''The Pentateuch of the Cosmogony'' is a

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

and multimedia project by Patrick Woodroffe and

Dave Greenslade David John Greenslade (born 18 January 1943) is an English composer and keyboard player. He has played with Colosseum from the beginning in 1968 until the farewell concert in 2015 and also from 1973 in his own band, Greenslade, and others inclu ...

, released in 1979. The project combines a hardback book (conceived, written and illustrated by Woodroffe) and a double vinyl album of music (written and performed by Greenslade). The title means, approximately, 'the first five books (

pentateuch The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the sa ...

) of the creation (

cosmogony Cosmogony is any model concerning the origin of the cosmos or the universe. Overview Scientific theories In astronomy, cosmogony refers to the study of the origin of particular astrophysical objects or systems, and is most commonly used i ...

)'. Woodroffe's artwork is heavily inspired by ''

The Garden of Earthly Delights ''The Garden of Earthly Delights'' is the modern title given to a triptych oil painting on oak panel painted by the Early Netherlandish master Hieronymus Bosch, between 1490 and 1510, when Bosch was between 40 and 60 years old. It has bee ...

'' by Hieronymus Bosch. The story and artwork within 'Pentateuch' are framed as a document discovered within an abandoned spacecraft in orbit around

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...

. As such, both the plot and prose follow the conventions of religious lore, even as it incorporates science fiction elements such as apocalyptic environmental disaster and interstellar travel in its second half. A combinatorial ideographic script is used throughout the artwork. Greenslade contributed the 74 minutes of music as his second solo project. Like the story and artwork, the music is framed as the work of the alien race which built the spacecraft. To maintain this image of otherworldly origin, it was recorded almost entirely with

electronic musical instruments Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

. A CD reissue was released in 1994, transferring Woodroffe's 12" x 12" book into a 5" square booklet. In order to keep the double album within the constraints of a single CD, the end of one track is faded out early. The story was retold without music in Woodroffe's 1987 book '' The Second Earth''. This featured additional artwork and was rewritten with extended prose replacing the original verse form. The additional artwork is not always as closely linked to the story as the original selection. A Japanese edition was also published. EMI released a single in February 1980, "The Pentateuch (Overture)", which is not on the album, with shortened album tracks "Mischief" and "War" on the b-side.

Track listing

All songs written by Dave Greenslade. Side 1 # "Introit"– 4:05 # "Moondance"– 3:09 (CD version – original LP version is longer) # "Beltempest"– 2:41 # "Glass"– 3:02 # "Three Brides" – 5:56 Side 2 6. "Birds & Bats & Dragonflies" – 3:48 7. "Nursery Hymn" – 3:32 8. "The Minstrel" – 2:42 9. "Fresco/Kashrinn" – 2:24 10. "Barcarole" – 3:51 11. "Dry Land" – 3:54 Side 3 12. "Forest Kingdom" – 3:53 13. "Vivat Regina" – 3:44 14. "Scream but Not Heard" – 2:57 15. "Mischief" – 5:36 16. "War" – 3:06 Side 4 17. "Lament for the Sea" – 3:08 18. "Miasma Generator" – 5.23 19. "Exile" – 2.33 20. "Jubilate" – 3.00 21. "The Tiger and the Dove" – 5.35

Personnel

*Dave Greenslade - keyboards; vibraphone; tubular bells; vocals on 10, 11, 13, and 19;

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

(used with all vocals on album) *

Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer, musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and lead singer of the rock band Genesis and also has a career as a solo performer. Between 1982 and ...

- percussion on 5, 10, 12, 16-18 *John Lingwood - percussion on 6, 8, 15, and 16 *Kate Greenslade (age 2 years and 6 months) - vocal on 7

References

External links

Patrick Woodroffe web site

'Prog Archives'

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pentateuch of the Cosmogony 1979 albums Dave Greenslade albums EMI Records albums