in silent dreams

for baroque flute, chamber organ, live electronics

20214 mins 20 secs

in silent dreams is an intentionally paradoxical title. How can this music be about silence?

It’s not literally silent music so you don’t get to walk out and request a refund yet. (Well unless you really don’t like it!) Instead, I was thinking about self-expression and communication, and what happens when expression doesn't make it out of the self. Gestures stutter, remaining hidden and inexpressible even as they are being expressed in sound.

In a sense, this work is about “silenced dreams.” The connection to sounds of the everyday world has been twisted and broken, so inner sounds, shapes and impulses come to life.

The work is projected as one of a triology of “in ... dreams” works, so I would love to hear from anyone interested in more works like this. They are projected for historical instruments but I'd be happy to rework them for modern instruments as well.

in silent dreams, the players interact with a Max/MSP live electronics patch I built. The patch records the players’ sound, timestretching and pitchshifting it so it becomes eerie flickering shadows of itself.

This piece now has a sibling: in stillness darkening, which was premiered in an initial version by Yihan Zhao in December 2023

Notes

• it may take several seconds for the files to open
• if you have issues, you can file a bug report on GitHub or contact me