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Here be dragons
And so softly tread
Best not to wake them
Or you could wind up dead
Deep in her cave
Hoarding mountains of gold
a treasure beyond measure
so the legends have told
brave men or foolish
have all tried their hand
at gaining that fortune
to be king of the land
but all so far failed
burnt to a cinder
the fire of the dragon
did thus so render
so softly tread
let the dragons sleep
return to your fields
and tend to your sheep
You have been warned…
Here be dragons!
© 2020 Lance Harrison
When I was first involved with my Dodecahedron Experiment, where I was rolling a twelve-sided die to determine a random order of notes, I was amazed at how out of the chaos came such a melodic structure could appear. I began sharing my results with my friend Niall who exclaimed, “Here be dragons!” I looked up the phrase and found it to mean, “dangerous or unexplored territories, in imitation of a medieval practice of putting illustrations of dragons, sea monsters, and other mythological creatures on uncharted areas of maps where potential dangers were thought to exist.” This experiment was, at least for me, unexplored territory.
This triggered my imagination to create a scene where someone was guiding another through a mountain pass and warning them about the legendary dragon that lived nearby, recounting its history. The words just rolled out as the nearly complete lyrics within minutes, perfectly fitting the music I had constructed through the third set of experimental rolls.
This is a preview from the next album! Tentatively titles “SIX x 2” or “Chasing the Dragon”. What do you think?
