DESCRIPTION:
Devotion
Original music by Dan Musselman
Half of proceeds from CD sales go to Feed My Starving Children: www.fmsc.org

Dan Musselman: Piano
Zach Schmidt: Drums
Andrew Foreman: Bass

From danmusselman.com:

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the sky and the earth.

Genesis begins with the creation of the world, as we know it. And so, my musical representation of Genesis begins with a big bang, or sorts. From there, I present the first appearance of God's theme. This theme appears in every movement of Devotion, as God is omnipresent.

Genesis 2:2
By the seventh day God finished the work he had been doing, so he rested from all his work.
I couldn't help myself here; I sure did put in a section in 7, with a rest on that 7th beat. This is certainly a well-known verse, and the Sabbath (a day of rest) was an incredibly important idea to the followers of the Old Testament.

The story of Genesis is ultimately about how God promises us a perfect life with Him, yet people manage to ruin it almost every step of the way. There is the original sin of Adam and Eve, which forever casts a shadow of suffering and imperfection in humanity, which leads to Cain killing his brother Abel, and Joseph's brothers selling him in to slavery because of extreme jealousy. However, God promised them/us a way out of that existence through the descendants of Abraham, and He gives humanity eternal optimism through those promises.
Musically, Genesis alternates between the hope and optimism that God provides with the perpetual missteps and failures by humanity. Positive, hopeful themes are surprisingly turned dark (humans' sins), and negative, darker themes are flipped around to inspire positivity (God offering redemption through his promises). The piano solo, about 4/5ths through the piece, also provides a sneak peak into God's ultimate promise -- the promise of a savior, Jesus. Jesus' theme makes a quick appearance, although that will be more fully developed in Luke. The music ends with a final statement of God's theme, representing his eternal nature.

Please visit www.danmusselman.com for more information.