The Dark Night of the Soul

A ravenous ghoul,
The serpent of destruction and rebirth,
Coils around the dark night-soul:
An all pervasive passacaglia
Suffocating and corrupting tired flesh.

The basest material survives
This putrefaction,
Awaiting dawn’s rose...

© Copyright Geoffrey Álvarez 2015

La Noche Oscura del Alma is Geoffrey Álvarez’ tenth symphony, the first of a cycle exploring the four stages of the alchemical Great Work, or Magnum Opus, the first being the ʻnigredo’ or ʻblackening’, poetically portrayed in the poem above. The twelfth, Citrinitas, is already composed, and is dedicated to organist Kevin Bowyer who has already premiered his eighth symphony: St Paul's Shipwreck. The eleventh, Whitening Winds, for symphonic wind orchestra, and the thirteenth, The Chemical Wedding, for organ and large orchestra are in preparation.  

score  • digital realisation • video of the timpani and organ structure of the work • Duration circa 30′ 30"

Les Noces Chemiques represents  the final stage of the Alchemical Great Work:  the rubedo (redening) – a process involving the philosopher's stone, described by    Abū Mūsā Jābir ibn Ḥayyān, (born c. 721, Ṭūs, Iran-died c. 815, Al’ Kūfah, Iraq),  a father of chemistry whose name is often associated with the term ‘gibberish’  whilst the  musical backbone of this work is the gene detailed in  Lawn RM, Efstratiadis A, O’Connell C, Maniatis T: The nucleotide sequence of the human beta-globin gene. Cell. 1980 Oct;21(3):647-51        

Note on the biological structure of the piece. 

The main body of the work begins and ends with a musical representation  of the spiral form of the double helix of DNA  Each note played by the timpani is equivalent to one codon:  G = guanine D flat = adenine E flat = cytosine C = thymine  Each note played simulteously with the timpani by the steel drums  is the paired codon in the DNA double-helix.ine as the musical backbone of this work  Each motiv mainly played by the organ, but also often shared amongst the other instruments  represents an amino acid with the exception of the final representation of the spiral form of the double helix of DNA whose organic bases are alchemically transformed  into a molten blood red golden staircase at the conclusion of the piece.

Instrumentation

Piccolo, 2 Flutes, Bass Flute, 2 Oboes, Cor Anglais, Clarinet in Eb, 2 Clarinets in  Bb, Bass Clarinet, 2 Bassoons, Contrabassoon, 6 Horns in F, Piccolo Trumpet in D, 2 Trumpets in Bbt, Bass Trumpet, 2 Tenor Trombones, Bass Trombone, Tuba, Timpani 
Percussion: Tenor Bass (Four Bass) Steel Drums, Congas, 2 Whips, clashed cymbals, tam-tam, snare drum, bass drum, vibraphone, 2 cowbells, Organ, Harp, Strings

orchestral material available from  Geoffrey Álvarez

excerpt • digital realisation •  duration 40′ 26″

Instrumentation  

2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets ,2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets,
3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, tambourine, tubular bells, xylophone,
piano, harp, strings

All instruments notated at written pitch duration circa 24′

Composerʼs note

This work was premiered in its original form in St Giles, Cripplegate under my direction by the Alvarez Chamber Orchestra in 1981. The revision was undertaken in 2010. The work is the nearest to traditional symphonic form I have attempted and was composed at a time whilst I was still a student at the Royal Academy of Music avidly absorbing the music of a variety of other composers: Waltonʼs First Symphony and Lutoslawskiʼs Concerto for Orchestra, for instance, are strong influences in this and following movement, Passacaglia, whilst the Bartok of the Dance Suite and Bluebeardʼs Castle can be heard in the last turbulent movement: Totentanz. Of significance to my subsequent development was the simultaneous presentation of the first and second subject of the exposition of the first movement, which  had been heard sequentially, in the conventional manner in the  exposition.

