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Sheet Music: Performance PartsI dance myself to sleep / Joseph Twist.by Joseph Twist (2010)
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Sleeping has long been a fascinating and frustrating activity for
me. I am a very light sleeper, if not a frequent insomniac, and
when I do sleep I often have bizarre and surreal dreams - which I
assume most of us experience at some point. Sleeping is a
mysterious activity; a strange altered state of consciousness
that may involve sleepwalking, nightmares and fantasies, while
also being an essential part of living,
providing rejuvenation,
relaxation, escape and peace. The power of sleep may go further;
as Walt Whitman suggested, sleep is a democratising force - even
murderers sleep like the rest of us, young and old, black and
white.
I Dance Myself to Sleep explores the general idea of
sleep, but more specifically it relates to a perplexing recurring
dream that involves the central 'female companion' characters
from some of my favourite childhood movies like Superman, the
Indiana Jones films and the Star Wars saga. Representing this is
a repeated, romantic melody - a 'love theme' that I wrote at the
age of 12 in homage to the enchanting love themes in film scores
by John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and Max Steiner. However, this
recurring dream developed over several years, becoming less
whimsical and naive, allegorically suggesting a loss of
innocence. This is represented musically in my work by the
juxtaposition of sweeping romanticism and haunting musical
gestures. The simple melody is played in contexts made
bittersweet by particular orchestration, counterpoint and harmony
that shrouds
and taints the unadorned melody. I Dance Myself
to Sleep synthesises several musical influences on my work,
including film music and jazz harmony, as well as particular
works of Maurice Ravel and Toru Takemitsu.
Joseph Twist © 2011
Published by: Australian Music Centre — 1 set of performance parts
Difficulty: Advanced
Duration: 8 min.
First performance by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra — 29 Jan 11. Iwaki Auditorium ABC Southbank Centre, Melbourne
Written for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as part of the Cybec 21st Century Composer Program 2010
Typeset edition.
Related products
This work is also available in the following products:
Score: I dance myself to sleep / Joseph Twist.
This work also exists as the following versions:
- Solo Piano
- Browse other works for Full orchestra
- Browse other works by Joseph Twist
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