Classical musician reacts -- THE DAY BEGINS -- The Moody Blues -- FIRST TIME LISTENING

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:01]Okay, Christina here to listen to some music and I'm so excited we get to start our next full album listening here on the channel. This one is by the Moody Blues, Days of Future Past. And today's song selection is because this is track number one, The Day Begins.

[00:00:24]I have already listened to one track from this album, but it was a live version only, and that was Nights and White Satin. It was a really great reaction. I mean, I had a good time with it. So, feel free to go back and watch that one if you want to. It's been a long time, and I have not gone back and listened to it for a while because I knew that this one, this album was on the horizon. So, here we are with this new day on the horizon. And again, how we do this, the full album of listening is I don't do the whole album all the way through all at once. I do it one track at a time. Sometimes more than one track. Just depends how many tracks there are on the album. If they're a whole bunch, I might group some together. Or if they're really important and they segue, I might do that as well.

[00:01:02]But in general, it's just one track at a time with a day or so in between. And I go back and I listen to the tracks that I've heard so far and kind of put them together and just really get to know it.

[00:01:11]But it is all done in a short amount of time. So I do end up getting the entire full album experience. It's just in little bits. But that's kind of how my professional music brain puts things together anyway. we have to break things up in rehearsal and when we're helping our students learn their works, you know, you don't always get to do a runthrough of a piece. You have to sort of stop and start and then piece it all together. And then as a professional classically trained musician, instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, and professor, I am here to not just listen.

[00:01:40]I'm here to dive in and take a look at how this music was composed, the instrumentation, you know, all the instruments that were used. Maybe some chord analysis, music theory. I try to throw in some instrument demos and of course, how do we relate to this music?

[00:01:55]Why do we like it so much? Or maybe why do we not like it? So again, I am super excited about this one. I've heard a lot of great things and I'm just getting to know this group. So we've got a lot to learn. Oh, don't forget to like and subscribe and all that stuff, too. And not all the tracks for the full albums are released publicly. So you can find anything that's not released publicly on Patreon or available for channel members. Okay, so no more delay. Let's listen.

[00:02:23]Okay, here we go. All right, this is really exciting. Brand new adventure here. Here we go.

[00:02:54]Heat.

[00:03:17]Heat.

[00:03:20]Heat. Heat.

[00:04:10]Okay. What the heck, guys?

[00:04:13]I think I have tears here. Like it it made me tear up a little bit. Um sometimes I sort of get tearary just with the excitement of something new, but like this tapped into some emotion there, some musical emotion.

[00:04:31]There's not a story attached to it other than beauty. Just the beauty of the beginning of this day. Oh my goodness.

[00:04:42]Okay. Uh that was a beautiful orchestral I'm assuming it's an introduction. It came to a pretty solid close there. Uh sort of with what we call a pigty third, which is I'm not sure if the entire thing was in minor key. basically when a piece of music is in a minor key the entire time and then the very last chord is a major happier chord. So, um there might have been some major moments in the whole intro, but it ended up like kind of landing in a minor place and then having that lovely major chord at the end. Nice little touch.

[00:05:26]Uh okay, it fooled me. I didn't think it was starting right away. Um, I thought there was something wrong with my headphones or something. I don't. And then I heard this uh buzz. There was a buzz and and then such beauty.

[00:05:47]The buzz was like um the first rays of sunlight coming across the horizon. I mean, of course, of course it is, but uh what a great choice for that sound.

[00:06:03]And then we have the orchestra, full orchestra, and I'm seeing that it's um the London Festival Orchestra conducted by Peter Knight.

[00:06:15]Excellent group, excellent writing, excellent instrumentation. It was gorgeous. couple of moments of um light-heartedness almost like uh almost a couple of bluesy sort of lines just interjected just slightly. I I'm guessing that that sort of leaves the door open for Styles to come for the rest of the piece or the album. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Okay, y'all.

[00:06:47]All right, I'm going to back it up just a little bit.

[00:06:50]I'd like to hear the whole thing again, but I we need to keep going. Okay, I could just listen to that over and over. We We need to keep going, but I want to back up just a little and catch the end of this and then hear whatever we're transitioning into. I don't know. Here we go.

