like a dream slowly forgotten

Virtual premiere on November 9, 2025 in Garden City, NY by Hypercube Ensemble.

Hypercube Ensemble:
Erin Rogers, saxophone
Jay Sorce, guitar
Chris Graham, percussion
Andrea Lodge, accordion

Movements:
I. Twenty-four attempts at recalling a dream (0:00)
II. Gibbersong (5:13)
III. I want to remember this (7:36)

One of the strangest aspects of dreams in the attempted process of recollection after you wake up. It always feels as if the more you try to think about the dream or piece ideas together, the entire concept slips away from you altogether. In LIKE A DREAM SLOWLY FORGOTTEN, the title also serves as a sort of performance note. Over three movements, a simple melody is briefly introduced once and is slowly taken apart, passed around, and eventually lost in the music. Quickly, it only reappearing in brief, poorly replicated instances. The three movements of this work embody three different states of being I have found myself after waking up, each approaching the idea of blur in a multitude of ways as the piece slowly switches the roles of the instrumentalist and electronics as foreground and background voices.

The first titled ‘Twenty-four attempts at recalling a dream’ takes the initial ‘dream motive’ (B-flat, A-flat, G, D (F)) and introduces it quickly once in the saxophone, then it becomes quickly developed within throughout the ensemble in a meditative state. Re-introduced twenty-three more times throughout this movement. It never occurs the same twice and is regularly fragmented or incomplete, but it’s presence is always felt on every return.

In the second, ‘Gibbersong’, the electronics begin their push into the foreground. A mash-up of speeches, riots, and general noise is heavily processed and placed under the ensemble. It is accompanied by the fidgeting, yet oddly lyrical saxophone playing above it in a repeated frenzied pattern which mimics the electronics. In the midground, the guitar created a light blanket of sound while the crotales and accordion subtly pluck out the original melody in fragments.

In the final movement, ‘I want to remember this’, I draw inspiration from the feeling of waking up from a dream where everything is perfect to return to reality where everything isn’t. The movement once again features the alto saxophone is a beautiful solo, accompanied by the rest of the quartet playing small, supporting tones. Ultimately, the saxophone and gutiar come together for a powerful chord as the electronics take the foreground by playing the melody in a very subdued way. All voices fade out until one final shaky, unpitched sound quickly ends the work.

This work was written for Hypercube Ensemble.