To listen while following along with the score, click here: X: The Great American Eclipses, Op. 165 │ Brass Quintet │ Dr. Daniel Thrower

Prophetic warning, or convoluted superstition? The biblically ominous seven-year span of time[1] between the two total solar eclipses that brand the most powerful nation in the world with a coast-to-coast, border-to-border black X elicits various interpretations from eschatological theologians. The overarching theme of all interpretive ecliptic warnings is to repent quickly, before Jesus returns to destroy the wicked before His thousand-year reign of glory.[2]

One highlighted observation of eschatological prophets is that of the 36 cities and towns in the United States of America named Salem, seven of them were darkened in the path of totality in the 2017 eclipse.[3] This is verified, to include Salem, OR; Salem, ID; Salem, WY; Salem, NE; Salem, MO; Salem, KY, and Salem, SC.As the word “Salem” derives from the Hebrew word “shalom,” meaning “peace,” it is easy to conclude that the first eclipse could have been a divine warning to repent or peace was in jeopardy of being blackened.

Similarly, during the 2024 eclipse, there have been claims that the only seven places in America called “Nineveh” were in darkness from the April eclipse, drawing a parallel of Jonah’s call to repent or be destroyed.[4] However, the Nineveh claim is flawed since only two of those cities were in the path of totality, and two others were not even cities.

Symbolic names aside, even the most mocking of skeptics cannot ignore the obvious X painted across the nation. One jokingly commented, “Seems the moon is telling us where the treasure is buried!”To the religionist, however, the correspondingly shaped letter in the ancient Hebrew alphabet is Tav, which has significance as the alphabet’s last letter and signifies perfection. Its mark also alludes to repentance, prayer and Torah (law of Moses).

Continuing with this interpretation is the annular solar eclipse of 14 Oct 2023 that also drew a coast-to-coast swath across the nation. This third stroke completes the Hebrew letter Aleph, which is the first letter in the alphabet. When Jesus proclaimed to His disciples that He was “the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End,”[5] He would not have used the Greek letters, but the Hebrew Aleph and Tav, making the three eclipses an obvious symbol of Yeshua, the Messiah. Even though detailed extrapolations of the messianic symbol vary among Christian sects, one common agreement is the foreshadowing of His second coming and subsequent long-awaited reign of righteousness.

Regardless of observations, details, conclusions, convolutions, and symbolically attached meanings, there is no denying that eclipses give humans a sense of awe and wonder. When such jaw-dropping imagination is whetted, poetry is written, mythology is born, and yes, even music is composed. Having witnessed the 2017 eclipse near Omaha, NE, and knowing of the 2014 eclipse from a distance (Japan), this composition was started on 7 Apr 2024, the day before the second great American eclipse. The tone of this work ominously persists in one key, only briefly alluding to modulations. It is urged that the listener contemplate the above wonders of the eclipses while taking in what may be termed a film score to one’s imagination on the title’s topic.