Have you ever wondered how a composer creates a sound world? Gustav takes you through his music from Acts, the 3-Man Show, to showcase the thoughts and the process. http://acts3manshow.com/

Background: Bryce Lenon was the author and co-producer of this live stage drama.

Pedro Eustache ( http://www.pedroflute.com/ ) plays the Duduk, John Hester plays the Double Bass 

Initial production was in 2011. Gustav takes you through how to create a story through music:

• evoke a setting:

  • timbre / instruments

• create momentum:

  • tempo

• identify a character:

  • Saul / Paul

  • Nero

  • the church

• Timbres of this music:

  • the church

  • rhythmic

  • underlayment

  • bell

  • strings

  • horns

  • duduk

  • harp

  • bass

  • choir

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Hope in the face of resistance - Enter the Kingdom

Pathos, regret, mourning  / moves into action - Saul

Energy and adventure - Bound for Rome

Grim determination - Unbending

taut energy - Rumble in Jerusalem

Dangerous unpredictability - Nero’s harp

Faith and redemption - Miserere

The story unfolds.  See if you can hear the tale through music...

1. Ancient Judea in Roman Palestine, full of intrigue and rebellion

2. Saul, an early bloody enemy of christians, is seized in transformation and the duduk becomes the aural avatar of his shame, remorse, and repentance

3. Saul now stands as one of the leaders of the new church and faces opposition in every city

4. Filled with hope, Saul heads beyond Asia Minor to Greece to bring the teachings of christianity to the European continent

5. Filled with determination Paul continues to press into resistance and violent opposition in every city.

6. Overtaken by an angry mob upon his return to Jerusalem in Judea, he is imprisoned and not lynched because, as a Roman citizen, he enjoys certain rights and privileges.

7. Having appealed to Caesar on the basis of these rights, he is sent to Rome to face an official hearing.

8. The court’s of Nero are filled with opulence, abundance, perversion, and terror.  The unpredictable Nero, thought to be half-insane, leaves those in his presence always on the edge of dire danger

9. Saul’s appeal has resulted in a death sentence. As a Roman, he will be beheaded.  This is the voices of the christians in Rome in hiding as he again lays bare his soul in repentance for being an enemy of Christ and his church. The choir intones a prayer of repentance that is punctuated by 7 tolls of a bell over their ‘Amen’ signifying that the church will continue long after Paul’s death.