The Quintessence (for soprano, piano, 3 percussion & tape, 2004)

I have long been fascinated with alchemy and alchemists, the early scientists who reasoned that if God created the world, making order from chaos, then they must surely be able to determine the ordering principles for themselves, and reveal the quintessence, that fifth element "the matter of which the heavens are composed... the soul of the elements". With these discoveries they would be able to perfect base and unclean things, transforming them into gold.

Commissioned by the Paragon Ensemble