Orchestral material available for hire or purchase from Geoffrey Alvarez

Three pieces from the King’s Last Prophecy

a nine-hour dream in five operas

1: Aluna’s Creation

Overture

peruse and purchase score • digital realisation • duration 10′44″

2: Danzamar espiral

Ballet – for orchestra

peruse and purchase score • digital realistaion  • duration 9′18″

3:El corazón del mundo

Aria for soprano and orchestra

peruse and purchase score • digital realisation • duration 9′26″

Instrumentation

piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon,

4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 tenor trombones, bass trombone, tuba, percussion(4 players):  2 wood blocks, 2 temple blocks (lower pitched than the wood blocks) glockenspiel, vibraphone, tubular bells harp strings

The poem El corazón del mundo is from Masque and Marriage, the third part of a five opera dream based on the ‘Weltanschauung’ of the Kogi of Colombia: The King’s Last Prophecy. There are two main sources: Los Kogi de La Sierra Nevada by Reichel Dolmatoff and The Heart of the World; the latter is both a documentary and a book by Alan Ereira. Alan Ereira notes the universal resonance of Kogi beliefs in his work cited above, finding echoes in other world religions: the Madrona, for instance, mentioned in the song, is the archetype of the Great Mother found in cultures as diverse as Ancient Mexico, Old Europe, India: the Virgin of the Catholic world.

Orchestral material available for hire or purchase from Geoffrey Alvarez

digital realisation • excerpt • duration circa 14 minutes

Instrumentation

Piccolo, 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes (2nd doubling Cor Anglais), 2 Clarinets (2nd doubling Bass Clarinet)

Bassoon, Contrabassoon, 4 Horns, 2 Trumpets, 2 Tenor Trombones, Tuba, Timpani,

Percussion: two players Snare Drum, Bass Drum, Cymbals, Tubular Bells, Xylophone,

Piano, Harp, Strings

Orchestral material available for hire or purchase from Geoffrey Alvarez

Composerʼs Note

My Seventh Symphony,  ʻHyperboreaʼ, is structured around the number seven, sacred to the seven vowel God JIEVOAŌ according to Robert Graves: The Lord of the seven day week was ʻDisʼ, the transcendental God of the Hyperboreans, each day symbolised by one of the seven vowels introduced to correspond to the additional two strings introduced to the five course lyre in the 4th century by Simonides, the subject of my address to the Robert Graves White Goddess Conference in Manchester University and subsequently published in Gravesiana: the Journal of the Robert Graves Society.

Download paper here.

He cannot walk in the brazen sky, but among
those goods that we of mortality attain to he goes
the whole way. Never on foot or ship could you find
the marvelous road to the feast of the- Hyperboreans.

Perseus came to them once, a leader of men,
entered their houses,
found them making hecatombs of asses
to Apollo, who in their joyance and favourable
speech rejoices, and smiles to see
the rampant lust of the lewd beasts.

Never the Muse is absent
from their ways: lyres clash, and the flutes cry,
and everywhere maiden choruses whirling.
They bind their hair in golden laurel and take their holiday.
Neither disease nor bitter old age is mixed
in their sacred blood; far from labor and battle
they live; they escape Nemesis,
the over just.

From Pindar: Tenth Phythian Ode 498 b.c.

excerpt • digital realisation

Instrumentation

Piccolo, 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, Cor Anglais, 2 Clarinets, Bass Clarinet,

2 Bassoons, Contrabassoon, 4 Horns, 2 Trumpets, 3 Trombones, Tuba,

Timpani – two players, Percussion – five players, Harp, Pianoforte, Strings

Duration c. 47 minutes

Composerʼs note

The result of my work on music on Gravesʼ grammar of poetic myth, The White Goddess is a song cycle for bass and chamber orchestra, My Last Muse, setting six of Gravesʼ poems inspired by Julia Simonne, his ʻlast museʼ and my Second Symphony: The Five Seasons, whose structure is based on a presentation of Gravesʼ Celtic Five-Season Year expressed as the five vowels of the Beth-Luis-Nion alphabet, each season assigned to a vowel and corresponding tree - the third month at the top of the diagram above, for instance, is Ura, the Heather Goddess (Uroica in Gallic).

Each season is also divided into three months, also associated with certain trees, and five intercalary days, associated with the birthdays of the five principle Egyptian deities, Osiris, Horus, Set, Isis and Nephtys, and the days at which Thoth beat the Moon Goddess Isis at draughts; whilst some may find nothing new under the sun, there is plenty to be discovered

under the moon.

Orchestral material available for hire or purchase from Geoffrey Alvarez