[00:07:58]Hey, what Heat. Heat.

[00:08:29]Heat. Heat.

[00:08:58]Heat.

[00:09:15]Heat.

[00:09:35]Okay. Um, we're heading into um a bigger section orchestrally here. So, um, I want to comment on the next section.

[00:09:48]I Okay. Okay. Well, first of all, overall, I just can't I just um I'm speechless. Um I was told that there were instrumental tracks, but I didn't I didn't I didn't know this. Okay. I didn't know it was going to be like this. This is fantastic. Um Okay. So the next little section where it came to close and it wasn't necessarily a pigty third now that I go back and hear it. It almost was but it was more like just a suspension and a resolution um into a major chord but close enough.

[00:10:26]So uh the next section was so cute and light. Lots of off the string d.

[00:10:34]Um we call that staccato or spiccato.

[00:10:37]And I just I I picture little little free creatures running around um waking up for the day, even maybe little bugs, ants, little things running around. But then it transitioned into something more romantic.

[00:10:56]So maybe first our attention is drawn to the sky because you know this amazing ball of fire that comes up in our sky every day. Uh you know it's the sky but then everything wakes up and so we're sort of earthbound a little bit but now it's like we're sort of drawn back up like oh yeah the heavens are still there. So maybe we see the creatures of the sky, the birds flying, maybe kind of along with our imaginations, you know. Um that's sort of what life is all about, right? Is a balance between being grounded and our imaginations, you know, and somewhere in between there is where creativity and happiness lies. So, um, wow, there's just a lot in this. So, the more romantic part that came in, I loved how the harp was used as the transitionary tool to sort of ease us in and out of these little sections. But then when the strings took over and there were some gorgeous lines in there, uh, and then the horns, the brass section in general, but especially the French horns, they took it over. Um, might have been some traumat in there, too. But gorgeous lines, amazing goosebumps all around. And there were also some moments of more of a feeling of a quick three, like one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. So, sort of dance-like. Lots of energy. So, in this morning that we're waking up, we've had a really great night's sleep and we've got a lot to look forward to in the day. So, we have a lot of energy building here. Okay. So, I'll back it up again and we'll sort of get into this romantic part. Um the more soaring part here and here the the horns possibly blossom again. And then where are we going? Are there words in this? Is it all instrumental? I don't know.

[00:13:18]Heat.

[00:13:37]Heat.

[00:14:02]coldhearted orb that rules the night removes the colors from our sight.

[00:14:10]Red is gray and yellow white, but we decide which is right.

[00:14:14]>> Okay. Okay. So, we do have some words and it's a reading. Um, okay. I am remembering that with nice and white satin that there is um a reading uh element afterwards that was that I I did not get to experience in in the reaction I did to the live performance, but I'm going to on the album, I think. So, I'm very much looking forward to that. If it's like this, that's going to be really really great. Um, okay.

[00:14:45]Loved that little motif that came back that that little and and it was handed off. I I I remember hearing bits and pieces of it previously, but it really sort of stabilized into that little motif, that little theme, and heard it in the strings like in the cellos. It was great. And then some of the woodwinds took it and then it it slowed down. There was a a rando that really took it into this next section with these words. So I I will go and look up what these lyrics are are in in a moment. Like I'm going to get through the end of the piece here. So far I'm able to hear it though. I'm able to hear the words very clearly. Lovely reading. Lovely voice. lovely accent.

[00:15:35]I'm not sure who that is, but um so far just in the the few lines that I've heard of that reading, the instruments behind it are really really cool. So, we had another I did this because I was hearing another harp transition. It was a really unusual one. It was almost like the strings were plucked in uh like in a harmonic or something where you just that's where you lightly touch a string and it doesn't fully ring. you just kind of hear the overtones and uh but then I heard little well it was talking about actually colorless moments but there were colors being added with some of the instruments. So for instance I heard um a contrabassoon I believe or maybe it was a bass clarinet.

