Tony Cosier begins his poem “Alchemists” by outlining how individual and communal forays into alchemy have resulted in beautiful, enriching (and, to the reader, unexpected) transformations: From earth’s constant motion we humans have created dance; from the natural world we have created structure through thought; from sounds we have created the edifying art of music.
In the second strophe, the poet outlines the following task – we are to learn from the stars which, patiently and quietly, wait for their appearance to be made known, outshone by the strength of the sun until night falls. How often are our own efforts and contributions overshadowed by others and yet, we are reminded to quietly wait, because our moment to shine – at whatever intensity – shall indeed emerge and be visible. Time and respect are of the essence, rather than adversarial force.
Cosier’s allusion to ‘a cup of gold’ in the third strophe is a beautiful one – that life-defying, converting-to-gold elixir now pertains to the richness, the colour and the warmth of the sun – that universal, transforming, omnipotent life-force. As the poet explains, we need to constantly ‘earn’ back the beautiful earth which sustains us, realizing that nature is precious and astonishingly transformative of its own accord.
The contrasting imagery and the richness of the alchemy analogy has inspired musical word painting in this composition, in both details as well as concept. The use of unexpected accidentals and shifting modalities is meant to symbolize both alchemical and creative fluidity as well as potential within the unknown and the surprising.
There are five main cadences on the central words of dance (m. 13), “music” (m. 25), “stars” (m. 33) and gold (m. 60). In addition to phrase endings, they also function as significant anchor points, musically and textually.
Alchemists is a hopeful poem, full of mystery, beauty, transformation and transcendence. My wish is that the music manages to capture at least some of that, a tribute to both humanity and the natural world.
