Patrick Cardy

I. The Beltane Fires: The feast of Beltane (or Beltaine, from Bel-tinne, the fires of Bel, the god of death, life and the sun), which is celebrated on May 1, is one of the four great Celtic seasonal festivals (the others being Lugnasad, on August 1, Samain, on November 1, and Imbolc, on February 1). On that day, all household fires are extinguished, to be rekindled by the druids from torches lit by the sun?s rays, the sacred fires of Bel, in a ceremony symbolic of new beginnings. Fertility and purification rites take place amid joyful dancing and feasting after the bleakness of winter and in anticipation of a fruitful new growing season.

II. Shadowland: Shadowland is the timeless realm between night and day to which mortals are lured under enchantment by the fairy folk. It is the ?Land of the Ever Young?, Tír na nOc , where one night consumes centuries of terrestrial time and from whence mortals rarely return alive.

III. The Faerie Host: Dressed in shimmering garments of gossamer and mist, with delicate features of haunting elven beauty, the faerie host gathers in nightly revels of music, dancing and feasting before melting into the pale light of morning.

IV. The Secret Garden of the Tuatha Dé Danaan: To safeguard the wisdom of their race, the druids of the Tuatha Dé Danaan concealed the secrets of the Seven Branches of Learning in a grove of seven hazelnut trees around a sacred crystal fountain and transported the garden to Shadowland, safe from the profane and grasping hands of Man.

V. The Departure of the Old Ones: As waves of invaders overtook Ireland, the Tuatha Dé Danaan gradually withdrew to the sídhe , until, with the advent of Christianity, they faded to a distant memory, although they remain to this day a powerful presence in the realm of myth and fable.

?Golden Section? proportions, especially those embodied in the Fibonacci numbers 3 and 5, are found throughout Et in Arcadia ego - the basic pitch material is a five-note motive (D-F-G-A-C), which evolves through five variants in the first movement and three variants in each of the second and third movements, and the form scheme of the second movement is constructed entirely in ?Golden Section? proportions. A final resonance of the title in the music is the fact that the phrase ?Et in Arcadia ego? is supposed to be an allegorical sign for those versed in esoteric tradition - one interpretation is that it is an anagram of ?I tego arcana Dei? (Begone! I conceal the secrets of God).

In Poussin?s painting, the ?secrets? may be those of the five-sided pentagram. The pentagram was a mystic symbol for medieval alchemists, whose researches often involved a careful study of the intrinsic properties of number and shape. Their hope was that such study might uncover a divine unity in nature. Their most famous quest, the search for the secret of turning base metals into gold, was a manifestation of this search for divine unity in all matter. Although Et in Arcadia ego makes no pretense of concealing any eternal ?secrets?, a musical parallel to the alchemists? search for divine unity in number and shape might be the organic transformation of the music?s single five-note theme through multiple guises throughout the three movements, a reflection of divine unity in all creation.