WAKEFUL VISIONS/MOONLESS DREAMS: A Symphony in Four Movements

Dreams can sometimes seem quite real while visions experienced in the light of day may seem completely unreal. Dreams or visions can be frightening, comforting, spiritual, playful, and so many other things. Each movement of WAKEFUL VISIONS/MOONLESS DREAMS explores these various qualities and finds its point of departure in a suggestive literary source.

Whirlwind is a fast and furious musical reaction to the well-known biblical quote: “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind…”(Hosea 8:7).  Notari Notari is inspired by a haiku about the undulating “spring sea”. The musical imagery for Something Wicked is suggested by the three witches from MacBeth as they chant before the bubbling caldron. Moments is about looking back on the nature of our memories in a way that Marcel Proust suggests when he says, “The moments of the past do not remain still; they retain in our memory the motion which drew them towards the future, a future which has itself become the past…”

Originally commissioned as a three movement work, this more recent and definitive version reflects the composers original vision. It was premiered the Berkshire Symphony in February of 2008 with Ronald Feldman, Conductor.

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