Update Title: 09C241EA-7B8F-4001-9820-3C78B49607E6

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THE PHILOSOPHER+S STONE, for solo violin and chamber ensemble, was written under a Fellowship/Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Finished in 1980, the premiere was given by Eric Rosenblith in 1982. Stock has said of the piece: +In the medieval world of alchemy, scholars sought the philosopher+s stone, which would transform base metals into gold. In reality, of course, it was the human soul they sought to transform.+ This colorful fantasia begins with the first two major motives-a pair of sevenths, ascending and descending in the solo violin-and a shimmering texture which seems to transport us back to medieval times. The piece then proceeds in a large arch-form. A lyrical, rather contemplative moment includes the violin+s theme (the pair of sevenths) and the first recognizable presentation of the second tune in a clarinet solo. This theme is an expansive ascent through the clarinet+s different registral colors-three rising sevenths, followed by a fifth. A variety of textures evolve: a pizzicato ostinato (the ostinato is in ninths, a sort of inversion of the seventh) is followed by a freer aleatoric section in which the timeless shimmering from the opening reappears. The ninths briefly return to serve as a new point of departure and the activity becomes increasingly aggressive, rhythmic, and percussive. A low, rumbling figure topped with tinkling bells and ringing chimes provides an +eye in the storm.+ The material then appears in reversed order up to the expansive cadenza. Various transformations have occured in the second half of the arch (the ostinato ninths become sevenths, the rumbling manifests itself as trills), but it is the broad cadenza which projects the transformations that have taken place within the violin+s voice (or even its soul?) during its journey. A +coda+ is introduced by murmuring oscillations, recalling once more the low, rumbling motive. Mysterious, dark chords in the piano create, with the percussionists+ help, the murky, cloud-filled atmosphere which closes the piece, shrouded in the speckled dust of a magic spell. -Peter Gilbert, appeared in CIM program (11/98)

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