guided, ordered, and trained with no small effort from her.

The first chair tried not to look into the audience but she had seen him come in earlier. She gave in to her curiosity only momentarily and glanced. He was there. The first chair tried not to show her interest. He loved once but now lost it, she could just tell. Instinctively she knew that he was lonely and since her interests were not romantic, she had always refrained from starting a conversation due to giving the wrong impression. One day though, under the correct circumstances, she needed to find out more about him. One of the college undergrads once whispered that the old man once was a famous preacher but some unknown horrible series of events in his life forced him into retirement. Whatever the case, the old man always sat in the exact same place in the audience. He seemed somewhat on edge today like never before. Interesting! She moved her mind on though due to her first chair duties. Because of who the first chair was, she needed it to be known that her orchestra always played like the composer had intended and the work that they were about to perform was possibly the most difficult that she ever was challenged by in her life. Since she started playing violin when she was only three years old, she had been challenged by many works. Today’s concerto though, was hard. So was the soloist.

As the first chair sat straight back, with prescription correct posture, her mind chased after the thoughts she had been suppressing concerning…HER…the soloist. The first chair was almost certain that she had met HER before. It was during the first chair’s undergrad days up at the University of Wisconsin. Back then, today’s soloist was a nondescript, unenthusiastic, even bumbling violinist, if not the last chair in the college orchestra then certainly close to it. Back then SHE was more interested in parties not music. That was only a few years ago. Something obviously had changed in HER life. The one privately made recording of HER that the first chair was able to find, was indescribably good. The first chair really needed to figure out how SHE got the sound that SHE did from HER violin.

Over at the college chapel, Daniel stopped his desperate electronic equipment set up in mid flow. The creepy guy had said something, “Mississippi crossroads at Dockery Plantation.” Wait! Wasn’t that from old rock and roll lore where some guy that couldn’t play guitar, cut a deal with the Devil and became a highly accomplished guitarist overnight as a result? It probably all only was showmanship.

A chill went over the entire audience in The Susanna Wesley Auditorium. The first chair looked from the stage to see a guy walk in. He was huge and dressed all in black. The first chair followed him with her eyes as the big man walked along the main auditorium back wall as if he owned it. The spooky guy stopped to stand like a giant body guard near the main aisle. Then she noticed her elderly gentleman down in front. He was nearly totally turned around in his seat, staring at the big man that had just come in. What was all of this? Before the first chair could process it all, SHE walked onto the stage with the conductor. The first chair had never heard an audience clap as they did.

For uncertain reasons, the first chair thought of the tumult, the ecstasy, the striving, and the horror, of German crowds in the old videos of Adolf Hitler. Why did she think of that? The first chair noticed that the elderly gentleman turned facing forward again and for the first time that she could remember, their eyes met. There was horror in his eyes.

Second Movement

Quote: After Ilúvatar told them about the Music, the Ainur began to fashion it. Their voices, like the sound of harps and trumpets and choirs, passed "beyond hearing" into the depths and heights of sound. The great Music filled the Timeless Halls and passed beyond them even into the Void, so that it "was not void". The Ainur's flawless Music satisfied even Ilúvatar during this early stage. But soon, faults entered into the great Theme as a result of the discords of Melkor, an Ainu whose thoughts had become strange and unlike those of his brethren due to his wanderings in the Void. Ilúvatar had given the Ainur permission to weave their own ideas into the Music, but Melkor's thoughts actually clashed against Eru's Themes, because Melkor wanted to "increase the power and glory of the part assigned to himself".  (The Silmarillion), J. R. R. Tolkien.

At first the concerto sounded as if it was Bach, stately, orderly and majestic. As the piece progressed and the audience became accustomed to the beauty then SHE joined in. Her violin work was astonishing. With the soloist participating it seemed like the concerto moved to a more grandiose Tchaikovsky but then continued on into a Paganini like virtuoso style. HER incredible technical capabilities were obvious as a show off attitude began to increasingly come from HER. The beauty of it all kept the audience glued but the flow of the music brought noticeable tension into the crowd. Eventually the music was almost a cacophony with soloist and orchestra desperately striving against each other. Still, the entire work kept the audience glued, horrified but yet glued. The concerto was taxing the orchestra to their maximum. Several members were already sweating profusely. The first chair saw that her conductor was having severe difficulties. “Oh, God, it’s his heart again.” She had to do something. The terror now within the orchestra was almost thick enough to be touched.

