The Third Day, subtitled The Last Days Of Jesus, is a 177 page opera in 7 acts including 75 songs and no spoken text that switches freely from the time of Christ to present day and back with a vast array of historical characters and present day vocalists as well. All the songs are in lead sheet format with lyrics, melody and chord symbols that can be used by a director/conductor with a band comprised of vocalists with guitar, keyboard, bass and percussion. All the songs in the book are licensed with Christian Copyright International (CCLI) and have royalty numbers assigned to them for reports of usage worldwide in the catalog - The King's Court. The lyrics are available for download and church projection on a screen at ccli.com. I have no idea when the first idea for this opera, entitled "The Third Day", came into being, but the idea evolved over many years. The earliest song in this book dates back to about 1982, and I cannot begin to fathom the countless hours necessary to complete this project. I simply wrote the songs as morning mediations in cafes and eventually started grouping them together with themes. As in most of my music, these songs have been written and rewritten over decades before their final release.This opera is really more a collection of operas telling one long story because it far exceeds the duration in time possible for the performance of a single work. Therefore I chose the designation acts for the groupings of themes necessary to tell the story of the actual sequence as it occurred, as much as possible, concerning the account of the last days of Jesus. Each individual act could easily be given as a single performance, and released at different times in sequence to tell the whole story. Acts could also be combined into 3 performances especially during Easter week: Acts 1 & 2, Acts 3, 4 & 5, and Acts 6 & 7A large city opera house, I am sure, could accommodate this work with its use of stage props, and I believe it would be wonderful if it could be performed in a motion picture or a series of 3 as expressed above with actual historical settings and all the options available with audio video technology. This work could also be performed over a long duration of time, perhaps a year, as part of Sunday morning services. I leave you to your own imagination.This edition is designed specifically for guitarists, keyboard players and bass players who prefer a lead sheet format. The songs are arranged by following the layout of the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John with an effort to piece different renditions of the same story together as one single story. In some cases this was extremely difficult. I simply did my best.The scenes are given for each song and there are often sudden changes in time, for example, from the time of Jesus to present day and back. There are a great number of historical characters, present day vocalists as well as a storyteller(s), and many require well-trained operatic voices with a reasonably high range and well-trained musicians, with a good understanding of chromatic jazz harmony to adequately give faithful renditions of the lead sheet scores.In reference to the key structure, meter, and use of tempo changes in the songs, I do believe well-trained singers/actors and musicians with a conductor and director are necessary to give accurate renditions of this often complex but very beautiful music. The bass note is included at the bottom of chord symbols if needed. Instrumental introductions and interludes are marked in the scores, and are intended for the piano, or any appropriate available instrument. These short themes may be raised or lowered an octave to accommodate the instrument desired.Will Goldstein

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