Jean Guillou

Andromeda op. 39

Gerard Manley Hopkins was reputed to be a poet of semantic ambiguity and, in the opinion of Guillou, therefore comes closest to the art of musical expression. Guillou has already 'translated' 'Peace' from Hopkins' oeuvre into a work for eight voices and organ.In 'Andromèda', the sound of the organ and the human voice are supposed to amalgamate such that in effect a new organ stop emerges. At the same time, the composer wants to have the musical organ work seen as an independent poem, like the lines of Hopkins, and wishes the language of the organ to become a kind of living speech to a certain extent.