Procession of the Nameless Queen (2019)

Instrumentation: Oboe (or Flute), Contrabassoon, & Piano

Difficulty: Medium Advanced

Duration: 8’

Performance Materials: $30

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Commissioned by Jared Aragòn, Dr. Tracy Carr, and Susan Nigro

“…for I cannot forget Carcosa where black stars hang in the heavens; where the shadows of men’s thoughts lengthen in the afternoon, when the twin suns sink into the lake of Hali; and my mind will bear forever the memory of the Pallid Mask. I pray God will curse the writer, as the writer has cursed the world with this beautiful, stupendous creation, terrible in its simplicity, irresistible in its truth - a world which now trembles before the King in Yellow.”

-Robert W. Chambers,

The Repairer of Reputations

Procession of the Nameless Queen (originally titled The King in Yellow) is rooted in my love of the cosmic horror genre. Initially conceived as a direct companion piece to the aforementioned work by Robert W. Chambers (a precursor to Lovecraft), in my mind it’s become more a tribute to the subgenre in general. Since writing it, I’ve read a LOT more cosmic horror, from contemporary giants like John Langan and Laird Barron to the weird fiction of Robert Aickman and Karl Edward Wagner (The River of Night’s Dreaming Wagner’s own contribution to the King in Yellow mythos, incidentally), to the pornographic Lovecraft splatter pastiches of Edward Lee, I’ve read it all. And I love it all.

So, I’ve begun constructing my own cosmology in my mind, and The Nameless Queen is a figure not unlike The King in Yellow - an ancient figure ruling over an empty city, but my own interpretation.

This piece was originally written for Jared Aragón, Tracy Carr, and Susan Nigro, and sadly a series of unfortunate events (COVID lockdowns among them) meant the piece would never be performed by the original trio. Cursed? perhaps.

However, the opportunity arose for a modified version swapping oboe for flute to be performed at IDRS in 2024 by the Tucson Duo Project: Mindi Acosta, Cassandra Bendickson, and Meily Mendez. The piece has finally been performed, so it seems the curse is broken. I’m very grateful to both trios, without whom it would not have been created, nor performed.