Just dreams for mixed nonet (2020) by Tyler W. Taylor published on 2021-09-27T19:33:28Z This piece was commissioned by the National Orchestra Institute days before the shutdown of 2020. Having just finished my dissertation and with the weight of the impending pandemic on my mind, I set out to write this piece. I believe it is my most melancholic and forlorn to date. While I do not think of this piece as being a "covid piece" I do think it aptly captures the state of mind I was in while writing it. "Since about 2016, I have wanted to write a piece which is entirely slow and mostly quiet – one that captures a dim, mysterious, melancholic glow that seems pale, effervescent, and capable of evaporating at any given moment. This craving has been only partially fulfilled in some of the slow movements of my other works – most notably, the second movement of Modus operandi called Dust. However, in the pursuit of contrast, many of these movements stray from their quiet sound worlds and erupt into more passionate and bombastic textures (Encompass Mvt. II, Concerto for Horn Mv.t. II). The title Just dreams not only sets the mood for the nebulous, floating quality of the music but also suggests this mood will be maintained throughout. The piece contains three “lines”. The presentation of a new line denotes the start of a new section – these are marked No. I, No. II, and No. III. As the piece progresses, memories and echoes of past lines permeate the sections of the new lines. Their relationships are demonstrated below: No. I = Line 1 + premonitions of Line 2 No. II = Line 2 + Line 1 No. III = Line 3 + fragments of Lines 1 & 2 In lieu of a more contrast-based sense of dramatic trajectory, the form is driven by the counterpoint of the lines, the progress of the somewhat saccharine harmonies, and the subtle transformation of timbre as the lines are filtered though the various instrumental pairings/groupings." Recording provided by the National Orchestra Institute Genre Classical