Abstract
The intention of this work is to portray the composer’s childhood recurring dreams through music: painting a musical picture of the moods during the dream sequences. In Dreams is a large chamber-sized group using cyclic form. It is scored for piccolo, flute, clarinet in B-flat, bass clarinet, trumpet in B-flat, trombone, drum set with whistle, piano, two violins, viola, and cello and lasts approximately a little over fourteen minutes. The piece was written with the intention to use music to connect disjunct scenes from the composer’s recurring dreams smoothly so that the two types of dream scenes can weave in and out of each other like streams of consciousness. The two types of dreams are representative of the composer’s first encounter with a clown at a fair and her family living in four different homes. The key component of this work is the use of thematic transformation. The contrasting thematic and stylistic material for the circus clown music and the four home locations are the basis for this cyclic progression and undergo changes each time these themes reappear. This thematic transformation facilitates the audience’s ability to become familiar with the themes and types of music, and thus, allowing the audience to follow along on the musical journey. A chamber ensemble, under the direction of Jason Pano, premiered In Dreams on November 23, 2010.