Dream Vapors Suite – three movements for orchestra (collated 2018, 22:20)
I. Tracing a Dream
II. Reversing Mirrors in the Quiet
III. Of Time Remembered
Score available through Subito Music Distribution
Video features the 2022 World premiere by the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Elias Brown.
Program note: The three movements of the Dream Vapors Suite are explorations into the impressionistic logic of emotions and dreams. Within this realm there is a fluidity of connections and sequences that is governed by emotional contexts, rather than rational order. With the shifting intangibility of perceptions and memories, unique juxtapositions arise, as in dreams. The “vapors” in the title refers to the residual emotions and imagery that can linger and resurface in life. – RW
Yet Still Night
Release 2/12/2016: Dream Vapors – selected works for orchestra, Navona Records, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Robert Ian Winstin, Conductor
Score available through Subito Music Distribution
(Original Release 2007: Masterworks of the New Era, Volume 11 – ERMMedia-6811 no longer available)
Program note: Recurrent punctuations of an urban soundscape reverberate in the late hours and mix with an emotional insight suffused with sadness and clarity that dreams and conflict will continue, insistent and inconsolable. –RW
Tracing a Dream
Score purchase is available through Subito Music Distribution. Purchase original CD release.
Release 2/2016: Dream Vapors – selected works for orchestra, Navona Records, Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, Ovidiu Marinescu, Conductor
Original Release 4/2011: Light and Shadow, Navona Records, NV5847
Program note: Tracing a Dream taps into the impressionistic logic of emotions and dreams. Within this realm there is a fluidity of connections and sequences that is governed by emotional contexts, rather than rational order. Music has the capacity to heighten and distill emotions through juxtapositions that might otherwise be thought to be unlikely – comparable to dream imagery. – RW
Still Motion
Released 7/8/2016: SPARKS, Navona Records, NV6050 Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, Petr Vronsky, Conductor
Score available through Subito Music Distribution. Purchase CD.
Program note: The inspiration for Still Motion arose from a combination of sorting through the emotional residue of year’s end and the impatient desire to move ahead with life with a new year’s beginning. It is a mix of edgy energy, reflective sadness and strength of conviction. –RW
Video is an introductory excerpt that I created with the opening of the piece.
Shredding Glass
Score available through Subito Music Distribution.
Re-Release 2016: Dream Vapors – selected works for orchestra, Navona Records
Original Release 2008: Masterworks of the New Era, Volume 12 – ERMMedia, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Robert Ian Winstin, Conductor
Program note: Shredding Glass began as an immediate cathartic response to the events and images of September 11, 2001. It is a reverential work of compassion and spiritual healing that was composed in the shadow of 9/11. To me this piece represents the essence of an emotional remembrance – how time and timelessness unfolded while coping with the realization, heartbreak and impact of this catastrophic event. I believe the music is ultimately about transcendence. –RW
Of Time Remembered
Re-Release 2/12/2016: Dream Vapors – selected works for orchestra, Navona Records, Moravian Philharmonic, Petr Vronsky, Conductor
Score available through Subito Music Distribution. Purchase original CD release.
Program Note: Tapping into the impressionistic logic of emotions and dreams, moving through an interior space where logic dissolves and language gives way to subconscious rooms and pathways where memories play like shadows cast against a screen of emotion.
Long Division
I. Pulses of Distraction
II. Empty Corners
III. Pulling Apart
Chromatic, strong tonal centers, neo-romantic and minimalist influences, atmospheric textures and rhythmic pulses without traditional harmonic development. Traces the stages of the dissolution of a relationship. In Mvt 3, all is irrevocably set in motion.
Fast Through Dark Winds
Released 2/12/2016: Dream Vapors – selected works for orchestra, Navona Records, Moravian Philharmonic, Petr Vronsky, Conductor
Score available through Subito Music Distribution
Program note: Inspired by the emotional intensity of a dream – careening through dense dark night fog on a bike with no brakes, no control and no visibility, accompanied by alternating interludes of fear and transcendent calm.
Some time after composing this, I realized that the dream was a subliminal metaphor for the profound helplessness I was feeling as a caregiver and the need for acceptance in witnessing my mother’s descent into vascular dementia. – RW
Disturbances
I. Running Late
II. Waking From Broken Dreams
III. Yet Still Night
Anxiety segues to a waking insight suffused with sadness and clarity, moving to the inescapable realization that night continues. Recurrent sonic punctuations of city life. Urban soundscape reverberating in the late hours of a night’s existential moment. The final nocturne opens softly with a lullaby motive that becomes insistent and inconsolable
