Within Dreams

Details: Within Dreams was premiered at Inventions 2005 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, with soloist Anssi Karttunen; this performance was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 Hear and Now. The work was commissioned as part of the London Sinfonietta’s Blue Touch Paper scheme and was developed over the course of a year through a series of workshops with the soloist and ensemble. Portfolio: Programme from Premiere. Context: The research questions addressed in the work develop those addressed in output 1, and are concerned with the nature of the creative process, how this can be negotiated and fostered between the players and composer, and the subsequent influence this can have on the musical fabric of the resulting work. Through working closely with the cellist on the solo material, the composer was able to expand musical language and compositional technique, the results of which can be seen throughout the work in the form of extended playing techniques and an exploration of instrumental timbre. A further area of compositional research concerns the perception of simultaneous and successive levels of differing textural activity. This layering and juxtaposition of musical materials is systematically explored through timbre, rhythm and pitch, as well as instrumentation. Non-developmental structures are created through highly dynamic shifts between these differing levels of textural, timbral and rhythmic activity. The intention is to use the ensemble to create a meta-instrument, which continually refracts the volatile harmonic and timbral energy inherent in the solo part