The Golden Polyphemus was inspired by García Lorca’s poetic references to the guitar, especially in the Riddle of the Guitar Strings The Six poems. Lorca attributes to the guitar hidden powers, and returns again and again in his poems to the image of his outstretched arms chains like Polyphemus.

Musically it is a twelve-tone work that has four fragments

The Golden Polyphemus (1953), Reginald Smith Brindle (1917-2003)

1. Ben Adagio
2. Allegretto
3. Lento
4. Ritmico e Vivo

“Enigma of the Guitar”

At the round
Crossways,
Six maidens
Dance.
Three of flesh
And three of silver.
Yesterday´s dreams haunt them,
But they are held embraced
By a Golden Polyphemus –
The Guitar !

“The Six Strings”

The guitar
Makes dreams weep.
The sob of lost
Souls,
Escape from its round
Mouth.
And like the tarantula,
It weaves a great star
To trap the sighs,
Which float in its black
Wooden cistern.

Federico García Lorca