Star Tower
Star Tower is a song about a man who, searching for wisdom, seeks vainly to find it in creation rather than in the Creator. But the man encounters Christ and learns of God's plan of love and salvation not only for everyone but for him in particular, causing a conversion of heart.
Star Tower has a long and winding history, but before I elaborate, I would like to make one thing quite clear: None of my music, including Star Tower, is AI-generated. I write or improvise every note. But I am not necessarily anti-AI in every respect. In particular, since I am currently unable to find a singer, I use Synth V to achieve vocals. But Synth V only plays music I have personally written. In other words, there is, in my view, a huge difference between having AI write my music and having it perform a vocal line I composed myself. The latter is akin to using a VST instrument.
For the record, I am against AI-generated music. Quite apart from the question of whether or not AI is capable of generating good music, I think there is something perverse about letting AI take over the creative process.
Now, a little about the curious history of Star Tower. About seven years ago, I released most of the tracks on my debut album Christendom Reborn, including a track entitled Teutonic Knights.
All the tracks on Christendom Reborn are guitar instrumentals, and I think Christendom Reborn is indeed a strong guitar instrumental album. Quite apart from my own preferences, certain songs seemed to resonate with listeners more than others. One song that received unusually positive feedback was Teutonic Knights. This feedback, combined with the absolutely awesome Vivaldi-inspired solo section, prompted me to revisit Teutonic Knights.
After listening to the track again, I felt I had a very solid guitar instrumental; but increasingly I wanted to write guitar-centric music with vocals. Therefore, I decided to reforge Teutonic Knights with vocals.
After some digging, I unearthed the original sheet music for Teutonic Knights. Back when I wrote the score, I was in the habit of working at a feverish pace, and I recall writing the score and recording the track in the space of a few days. Because I worked so quickly in those days, the score was more of a skeleton wherein many sections merely suggested a general idea rather than specifying every note. The exception was the Vivaldi-inspired solo, which was written in great detail.
I began fleshing out the score, relearning parts, and re-recording Teutonic Knights. But something funny happened. Quite naturally, without any foreknowledge on my part, “Star Tower” began to emerge from my reforging of Teutonic Knights!
I really liked the changes, so I kept going—and the result is Star Tower, an entirely different and unique song that nevertheless bears a family resemblance to its ancestor, Teutonic Knights.
One of my musical heroes, Antonio Vivaldi, was a master at recycling material and even reworking old ideas into entirely new pieces, and I am quite happy to adopt a similar modus operandi.