Instrumentation: Flute and guitar
Duration: 13:45
Commission: Ekko Ensemble
Premiere: 10/18/96
Allison Potter, flute, Mike Rosensky, guitar
Old Cabell Auditorium, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Oversize score | Purchase Music
Contact asst@judithshatin.com for score & parts
Program Note:
Dreamtigers (1996) was inspired by a prose poem of that name by Jorge Luis Borges. He describes his joyous memory of tigers from his youth and how, while dreaming, he believes he can conjure them up. But he only sees bits and pieces, mirages that dissolve in the end. To me, both the title and piece were suggestive: when composing it often seems that one is trying to pin down the ephemeral in a material way, to give body to image and idea. The title also suggests something of animal struggles, and the sense of wrestling is one that exists in my compositional process as well. Dreamtigers unfolds in one movement, with transformations that curl back on themselves and ultimately evaporate. It was composed during a wonderful residency at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts during the summer of 1996, and is dedicated to Mike Rosensky.–JS