SYMPHONY: ‘TRANSMUTATION’

• for full orchestra

  • Version 1 (triple winds): 3(2=afl.3=picc).3(3=corA).3(3=bcl).2.cbsn--4.3.3.1--timp.perc(3)--pno--hrp--strings

  • Version 2 (double winds): 2(2=picc.afl).2(2=corA).2(2=bcl).2(2=cbsn)--4.3.3.1--timp.perc(3)--pno--hrp--strings

    • Percussion: marimba/vib/4tom-t/water gong/2high.wdbl/3 pairs sandpaper blocks/tamb/2 pairs rute/vibraslap/glsp/BD/3susp.cym/bongos/tgl/piccoclo.wdbl/flexible mallet on a rimless drumhead (conga)/large.gong (C#2 or 3)/xyl/crot/t-bells/tam-t/tpl.bl/SD/cyms/slapstick

• in progress

• 25 minutes

PROGRAM NOTE

The philosopher’s stone—a mythical substance capable of turning lead into gold, healing sickness, and granting eternal life—has tantalized the minds of those who have sought it since the late days of the Greco-Roman world in Alexandria. But the real draw wasn’t just gold or immortality; the alchemists were after something more profound: a total transformation, both of the world and the self. This symphony plunges headfirst into that same obsession, borrowing from three stages of alchemy: Nigredo, Albedo, and Rubedo—black, white, red.

In the strange and slippery language of alchemy, Nigredo is where everything starts to fall apart. It’s the blackening, the breakdown, the necessary destruction before anything new can emerge. After that, comes Albedo, the whitening—the cleansing stage, where things clarify, sharpen, and purify. And then finally, Rubedo, the reddening, the point where everything comes together, whole and perfected, the alchemist’s long-sought transmutation.