De vita coelitus comparanda

«On capturing the life of the stars»

 . . .  takes its title from the writings of the Florentine Renaissance philosopher Marsilio FICINO, referring to the practice of «sympathetic magic» in which the lines of influence between heaven and earth could be as it were «tapped» by the use of ritual objects, incantations, perfumes, colours, and so on. Botticelli's famous painting «Primavera» is in fact an example of such an object or amulet, and the disposition of figures within it is reflected in the instrumentation of the present composition, each performer corresponding to a figure in the painting. Also, part of Ficino's on practice was to sing the Orphic hymns (supposed to have been very ancient, but actually dating from the early centuries of the common era), to his own accompaniment on the lira da braccio, reflected here in the setting of the Orphic hymn to Oneiros, the god of dreams. In the overall scheme of DARK MATTER, therefore, De vita  . . .  takes its place as an embodiment of the «astrological» phase in the history of humankind's relationship to the cosmos. Naturally, this phase is long over, apart from its farcically-debased popular-press incarnation, while retaining a fascination as a poetic vision of reality.

The ancient Greek hexameters of the text, with their strictly-constructed framework of long and short syllables, as well as the intonational characteristics of the language, provide not only the basis of the vocal part's metrical and pitch-structure, but also the organisation of the whole work. To compound the network of anachronisms as well as a certain effete delicacy, the overall texture -- in its complex layered polyphony and absence of low pitches -- often tends towards the condition of 14th century ars subtilior.