flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion (2 toms - low & high, 4 suspended cymbals - China, crash, sizzle, splash, plastic - loud & “crispy” sounding) - 8’

Score - 8.5 x 11 (landscape) / Parts - 8.5 x 11 (portrait)

To order a physical hard copy of the score, please contact me

I try to keep the prices low, but if you are interested in a score but are not in a financial place to afford the listed price, please contact me and I will be happy to discuss other options.

As described by Aleister Crowley, Choronzon (pronounced Kō-rōn-zōn) is an ancient demon that destroys the ego and is the last great obstacle in the Abyss between the adept and enlightenment. More generally it represents dispersion, corruption, impotence, malice, restriction, and death. In his book The Vision and the Voice, Crowley describes Choronzon as follows:

The name of the Dweller in the Abyss is Choronzon, but he is not really an individual. The Abyss is empty of being;
it is filled with all possible forms, each equally inane, each therefore evil in the only true sense of the word—that is, meaningless but malignant, in so far as it craves to become real. These forms swirl senselessly into haphazard heaps
like dust devils, and each such chance aggregation asserts itself to be an individual and shrieks, "I am I!" though aware
all the time that its elements have no true bond; so that the slightest disturbance dissipates the delusion just as a horseman, meeting a dust devil, brings it in showers of sand to the earth.

I was fascinated by the idea of the demon trying to become something when it is nothing – a being that is not actually a being but craves to be, despite knowing that it never can be, and its constant effort to exist anyway. In Choronzon: Dweller of the Abyss, I hope to abstractly represent the demon trying to assert itself, but failing. The performers are required to shout “I AM I” in various forms at key moments. These build up to unison moments of false assertion, which are quickly dispersed again.

Choronzon: Dweller of the Abyss was commissioned by the Boston-based ensemble, Soundry, and was completed on May 10, 2015.