Four Short Dreams (2013) – violin, cello, piano, percussion, and tape (9′)
I. Concrete (1′)
II. Daydream (2′)
III. Hypnogagia (2′)
)INTERRUPTION( (2′)
IV. Hünrosa (2′)
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-First Prize Winner of the Prix d’Été XX (2015-2016) and finalist in the 2014 SCI/ASCAP Student Commission Competition, this work for chamber ensemble and fixed media draws inspiration from various dreams and sleep states. The first movement features fixed media alone that draws from low-fi samples compiled by inviting friends and colleagues to submit any recorded sounds that reminded them of sleeping or dreaming, recorded with any device they had available to them; the dreamer reflects on slumber. The second movement is a warm daydream in the middle of the day; the dreamer dozes off. The third movement focuses on sleep paralysis and the uncomfortable often frightening effects of this state, with the instruments and electronics unable to exactly align rhythmically or harmonically; the dreamer is trapped. An “interruption” comes in the middle of the sleep cycle, breaking up the dreamer’s pattern. This movement is in direct contrast with the first, utilizing high quality samples of a whole slew of bathroom sounds, ones that should be familiar to anyone getting up in the middle of the night. Finally, the last movement “Hünrosa,” (Cornish for the verb to dream), features a quote from an American folksong pertaining to dreaming, as well as a notable tune from Cornwall; the dreamer approaches rising.