Malacoda Symphony by Robert J Velasco (ASCAP)

Описание: Cantos 21-23 of the Inferno, where he and the Malebranche torment sinners submerged in boiling pitch.

Yesterday, at a time five hours from now, completed a thousand, two hundred and sixty-six years since the road here was broken. In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself within a dark woods where the straight way was lost- From there we came outside and saw the stars... Because your question searches for deep meaning, I shall explain in simple words... But the stars that marked our starting fall away, We must go deeper into greater pain, for it is not permitted that we stay.

Love, which quickly arrests the gentle heart,
Seized him with my beautiful form
That was taken from me, in a manner which still grieves me.

Love, which pardons no beloved from loving,
took me so strongly with delight in him
That, as you see, it still abandons me not...

There is no greater sorrow then to recall our times of joy in wretchedness... Through me you go into a city of weeping; through me you go into eternal pain; through me you go amongst the lost people... The poets leave hell and again behold the stars.

Movements

I. Malacoda
A clear indication of a deceptive and trecherous path, Malacoda, The leader of the Malebranche, a group of devils who guard the fifth bolgia of the eighth circle of Hell, Malebolge. His name, roughly translated, means "evil tail". He led Dante and Virgil through the bolgia, though he deliberately misled them about the bridges to the next circle.
II. Minos
A more heartbreaking look into an extremely misanthropic setting. Minos, in Inferno, became a judge of the dead. A monstrous creature who determines which circle of Hell a sould would be sent. All souls have to be judged someday. One way or another.
III. Acheron
A victorious battle theme, Acheron servers as a physical boundary between the living realm and the realm of the dead, a vestibule where the uncommited reside. A river. The river of woe and pain. Although triumphant, there is always a signifcant cost in victory.
IV. The Whispering Cold Of A Silenced Night
There is nothing more alluring than that which is what could have been. A past more longed for, although they long for what they fear. A despair given from family, love, and care. A final act of love, leaving a fracture. Looking back, there was a time where I would rewrite the stars just to find my way back to you.
V. Apocrypha
An eerie shift, something off, sacriligious even. Hidden from the public, too sacred for general access. The term 'Apocrypha' in itself means hidden. All good devils masquerade under the light.
VI. Malebranche
Originally written in 2020 as the second movement of the very first 'Malacoda Symphony' concept. The tormentors of barrators. A name translating to "Evil Claws". Those who take pleasure in the tormentation of the damned, hell, even those who aren't. Malacoda, Scarmiglione, Barbariccia, Alinchino, Calcabrina, Cagnazzo, Libicocco, Draghignazzo, Ciriatto, Graffiacane, Farfarello, and Rubicante, and one more...
VII. Alchemical Antithesis
A confrontation of opposites, a volatile, unresolved duality. A refusal of unity and a fragment of corruption vs. purity and chaos vs. order. A philosophical poison disrupting the process of enlightenment or transmutation. The shadow self, or another necesarry inner conflict. A resistance of growth or healing, entropy in response to synthesis. The counteragent of creation.

Malacoda Symphony © 2025
Robert J Velasco (ASCAP)
VST / MuseSounds : Vienna Symphonic Library (Vienna Orchestra)