[00:16:23]I'll have to go back in here. I don't I'm just being so swept away with all of this that it's hard to keep track. Um, but that's okay. I don't mind. I don't mind at all. Here, I'm going to back up and see if we can get into the reading and I'll see if we can finish this out. It's just jam-packed. There's a lot going on here.

[00:16:46]Coldhearted orb that rules the night removes the colors from our sight.

[00:16:53]Red is gray and yellow white. But we decide which is right and which is an illusion.

[00:17:09]Pin brick holes in a colorless sky let incipid figures of light pass by.

[00:17:16]The mighty light of 10,000 suns challenges infinity and is soon gone.

[00:17:25]Nighttime to some a brief interlude to others the fear of solitude.

[00:17:33]Brave Helas, wake up your steeds. Bring the warmth the countryside needs.

[00:17:42]Heat up here.

[00:18:26]Oh my. Okay.

[00:18:35]All right.

[00:18:37]That's a little mini masterpiece.

[00:18:40]I am very taken by that to the end. It was really great.

[00:18:48]Um I don't know why I'm so overcome with the emotion, but I am.

[00:18:57]I think it's just because I really um appreciate the beauty in music obviously, but one of my favorite things is when I discover it in a place that I wasn't expecting.

[00:19:14]And I've had that happen a lot on the channel. And for those of you that have maybe seen a lot of my videos, uh you'll see when that happens where Not only is it a moment of beauty, and it normally would be, but it's a welcomed surprise for me, and I love that so much that it makes me even more emotional.

[00:19:42]So, I'm not just enjoying the beauty of this wonderful little moment of perfection here, but and remember, you don't have to be perfect, right? No, you just be okay.

[00:19:55]But this was just lovely. But I'm also just very happy to be so pleasantly surprised by it. And also, where the heck are we going?

[00:20:07]I just I I just didn't realize it was going to be like this. I just didn't.

[00:20:13]So, I'm very grateful. I am. So digging into this musically, there are certain forms of classical music that this sort of falls into. But again, I wasn't quite expecting it in this format, you know, on a progressive rock album. But maybe my assumptions need to change here. Mhm.

[00:20:37]Anyway, so for instance, like a symphonic poem, like a tone poem almost, that's one large work. So it's it's not quite as long as a full symphony would be, like a Beethoven symphony or brahm symphony.

[00:20:53]It's more like uh like maybe 15 to 20 minutes sometimes.

[00:20:59]And it does sort of tell a story. It can, but it's also more about bringing you into the mood of the story. And there aren't movements where you stop.

[00:21:11]It's all segue. It's all connected. And it just sort of paints a picture in one fell swoop. And so I sort of feel like that's how this one track was. It was like a little mini tone poem, but then actually had a poem at the end. It was beautiful. I loved the musical introjections that were in there behind as well. We heard um the violins playing two close tones way up high in the background kind of giving us a little sense of wonderment um almost uneasiness sometimes. And in the words I was hearing I I can't believe that I did I I said this before about how we have a choice. I was kind of saying that and I heard that the words say that that you know we can choose to look up or down basically.

[00:22:04]Um and there are things to observe in both places but you have to have a balance. And then they were talking about how the night sky basically can be observed as good or bad or relaxing or anxious. And so the music behind there uh all the the instrumentation behind it was definitely supporting that. And so with that, this also to me is like a soundtrack. And it's also very similar to what I reacted to recently on the channel. Well, not that recently, but in the last handful of months, the uh part one, the very opening, like the first third of um Rick Wakeakeman's Journey to the Center of the Earth. It's very similar to this. It's very similar, and I love it. I love this genre. Okay, so let's take a look at the words. I'm going to look these up really fast.

[00:22:55]Let's see.

[00:22:58]Coldhearted orb that rules the night.

[00:23:02]So, I'm assuming that's the moon removes the colors from our sight. Red is gray and yellow white, but we decide which is right and which is an illusion. Oh, I love that.

[00:23:18]Pin prick holes in a colorless sky.

[00:23:22]stars. Love that.

[00:23:25]Let incipid figures of light pass by.