In the midst of the music storm, the first chair did one of the bravest things that she ever did in her life. She got up with violin in hand and stepped next to her conductor. Per most orchestra’s protocol, it is the first violin’s duty to take over responsibilities when the conductor was unable to complete them. By now the conductor was pasty white, and obviously failing. He looked thankfully at the first chair and tried to hand her his baton. Out of confusion, the orchestra stopped playing and the audience gasped. SHE glared. SHE had been in mid flow of HER solo and was insulted by the interruption. The first chair bowed to the conductor, who bowed back and then he wearily sat in the first chair’s former seat with his baton in hand. The audience began to cheer which the soloist obviously didn’t like. They were cheering at someone other than HER after all.

When the first chair took control, still holding her violin, she used her violin’s bow to get the orchestra back on beat. Her orchestra, the one that she had poured loving training into, returned to this musical journey but now noticeably more assured of themselves. They had trained long with their first chair and had developed the musical muscles to trust in her. The soloist clearly didn’t like the change in events though. When SHE returned to the piece, the effect was like gorgeous, giant icicles hanging from a mountainside, endangering all passersby. The orchestra now had their eyes glued on their first chair as she used her violin to both direct and join them. The orchestra maintained their orderly, disciplined beauty in spite of the soloist’s icicles.

Though the first chair couldn’t see him, she distinctly could sense the supporting warmth shining from the elderly gentleman now directly behind her. She could also feel a deathly cold coming from that big guy in the back. The audience sat at the edge of their chairs because this was ending up into even more than they had expected, and they had come expecting much.

Back in the John Wesley chapel Daniel’s mind had difficulties dealing with realities as well. As his equipment picked up the astonishing music from the auditorium, his thoughts were tangled. For all of his professional and academic life he had been trained that there was only one reality, and here he sat, obviously at the portal of two worlds. It was a terrifying place to look for solid footing. His mind went back, way back to a children’s song from endless Sunday Schools ago and then his mind finally snapped into place. As Daniel hit the final system green buttons on his various electronic equipment he didn’t even wait for them to cycle up. With personal electronics also in hand still waiting to connect, Daniel ran from the chapel, through the chaotically crowded parking lot and into the Susanna Wesley Auditorium. During the run, a children’s song kept cycling in his mind.

“Shake, shake, shake, shake the devil off…..in the name of Jesus, shake the devil off!”

He ran into an auditorium filled with an astonished audience, many of them helplessly standing in awe, as two very accomplished violinists where having a dual. The orchestra was staring at one of them, the one standing at the conductor’s platform and keeping the background music going. Meanwhile, HER violin was almost smoking in competition with the conductor/ first violinist. Daniel saw him, that huge guy dressed in black, and headed fearlessly for him.

“Shake, shake, shake, shake the devil off…..in the name of Jesus, shake the devil off!”

The big guy was sweating, clearly things were not going his way in here. Daniel didn’t mince words when he got close enough.

“You know that everything that you have is unenforceable.”

“What, yes it is. SHE signed it!”

As the music battled it out behind them, the first chair and her orchestra’s ordered beauty against HER chaotic harmonies, it was Daniel’s turn to smile for once.

“Your documents are like a real estate property deed written in the 1920s not allowing blacks or Jews to own the place. It may be written down but it is void!”

“That is not true” the big guy snapped.

“Oh, now you are an expert on truth! You know very well that the cross, specifically Christ’s act on the cross, paid it all. You know it.”

“That is not the truth! At least it isn’t in HER case.”

“Yes it is, you know it, in everyone’s case!”

Suddenly the big guy straightened up, shocked. Daniel looked out into the audience. There was an old guy out there and he was standing and had his hands spread out. The big guy ran, he didn’t walk, he ran from the place. The old guy kept standing with outstretched hands as suddenly the soloist lost the battle. Suddenly HER violin playing became stumbling, even amateurish. After she tried to continue for a bit, she gave up and sadly sat down. From the chair SHE kept shaking HER head as if SHE was coming from a daze.

The orchestra led by their first chair moved into a version of Handel’s “Glory to God in the highest” from The Messiah. As the gorgeous music filled the auditorium Daniel heard his helicopter heading in and he ran to the stage to get the correct lady to fly out with it. His assistant would be confused but that was alright. Daniel smiled since he knew that his equipment recorded all of the concert so far. As for the original target of their attention, obviously she had talent but she needed to get her expertise the real way, by practicing. Any other accomplishment was at best, temporary. If she actually wanted to be good at this, she would need to unlearn some seriously bad habits as well. Then, she would need to compete with a few greatly motivated musicians, like the Chinese girl in the violin section. 

Revelation 12:7-9

 7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. (NIV)