Publisher Desc.  I want this movement to represent the totality of reaching paradise. What does spiritual paradise look like? Is it defined by the light? Is it a plain of existence that is a myriad of colors? Is it a place that we cannot fathom? It's a movement of a million questions and an opportunity for the orchestra to reflect all of those ideas and more using traditional and non-traditional colors of orchestral writing. In Paradisum or In Paradise is expressed by different musical ideas. Each one of these ideas that are different from the next but are tied together by the Hymn of the 36 Stars which is quoted in some ways throughout each movement but also fully expressed in this movement. We finally get to hear Chesnokov's hymn, Salvation is Created, which I thought was super fitting for a work of this magnitude. A version of this music is quoted in the Dies Irae, although perversely of its original orchestration, it gave me an opportunity to tie the themes heard in the Agnus Dei and Introit to represent the soul's triumphant arrival in paradise. Each section is an idea of what paradise can be: from stillness to a vast variety of colors. I did want to end the movement as an homage to Mahler and quoting the third movement to his Fourth Symphony - which is one of many ways I envision my version of Heaven (another work that evokes this is Respighi's Pines of Rome if you're curious). I also wanted the oboe to be the last voice before the strings finally lay the souls to rest. This ending was also inspired by an episode in the Justice League Unlimited (episode: The Terror Beyond) cartoon where a character by the name Solomon Grundy, an antagonist, saves the day while trying to find his soul. In the closing of this episode, Hawkgirl asks why Grundy was so happy in the end. Aquaman states to her that he had faith and that you just have it. The most impactful part of this was the music and I wanted to mimic the climbing motif by the oboe and strings where the only sound you hear is the oboe - this fades and is closed out by the strings.