Dance the Dream Awake |
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Premiere:
March 31, 2009 :: University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra :: Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, MI
Duration:
ca. 9:00
Instrumentation:
full orchestra (3.3.3.3-4.3.3.1-timp-3 perc-pno-harp-strings)
Score:
View Score Sample
Program Notes:
The title for Dance the Dream Awake was taken from a lyric by jazz singer Kurt Elling, entitled Night Dream, found on his 2001 album, Live In Chicago. Elling is known for his vocalese style of singing, where melodic material is borrowed from an instrumental composition or improvisation and words are written over the pre-existing melodies. For Night Dream, Elling transcribed and wrote lyrics to the tune and solo improvisations from the title track of Wayne Shorter’s classic album Night Dreamer, which features Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Lee Morgan on trumpet, McCoy Tyner on piano, Reggie Workman on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums. Elling uses Shorter’s and Morgan’s virtuosic, post-bebop improvisations as an opportunity to showcase his duel talent for writing powerful, rhythmic lyrics, and performing those lyrics with brilliant energy, agility, and grace. The lyrics for Night Dream, as with most vocalese writing, is mostly syllabic, rather than melismatic, so there are many words written to fit the dense instrumental solos, which is why I have chosen to print only a portion of them in this note:
…Suddenly the chamber was flooded with light, hurling me skyward like a meteorite. When I fell to earth, I saw everything in a blur. I saw that time was accelerating in a curve. And the palace in which I had stood it was flowing, like, lava, on acres of woodland like a pompei-an mountain volcano, making archipelago, and destroying the planet at fortissimo. Bulldozing everything down, to make room for what was a byzantine, a labyrinthine, knotty mess of manifolding passageways, a tangle of confusion, where the walls made, an asylum of baroque.
Like a joke, words were spoken to provoke me, and to toss me nude and empty to the sea.
But I would have none of it. I simply turned my back walked out of the dreamscape, into landscape, like a bedroom, where I heard that,
Lonely the roses of solitaire, sing as though somebody still may care. They live only for the dream of living, so come follow where, they will take you there. Stay awake—no mistake—dance the dream awake—and awake.
I chose to use the lyrics as a launching point for my own work in two ways. First, the colorful language, vivid imagery, surprising depth, and veiled meaning of the lyric intrigued me. Contrary to many jazz lyrics, I’ve found much of Elling’s work to be rather contemplative, thoughtful, philosophical, and spiritual—it seems that Night Dream is all of these things, wrapped up in a sort of lucid dream, where thoughts, ideas, and images are wound into a vibrant and puzzling stream of [un]consciousness. Although Dance the Dream Awake is not specifically programmatic, I did use Night Dreamer as an origin for my musical inspiration. Secondly, I found Elling’s lyric and his performance of Night Dreamer influential in that it pays homage to the work of some truly great musicians. It’s fascinating to me that Shorter and Morgan’s improvised melodic impulses are so interesting, complex, and enduring that they are worth reiterating nearly fifty years after having been first performed. It is the astonishing creative and energetic spirit of artists like Elling, Shorter, Morgan, Tyner, Jones and so many other jazz artists to which I have looked for inspiration for not only this work, but also for much of my music.
Purchasing Information:
Score and parts are available for rental only. Please contact David for more information. Payment is accepted via check or credit card. Performance materials will be mailed/emailed after payment is received.
Performances:
|
03/31/2009
|
Hill Auditorium :: Ann Arbor, MI University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra :: Avlana Eisenberg, conductor |
|
03/28/2009
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Max M. Fisher Music Center, Detroit, MI Detroit Symphony Orchestra :: Leonard Slatkin, conductor (reading session) |
