Dreams Interrupted
by Mark Phillips

Duration: ca. 12 min.

In five movements played without pause.

  I) Wide Awake 
  II) Sweet Dreams  
III) Sleepwalking
 IV) Whole Lotta Wakin' Goin' On   
   V) Lullaby

Instrumentation: (original)
1 Flute, 1 Bb Clarinet, 1 Saxophone (doubling tenor & baritone)
1 Bb trumpet, 1 Trombone, 1 Tuba
2 Percussionists, 1 Piano
Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass
 Instrumentation: (new version)
for larger chamber ensemble or chamber orchestra
1 Flute, 1 Oboe, 1 Bb Clarinet, 1 Bassoon, 1 Saxophone (doubling tenor & baritone)
1 Bb trumpet, 1 Trombone, 1 Tuba
2 Percussionists, 1 Piano
Violin I, Violin II, Viola, Cello, Bass

Performance history:
Dallas Symphony Orchestra (2008)
Alabama Symphony Orchestra (2008 -- Martin Luther King Birthday celebration concert)
Baltimore Chamber Orchestra (2007)
Ohio University Martin Luther King Day event (2007)
Duluth Symphony Orchestra (2006)
Duquesne New Music Ensemble (2006)
Ohio University New Music Ensemble (2005)
Imagine Festival, University of Memphis (2005) -- premiere


Score:
http://home.frognet.net/~phillipm/DreamsInterrupted.pdf (original version)
(I print the score on 11x17 paper and cut the pages down to ca. 11x13 to make it a more convenient size -- thus the wide margins on the pdf file.)

http://home.frognet.net/~phillipm/Dreams_Interrupted.pdf (new expanded version)
(I print the score on 11x17 paper and cut the pages down to ca. 11x14 to make it a more convenient size -- thus the wide bottom margin on the pdf file.)


Parts:
available from the composer

mp3 recordings:
http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~phillipm/MemphisDreams.mp3
    University of Memphis -- recording of premiere, April 1, 2005 (17 MB)
    recorded live in concert by an all-student group.

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~phillipm/OU_Dreams.mp3
    Ohio University -- recorded June 10, 2005 (15 MB)
    recording session with OU faculty/student ensemble


Program Note:
The commission for a premiere in Memphis, Tennessee, offered me a good excuse to search for inspiration in the city's rich musical and cultural heritage, which includes W. C. Handy and the vibrant Beale Street blues tradition, the seminal Sun studio recordings, Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement, and much more.  Before long, I was drowning in a sea of "inspiration," but getting nowhere on the actual composition -- until I visited the city a few months before the premiere.  Too early each morning, a loud alarm went off in the hotel room adjacent to mine and kept up its obnoxious, rhythmic bleating for a solid hour or more.  Somewhere in the haze of extreme sleep deprivation and frequently interrupted dreams, I found the narrative for my personal and idiosyncratic tribute to Memphis and to the memory of Dr. King.

The composition has five programmatically titled movements performed without pause: Wide Awake!, Sweet Dreams, Sleepwalking,  Whole Lotta Wakin' Goin' On, and Lullaby. For contributions to the accompanying soundtrack, I am indebted to Mark Snyder and Scott Hinds for Memphis source recordings and to Sylvester Young, Jack Wright, Esther Rose Wilen, Richard Syracuse, and members of the commissioning group, including conductor Kamran Ince, who represent a remarkable diversity of ethnic and cultural backgrounds.