ATHANOR

Commentary
The ritual of the notice has been imposed on composers ever since listeners felt the need for a listening guide. It developed in the twentieth century with the disappearance of a common language, and has sometimes curiously joined the Romantic practices of program music, although this very idea was then almost always violently rejected. The title Athanor, its alchemical connotations, the imagery sketched out in the fake poem above, the Debussy allusion, all seem rather superfluous to me today, and in any case of little enlightenment to those in the dark.
Like all alchemical experiments, this one is to be understood less for the result – unattainable and utopian – than for the itinerary of the dream pursued. In this sense, the narrative form that links or juxtaposes episodes is quite similar to that of Maraé, Kassandra or Tempora.