[00:23:31]Is that incipid figures of light? Would that be shooting stars?

[00:23:37]Would that be did they have that many satellites and stuff? No, they wouldn't back 67.

[00:23:45]Or is it like the oscillating the oscillation of the stars? H the mighty light of 10,000 suns challenges infinity and is soon gone.

[00:23:58]Nighttime to some a brief interlude to others the fear of solitude.

[00:24:06]Brave Helios wake up your steeds bring the warmth the countryside needs. Wow.

[00:24:15]Okay.

[00:24:17]Fantastic.

[00:24:19]Who wrote this? Who wrote those words?

[00:24:23]Oh my goodness, they're fantastic.

[00:24:26]Did I Did I get the uh I I guess I guess I'm confused about what the incipid figures of light that are passing by. I'm not sure what that is. Challenges infinity.

[00:24:41]I guess the mighty light of 10,000 suns.

[00:24:43]So all the light from the stars is, you know, coming across all of the universe and then it's just gone from our view eventually. Okay.

[00:24:52]Musically, let's go back. So, I want to hear the beginning again. That weird sound. Was it orchestral or was it synthesized?

[00:25:12]Yeah. I'm not sure.

[00:25:19]It sounds almost like a roll on symbols.

[00:25:36]It it it it was so good. Okay. Um, it seemed like a role on symbols or tam tam or um or gong or something, but I feel like there was something else added to it. And that's okay. That's that's totally fine. But then when the orchestra comes in, it's just we hear all of the rolls, the scales.

[00:26:05]We we often call those runs.

[00:26:08]And then I think I'm hearing a risky technique in there where the Uh, that's with the brass, but I Let me just hear it again. I hear the strings possibly plucking underneath.

[00:26:26]I love that chord.

[00:26:33]Yeah, maybe. Oh, see some of those chords. That's what I was talking house like kind of jazzy bluesy kind of uh you know with some seventh chords in there.

[00:26:44]Um, so they'reumum.

[00:26:47]So, Ruspiggy does a sort of thing like with uh the pines of Rome, fountains of Rome, where the brass is playing or woodwinds together playing loudly, but then he has the strings plucking and it sort of gives an extra attack at the beginning of each of those uh brass or woodwin chords. Uh, there's just so much wonder here. Let's keep going.

[00:27:16]Great string line there.

[00:27:21]No, I didn't hear the the plucking with that with the brass that time. Oh, gorgeous. Love it. Yeah.

[00:27:40]Uh-huh.

[00:27:42]Yeah. So, that's where I was hearing some of the little jazzy kind of stuff in there with the little piano line in there. Um, it's a bit of romance and it's a bit of mystery definitely. But it definitely is just like to me it's it's soundtracks soundtracks.

[00:28:01]Soundtrack music. In fact, at one point later on, it started to remind me of the soundtrack to Ben her. Let's see if I can go forward and find that. And actually it was after that next section.

[00:28:14]So let's hear that next section.

[00:28:25]That could almost be ricochet.

[00:28:30]I don't know.

[00:28:33]It's so cute. I hear all the little critters. Don't you running around?

[00:28:38]Okay. So, I have to get the violin out here to demonstrate this. So, you could go um down, up, up, down, up, up, down. But we do this thing where it's ricochet. And basically, we throw the bow. So, so we're really throwing it down, and we just kind of control the bouncing. So, that might be what that bow stroke is.

[00:29:07]So it' start on an up sort of like that but really fast. Um because a little bit too fast.

[00:29:25]Yeah. So I'm I'm thinking that's ricochet there just from the string point of view. Um but it's so playful here. Let's keep going and see where this grows into as well.

[00:29:46]It's very classical here.

[00:29:51]Yeah.

[00:29:57]I don't think my violin is in tune with the recording.

[00:30:04]Little harp transition there.

[00:30:09]Oh, I love that.

[00:30:16]Oh, so pretty. I want to play along.

[00:30:18]Hang on. I'm going to back that up.

[00:30:40]Gorgeous.

[00:30:43]The clarinet takes it, but it changes a little bit.

