Legend for Orchestra

The Legend for Orchestra by James Domine is a symphonic narrative based on the Romance of Taliesin, a medieval version of a far more ancient myth the origins of which are lost in the veil of time. The literary sources for the story are recorded in Robert Graves’ book, The White Goddess. The Legend for Orchestra comprises 12 episodes, or tableaux, which follow one another in an uninterrupted musical sequence. Each has a descriptive title that tells some part of the story. It would not be difficult to conceive of the piece as a work for the ballet stage or other theatrical rendition, but details for such a production are left to future interpretation and development. Work on this composition ranges over a considerable span of many years, some thematic ideas for the piece date as far back as 1971, and certain movements were realized as an exercise in orchestration during the composer’s study at USC in the 1980s. This earlier version was performed in 1983. The Legend for Orchestra was completed in its final revised form in 2005.

The orchestra for the Legend is comprised of 2 flutes, (the 2^nd flute doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes (with the 2^nd doubling on English horn), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 French horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones and a bass trombone, tuba, a piano and celesta part, harp, timpani, percussion and strings.

The plot, as it is adapted for this musical work, is as follows: On an island made of erupting volcanic fire in the middle of a vast, stormy frozen lake in the center of the world there dwelled Grandfather Time, named Chronos, and his ancient wife, Coronis the Crone of Crows, or She-Who-Sees-Where-He-Goes, in the language the sacred hierophantic bards. In time, they placed their two offspring, Xystalwynde, the White-haired Witch of the Winter Snows, who changes her shape with the waxing and waning of the moon, dwells high up in rocky crags where eagles dare not nest, and who rides on the winged black spectral horse called Night Mare. Some have heard her cries by night on baleful winds, a sound that causes the skin to crawl, the eyes to water, hair to stand on end, sending shivers of fear down the spine, freezing motionless those who witness her presence into a paralysis of fear. With her eyes that flash with blue flame and her lips red as rowanberries, she is the most beautiful woman in creation, but the most intemperate and prone to violent anger, especially when she seeks to wreak vengeance. Her brother, whose name is not known, and is referred to only in silent meditation, who is the ugliest man in existence, being bent of frame and form into a shape most unnatural, who rides on the chariot of the sun, which none can survive the overpoweringly hideous sight, but who is master of mystery, wisdom, and is sagacious, deliberate and well-tempered in all things. These two are set by their parents to govern the Earth in alternating seasons and between them balance the evil onslaughts of Autumn degeneration, cruel Winter and death with the regeneration of rebirth brought in by Spring and the abundance of harvest in the late Summer.

The Invocation and Hymn of Praise in the first tableau of the Legend calls upon these entities to hear the entreaties of the supplicant masses, and to prepare for the reenactment of the myth of the Sun King, whose life and subsequent sacrifice is executed to placate the wrath of the Moon Goddess, and whose blood fertilizes the Earth in the name of the Sun God to bring beneficent providence into the world of mortal men.

The second tableau depicts the secret deliberations of the Sun God, who for all his apparent brilliance acts only in darkest mystery. His works are known only through the interpretation of the Heirophant who is adept at discerning the trace of his hand as he manifests his will enigmatically in the temporal world. In order to maintain the delicate balance of order in the world, and to provide sustenance for the people, he selects a young male child to represent him in the ordinary sequence of Earthly events. After a lengthy and exhaustive search by the Heirophant and his Council of Elders, this young boy-prince, who some call Gwion, is identified from among all the other male children in the world by a process of inquiry called the Unraveling of the Sacred Riddle. Only the true, rightful successor to the royal title can pass this test, and be thus enabled to ascend the throne of the Sun King, at which time he will assume the name of Taliesin, and whose death will insure the continuity of life.

