SYMPHONY No. 1 – Chimera

For orchestra

Symphony No. 1

Chimera

Lera Auerbach Symphony No. 1, Chimera, is a seven-movement orchestral work in which myth, metamorphosis, memory, and ritual form a single symphonic organism.

Year 2006
Duration 40′
Scoring For
orchestra
Publisher Boosey & Hawkes
/ Sikorski
Full Catalogue Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski Rental Material Purchase Score Abbreviations PDF

Commission

Commissioned by the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker. World premiere: 10 November 2006, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, with the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker conducted by John Fiore.

Symphonic World

Chimera suggests a being made of incompatible bodies: mythological, hybrid, impossible, and alive. Auerbach’s first symphony inhabits precisely this territory — a world of metamorphosis where dream, grotesque, memory, ritual, and myth are fused into one orchestral organism.

Movements

  • I. Aegri somnia

    • Dreams of the sick

  • II. Post tenebras lux

    • After darkness, light

  • III. Gargoyles

    • Guardians and grotesques

  • IV. Et in Arcadia ego

    • Even in Arcadia, death speaks

  • V. Siste, viator

    • Halt, traveler

  • VI. Humum mandere

    • To bite the dust

  • VII. Requiem for Icarus

    • Requiem for Icarus

Work Information

Full Title
Symphony No. 1 “Chimera”
Scoring
For orchestra.
Year
2006
Duration
40′
Instrumentation
3(=picc,afl).3(=corA).3(=bcl).3(=dbn)-4.3.3(btrbn).1-timp.perc(4):trgl/rain-stick/BD/cyms/tam-t/t.bells/crystal glasses(amplified)/glsp/vib-theremin(ad lib.)-hp(2)-cel-hpd-pft-strings.
Abbreviations PDF
Expanded Forces
Three flutes, with piccolo and alto flute; three oboes, with English horn; three clarinets, with bass clarinet; three bassoons, with contrabassoon; four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, with bass trombone, and tuba; timpani; four percussionists; ad libitum theremin; two harps; celesta; harpsichord; piano; strings.
Percussion
Triangle, rain-stick, bass drum, cymbals, tam-tam, tubular bells, amplified crystal glasses, glockenspiel, and vibraphone.
Commission
Düsseldorfer Symphoniker.
World Premiere
10 November 2006 — Tonhalle Düsseldorf; Düsseldorfer Symphoniker; John Fiore, conductor.
Publisher
Published by Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski .
Territory
Available from Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski for the world.
Availability
Rental material and study score.
Study Score
Sikorski SIK8584.

About the Work

Lera Auerbach Symphony No. 1, Chimera, takes its name from an image of fusion and impossibility: a being composed of incompatible bodies, and an impossible dream that nevertheless becomes alive in the imagination.

The Latin movement titles create a sequence of thresholds: troubled dreams, light after darkness, monstrous architecture, Arcadian mortality, the traveler halted before a grave, earth-bound hunger, and finally the requiem for Icarus.

The symphony moves between heavy matter and dangerous flight. Its final image is not simply collapse, but the afterglow of aspiration: the mythic body burns, falls, and remains singing in the orchestra.

Online Materials

Publisher, rental, score, catalogue and listening references for Lera Auerbach Symphony No. 1, Chimera.

  • Video / Listening

    Educational listening access opens in a protected pop-up after the listening agreement.

    Embedded performance
  • Publisher
    Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski Work Page

    Official publisher page with scoring, duration, world premiere, territory and availability.

    Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski
  • Rental Material
    Rental Material Search

    Rental-material search for Symphony No. 1 “Chimera.”

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  • Purchase Score
    Purchase Music

    Study-score purchase information through the official Boosey & Hawkes publication listing.

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  • Catalogue
    Full Catalogue

    Return to the complete Lera Auerbach compositions catalogue.

    LeraAuerbach.com
  • Reference
    Standard Abbreviations PDF

    Boosey & Hawkes standard scoring and language abbreviations.

    Boosey & Hawkes
Lera Auerbach Symphony No. 1 publisher logo — Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski

Publisher and Materials

Lera Auerbach Symphony No. 1 is published by Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski. Rental material and study-score information are available through the official publisher links.