[00:30:49]Okay. And so now this is the 34 part. It sounds more sort of renaissance like green sleeves.

[00:31:00]One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. I like the uh the glockenage feel at the at the top with the piccolo.

[00:31:12]Gorgeous. Oh, okay.

[00:31:15]That little motif right there. Do I recognize that from Nights and White Satin?

[00:31:23]Is this from the Nights and White Satin?

[00:31:28]I think it is. Oh my gosh. I think it is.

[00:31:34]Uh, okay. And so this part is kind of where I was thinking it sounded like Ben her.

[00:31:44]Ah, there's that theme, that motif.

[00:31:56]Love it.

[00:31:59]with the flute.

[00:32:06]Love it.

[00:32:09]Mhm. And the harp transition with the harmonics, >> coldhearted orb that rules the night.

[00:32:17]>> And then you hear the little violin sounds up the top. Those might be harmonics as well.

[00:32:30]And it's two notes together.

[00:32:33]So that weird little effect, I know John Williams likes to use that effect a lot.

[00:32:38]In fact, this little section right here sounds a lot like a John Williams score, doesn't it?

[00:32:44]>> Mhm.

[00:32:45]>> Remove the colors from our sight.

[00:32:47]>> It was bass.

[00:32:48]>> Red is gray and yellow white, >> but we decide which is right and which is an illusion.

[00:32:54]>> Mhm. The flute for the illusion. Ah, they're having a little conversation.

[00:32:59]Yep, we decide.

[00:33:02]Love that drill. Such a fast drill.

[00:33:04]>> Pin brick holes in a colorless sky. Let in figures light pass by.

[00:33:10]>> There's the light in the background. 10,000 >> challenges. Infinity is soon gone.

[00:33:17]>> The light from all of the distant suns.

[00:33:20]>> Nighttimes of the brief interlude >> to others. The fear of solitude.

[00:33:28]>> Brave Helas, wake up yours.

[00:33:31]>> Okay, so they didn't have two different themes for the two different viewpoints of nighttime. But that's okay. They just had sort of one sweeping gesture for both. But now with the Helios coming, >> bring the warmth.

[00:33:46]>> Here it comes. Here's the warmth.

[00:33:48]Gorgeous. Gorgeous.

[00:33:57]We have sort of a tremolo sort of.

[00:34:10]So it's sort of a slow tremolo.

[00:34:14]So tremolo is um when you do that really fast, but that's more like so it's more of a a measured more just like 16 one two. Okay. But I have to say that sounded like morning by Greek.

[00:34:38]That had to have been a little nod to that there. Like had to have been. But that's okay. It's okay to give nods.

[00:34:44]It's okay. And any comparisons that I do from any other composers, um, you know, the John Williams stuff, of course, that does not take away from any of this whatsoever because we all influence one another and it's all part it's all part of the journey.

[00:34:59]Okay, that was The Day Begins by the Moody Blues.

[00:35:06]Wasn't expecting that. Excellent.

[00:35:08]Pleasant surprise.

[00:35:10]I am just overjoyed with this and I cannot wait to see where we're headed.

[00:35:18]It I I'm not expecting the whole album to be orchestral like this. Um like not at all. If it is fine, but if it isn't fine, I mean I I just I can't wait. So, thank you to everyone who voted for this album. I did put a poll up on Patreon and for channel members to help me narrow down and just verify which full album I should do next cuz a few good ones had really had come up. I'm very glad that we went with this one. But I'm sure the others are also going to be very nice. But yeah, this was great.

[00:35:50]This was great. So, thank you everybody who voted for this one. So, the next track will be after this, you know, from the night into the very like the day breaks sort of thing. Um, let me just check my list. Oh, okay. Dawn.

[00:36:03]We're headed into dawn. All right. So, this is like daybreak into dawn. This is great. This is great. I love it. I love the concept. I love the orchestration.

[00:36:12]Okay. I'm so excited.

[00:36:16]It's going to be hard to wait to listen to these tracks, but you know, I'm going to stick with the process here. So, thanks for coming along with me. And as always, just remember that you don't have to be perfect. Just be okay and keep listening.