The Music Dreams Are Starting Again...

The music dreams are starting again. Maybe that means that I'm ready to start thinking about my next project?

It hasn't happened in awhile, maybe because of all the sheer craziness of the past few months, or maybe from the over-exhaustion and lack of sleep. It used to happen quite a bit. I think it's a sign that I may be getting closer to being ready to start thinking about the 'next step' after Calling All Dawns.

Last night's dream was a fun one. I had accepted a commission from the Angel City Chorale to write a new work. The piece was for chorus, classical guitar and piano, was in E major, and had a lot of sustained, minimalistic harmonies. (Not really a piece that I would compose in real life, since I can't stay to stay in one key for more than 90 seconds.)

The second part of the dream was closer to a nightmare, however. For some reason I dreamt that I had agreed to sing an unaccompanied solo on stage during their next concert. It was 30 minutes before show time, I was rummaging around in my closet looking for a suit, and I still hadn't picked a song to sing yet. My assistants Alex and Laren were waiting anxiously in the next room. I decided that I would try to sing 'Hey Jude', and hopefully get the audience to sing along with me.

Writing Music In My Sleep

Sometimes I actually write music in my sleep. The most common scenario is that I'll be doing something random in my dream, like walking on my old college campus. And in my dream I'll be listening to my Discman (this was the mid-nineties)...and on the Discman will be playing a new piece of music that I've never heard before.

Sometimes, if it's simple enough, I'll wake up and actually *remember* what I heard in my dream. Most of the time, that doesn't happen...especially if it's a complicated piece. In one dream, I went to the Disney Concert Hall and listened to the LA Philharmonic perform a very complicated symphonic work for a good five minutes. I woke up, and couldn't remember a damn thing about the piece.

Last night, instead of writing music passively in my dream (that is, by dreaming that I was hearing new music), I actually dreamt of sitting down and writing it. It was sophomore year in high school (which would correspond to the approximate age I started composing). My friends and I were riding our bikes in circles around my front lawn, when one them stopped and told me that he was taking a class on commercial production. His homework assignment was to create an ad for a beer company, and so he asked me if I could write the music for his ad. I said, "Sure, let me think up some ideas," and went inside, and sat down at my old out-of-tune upright piano. I then banged out a Lynyrd Skynyrd-esque Southern Rock tune, complete with lyrics:

"Where you gonna go, Jimmy...
Where you gonna go..."

Okay, well, the lyrics aren't exactly brilliant...but hey, it's not like dreams are supposed to make *sense*.