Eclipse

When you immerse yourself in Eclipse, the final piece of The Dark Side of the Moon, you encounter a sonic construction that grows in intensity. The music is built on a repeating four-chord pattern, yet the arrangement gives it a variety that keeps the listener engaged. Guitarist David Gilmour recorded two layers of rhythm guitar, one deeper and one higher, creating arpeggios that intertwine. Added to this are the voices of a quartet of female singers who gradually rise in volume and converse with the vocal lines of Roger Waters, who sings the main part. The climax arrives with a "lighting" effect, a shift to major that feels like an awakening.

What makes Eclipse such a distinctive closer for the album is how it connects to what came before. It is often confused with Brain Damage because both play back-to-back and are broadcast together on the radio, giving the impression of being a single song. In fact, the original title considered for the album was Eclipse (A piece for assorted lunatics), but another band, Medicine Head, had already released an album with the same name. At the end of the song, as the main instrumentation fades out, the sound of a heartbeat is heard, which comes from the album’s first track, Speak to Me. This heartbeat gradually lowers until it disappears into silence. In some editions of the record, it can be faintly perceived in the background, almost as if it were coming from another room, along with an orchestral melody reminiscent of Ticket to Ride by The Beatles, a possible influence from the work of George Martin.