Geoffrey Álvarez

 

Magnum Opus: a cycle of four symphonies

representing the Alchemical four-fold Great Work

 

The Magnum opus begins with the nigredo, the ‘blackening’,

The Dark Night of the Soul, here a symphonic passacaglia for chamber orchestra and harpsichord, continuing with the second stage, albedo, the ‘whitening’, a single movement for symphonic wind ensemble; the third stage, citrinitas, the ‘yellowing’, is an organ symphony. The process concludes with the rubedo, the ‘reddening’, the Chemical Marriage:

Symphony XIII for Organ and Large Orchestra.

 

Symphony X – La Noche Oscura del Alma:  

 

for chamber orchestra and harpsichord

 

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

score • digital realisation • duration 18′ 50″ 

 

Instrumentation

2 Flutes 2 Oboes 2 Clarinets in Bb 2 Bassoons

2 Horns F 2 Trumpets in Bb Timpani

Strings

 

 

Symphony XI –Whitening Winds:

for symphonic winds – 2015

 

This piece is the second work of the symphonic cycle representing the alchemical Magnum opus.

This stage is the albedo or ‘whitening’ - the Lion leaps to the Sun and the Lady dances in the

Moon-pool - a symphonic tone-poem.

 

 

Instrumentation

Piccolo, 2 Flutes Alto Flute 2 Oboes, English Horn, 2 Bassoons, Contrabassoon

Soprano Clarinet in E flat, 3 Clarinets in B flat, Alto Clarinet in E flat                        

Bass Clarinet in B flat, Contra Alto Clarinet in E flat Contrabass Clarinet in B flat

Soprano Saxophone 2 Alto Saxophones, 2 Tenor Saxophones, Baritone Saxophone

3 Trumpets in B flat, 2 Flugelhorns in B flat, 4 Horns in F,                                              

3 Trombones, Bass Trombone, Euphonium, Tuba  

Timpani (4 drums) Percussion: 4 players Tambourine Snare Drum (with snares)  

Djembe (or three tom-toms: small, medium and large) Bass Drum Cymbals Tam-tam

 

score • digital realisation • Duration 12′ 40″

 

Printed or downloadable performing material available from Geoffrey Alvarez

 

 

 

 

Symphony XII – Citrinitas:

for organ – 2016

 

The work was inspired both by Kevin Bowyerʼs premiere of St Paulʼs Shipwreck on 6th March 2015 in the University of Glasgow Memorial Chapel, the alchemical researches of Adam McLean, and the Universityʼs Ferguson Collection - a repository of significant Alchemical incunabula and manuscripts such as those by Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim and others of equivocal authorship such as the 15 century Aurora consurgens, allegedly by Thomas Aquinas, the Tabula Smaragdina, translated by Isaac Newton and The Rosary of the Philosophers, an 18th century English translation of the 16th century German work.

 

Citrinitas is the third, yellow, stage in the alchemical Magnum Opus. It is interpreted in many ways, from chemical processes to the development of the psyche. Pursuing the latter interpretation, the first stage is the Nigredo, the Prima Materia, or the blackness of the undifferentiated, undeveloped psyche. The second stage is the Albedo or Whitening - the individuation   of the psyche has begun by the separation of the animus from the anima - the solar male principle from the female lunar principle. The anima flies to the stars whilst the anima, or female principle sinks to the cave. Citrinitas, the yellowing, is a process associated with ageing - the animus, the male solar principle can no longer fly, but sinks to the cave, aware now of his physical limitations whilst the anima, the dreaming goddess, can now ascend to the stars, as dreams become the only possible reality and the work ends in preparation for the final, fourth stage of the Magnum Opus...  

Purchasing Citrinitas

 

 

  printed copy • UK postage included: £15

printed copy • international postage included: £21

download licence: £3 each

 

 

Symphony XIII – Les Noces Chimiques:

for organ and orchestra

 

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 simultaneously with the timpani by the steel drums  is the paired codon in the DNA double-helix 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.