Upon a mountain within sight of the Frozen Lake of Fire, above the misty clouds and torrential rains, past where trees or even grasses grow and where only the raging winds of time inhabit deep caverns of ice, there is set the Singing Cauldron of Inspiration, heated by an inextinguishable fire brought from the heart of the Earth. An old witch named Cerridwen with hooked nose, bent back, haggard visage and a scraggly many-colored tangle of live snakes for hair tends this cauldron, which must be kept on the simmer for a seven years and a day, without which all knowledge would vanish from the world. Season by season, certain magical herbs must be gathered and added to the brew in their correctly appointed planetary hours. At the end of seven years, the cauldron begins to sing. It is the song of the old King as his reign draws to its end, and the funeral march of his dirge as he is put to death. The child Gwion, chosen as heir apparent, is given the task of stirring the cauldron as it heats to a boil. Towards the end of the cycle, three burning drops flew out of the cauldron and fell on Gwion’s thumb as he stirred the brew. He instinctively thrust it into his mouth to ease the burning pain, and at once understood the nature and meaning of all things, past, present and future. He then also knew that unless he could escape, it would be his destiny to die on the sacrificial pyre as all who had preceded him on the Sun King’s throne.

He fled away, as fast as he could, pursued by the screaming ancient old hag. Through The Chase that ensued, by summoning the powers drawn from the cauldron, he changed himself into a rabbit, upon which she changed herself into a wolf. He plunged into a river and became a trout, but she changed into an otter fast upon his tail. He flew up into the air as a bird, and she changed into a hawk. Finally he changed into a single grain of winnowed wheat on the threshing floor of a barn. Silently he lay, at first undetected, when she changed herself into a black hen, and scratching the wheat over with her feet, found him and swallowed him at once.

When she returned to her own shape, she found herself pregnant of Gwion, and nine months later bore him as a child. Upon The Rebirth of Gwion, Cerridwen could not find it in her heart to kill him, because he was very beautiful, so she laid him high on a cliff at the altar of the Moon Goddess, tied in a leather bag, where the winds of time blew him off into the sea.

Gwion remained Adrift At Sea until carried by dolphins two days before May Day, he came into the weir of Prince Elphin of Aberystwyth. There upon the shore, to the astonishment of the Prince, he performed The Conjuration of the Wind, causing by means of secret words a magical wind to arise that spoke poetical rhyme with an invisible voice in a mysterious whispering verse. Finding him thus possessed of magical powers, Elphin renamed him Taliesin, the title by which he was evermore known.

Hearing of the miraculous rescue of Taliesin, his magical powers, and recognizing him as the child-heir to the Sun King’s throne and therefore a mortal threat to himself, King Maelgwyn of Gwynedd sent his soldiers to capture Taliesin. This they did to the cadence of the Processional March. They led him off in chains to the dungeon at Dyganwy where along with Prince Elphin he was imprisoned.

Knowing that it was ordained for his own life and rule as Sun King to end at the end of seven years, as was prophesized by the Heirophant and the Council of Elders, King Maelgwyn determined to offer Taliesin in his stead as a surrogate sacrifice, hoping by this means to placate the Moon Goddess and thereby continue his own reign and cheat death. He caused a great sacrificial funeral pyre to be built, stacked high with wood and stoked by burning embers taken from a fir tree, still smoldering from a Winter’s storm lightning strike. The people of Gwynedd leapt in a furious Sacrificial Fire Dance as Taliesin was brought enmeshed in a wicker cage to the edge of the pyre.

Just as the flames reached their highest intensity, and he was about to be tossed like a piece of kindling on the burning fire and be engulfed by the ferocious heat, Taliesin uttered some magic words, conjuring the Winds of Time. The searing flames were instantly extinguished as the wind blew through the great pyre, and all the people were frozen in place as they stood. The sycophantic bards of the Council of Elders attempted to dispel the enchantment but could only muster meaningless noises.

The Heirophant alone was able to move amid the spell that was cast, and knowing what he must do, threw his staff on the ground in front of Taliesin. It thereupon changed into the shape of a great snake, coiling threateningly, and rearing up with a fearful hiss, spoke to Taliesin in words only he could hear, "Can you answer The Riddle of the Oracular Serpent?" As soon as Taliesin answered the correct mysterious formula in secret words only audible to the snake, the flames of the pyre roared back into life, and the serpent disappeared into fire to the sound of drums pounding an inexorable rhythm. King Maelgwyn was seized by his own soldiers and thrown without ceremony on the burning maelstrom, and led by the Heirophant and the Council of Elders, Taliesin was proclaimed Sun King, who will reign for a period of seven years. All join in a great Bacchanale in celebration of the preservation of order in the Universe.