Fantasia No.6 in G minor (The Cockatrice)
The idea of painting The Cockatrice came to mind when I saw a large rooster walking with a snake in its mouth outside our house, and it made me think of the alchemical symbolism of this image.
This mixed-media painting, ‘The Cockatrice’ was inspired by a friend’s art exhibition to celebrate International Respect for Chickens Day on the 4th of May.
What is the Cockatrice?
The Cockatrice is a medieval mythical beast composed of a serpent or dragon’s body and a cock’s head, or a rooster’s body with a serpent’s tail. It is similar to the Basilisk.
The Cockatrice is born from a cockeral’s egg hatched by a snake or toad. This nightmarish chimera is said to exude pure evil. Indeed, the venom and flames it spews from its mouth can kill from a distance. It scorches the very earth it crawls upon.
The Painting
The painting of the Cockatrice I did was of mixed-media egg tempera (underpainting) with tempera grassa (egg with linseed oil emulsion) and oil paint (with yolk) and gold-leaf on wooden board.
The pigments I made myself: bone black with calcined chicken bones, eggshell white from eggshells. I made glair size from egg white for the gold-leaf.
The painting contains a lot of imagery and ideas from alchemy, astrology (can you find the hidden symbol of Mercury?) mythology, and esoteric Christianity.
The Fantasia for Viola and Trumpet
This musical fantasia for solo viola and trumpet in Bb is an accompaniment to the painting ‘The Cockatrice’.
The piece contains four movements:
I. The Rise of the Cockatrice
II. The Devastation
III. The Battle
IV. The Sunrise and Gigue
In ‘The Rise of the Cockatrice’, I imagined agitated chickens scurrying and cockerals crowing (I’m awoken by Goddamn cockerals every morning at 3am, so I know the sound well), and the terrible monster appearing from the desert wastes, scorching all before it, leaving nothing but an ashen landscape.
The hero of the story also appears. Enter the intrepid mongoose or weasel, said to be the arch-nemesis of the Cockatrice.
In the second movement, ‘The Devastation’, I wanted to survey the disrupted landscape and the destruction that evil leaves behind, whether inwardly or externally.
The building ostinato of the viola adds drama to this fairly slow movement, building in tempo and intensity. Who will save us from this terrible evil?
The third movement, ‘The Battle’, is an allegro furioso and showdown between the forces of good and evil. I had images of the fight between a mongoose and snake in my mind (we have the Cape Mongoose and Yellow Mongoose in our garden sometimes).
It is said the only way to kill a Cockatrice is with the crowing of a cockeral in the morning (bring in the light) or by showing it a mirror so that it’s own image destroys itself.
Thus, what is intrinsic to itself (the cockeral and it’s own image), kills it. Evil destroys itself. I therefore included a lot of retrograde and mirrored musical phrases and dialogue between the fierce viola and trumpet parts.
The fourth movement, ‘The Sunrise and Gigue’, is a triumphant ending to the madness.
Beginning with the dark, quiet morning, some birds start singing. And slowly the sun appears over the Eastern horizon, shedding its golden light through the desert dust and climbing higher and higher in a blaze of God’s glory. It represents resurrection.
Then we have a bit of a joyful, celebrational dance, with the trumpet as herald, the crowing of roosters and the birds singing to the beautiful day.
How I composed a Fantasia
I was chatting online with an American composer friend of mine, Kaleb Rhea who plays trumpet and has a doctorate of music. He asked me if I’d ever written for trumpet.
I said, ‘not yet!’, so I decided to give it a go.
I told him I was working on this painting of the Cockatrice and trumpet would be perfect to express the crowing of the roosters, the clucking of chickens, the glorious heralding of the morning light etc.
My viola would sound really nice with a B-flat trumpet I thought, so I chose to write in G minor.
G minor is a lovely, dark and brooding key, and its relative major of B-flat major is contrastingly warm and joyful on both string instruments and the trumpet itself. Obviously it’s the ‘open’ key of the Bb trumpet.
Since the trumpet is a transposing instrument, Bb major/G minor would be written as C on the staff, so it would also be easier to read and play.
I usually compose by thinking about the piece a lot before I begin. If I’m composing as an accompaniment to a painting, then I meditate a lot on the painting, the imagery and the meanings behind both the music and the art that I wish to express.
Nature is also an important inspiration (bird sounds, wind, landscapes, etc.).
I always consider the key carefully; its moods, its tonal expressions and its symbolic significance.
I keep folders full of inspirational articles, images, paintings and music, both copious scores and audio files. And I listen to music for hours everyday.
When I come across or think of clever musical ideas, I usually write them down in my notebook. I usually can’t express all of these ideas in a short piece of music, so a lot of culling of precious ideas is involved.
Improvising and playing on the viola itself is one of my favourite ways of ‘allowing music to come to me’.
It usually plants the seed for all the melodies and ideas that I hear in my subconscious, and after that, the composition almost writes itself. Once I’m going with the flow, I usually compose music quite quickly I think.
I composed this piece with pencil and paper, Musescore and Dorico. I used Noteperformer for the trumpet part and Spitfire solo strings for the viola.
I’m never really happy with VSTs (the solo string VSTs always suck), and it’s not perfect, but I will hopefully record a real version soon.
Thanks for listening, and please leave a comment!
Here’s the link to the music: Fantasia No.6 in G minor (The Cockatrice).
This is my YouTube channel The Painter’s Sanctum.
You can check out some more of my allegorical realism paintings here.
- What’s the Point of Creating When No One Cares? - 24th August 2025
- Fantasia No.6 in G minor (The Cockatrice) - 3rd May 2025
- Rebirth: Starting Over as an Artist — Part 1 - 17th April 2025
A symbolic-rich painting indeed. I zoomed in to see a mercury symbol, a crown of thorns (reminiscent of Easter theme), and golden scales. Is that a sorceress, and a gold-crowned serpent in the background? The more I look, the more I see. The Cockatrice and the Weasel are handsome characters and the cute newt at the bottom too. The gold sets it off well.
I love that you make your own paint colours.
The musical composition is very royal – a fanfare! The perfect accompaniment to this painting and back-story.
Hi Genevieve,
Thanks very much for your interesting comment. Yes, I made a lot of references to the crown or corona. It has a lot of symbolism. It represents the rays of the rising sun. The crown of thorns (thorns or rays of light), the crown of the serpent (king cobra) or diadem marking on the back of the cobra. The cockatrice lore centres around the serpent, asp, cobra or adder, as in ancient times, the snake was particularly feared. And being found in the Middle East, Egypt and North Africa, it must have seemed to have scorched the earth due to the desert environments it was found in. There are a lot of references to rebirth and Easter, as the golden egg, the chicken, the crowing of the cockeral when Peter denied Jesus three times. And of course, the rooster is the symbol of Mercury or Hermes, the messenger of the gods. The planet closest to the sun as Jesus was closest to the Father. The metaphors and allegories get all entwined as there are so many layers in mythology, esotericism, Christianity and psychology.
All the best,
Damian