Stan McDaniel's Images of Dune for orchestra and chorus

Return to Music Page
NOTE: A demo CD of this music is available from the composer

The RealAudio excerpt is from an electronic realization of the score and represents the introductory passage just prior to the entrance of the Chorus.

The original version of Images of Dune was written in 1978 for that year's OCTOCON science fiction convention honoring Frank Herbert, author of Dune. On that occasion the composition was performed by the Sonoma State University symphony orchestra conducted by David Sloss. The original included a few lines of text from Dune, performed by a small chorus of university students. The current orchestration, for a larger orchestra and chorus, was completed in October 2001, following on a request from the Sonoma Valley Chorale for a composition designed for a choir of over 100 voices. The composition is now twice as long as the original and includes a longer text taken from both Dune and Dune Messiah.

General structure of the composition Although only the introductory measures are in the excerpt above, the pattern of the entire piece goes as follows: After an introductory passage that presents the main thematic material for the composition, the chorus enters dramatically, singing some statements made by Paul, the main character of Dune, about his nature as "a net in the web of time" and "a moving membrane, from whom no possibility can escape." Next comes a very dynamic, almost abandoned, passage where the focus of the text is Paul's riding of the Sandworm. A transition leads from this passage to a different theme altogether describing the female element in the Dune series, and finally the chorus returns to sing of Paul's messiah-like qualities as the "Golden Stranger" who "strides through the long cavern of time."