Anthony Powers

Architecture and Dreams

Conductor's score and parts on hire

Forces or Category: Chamber orchestra

Orchestration: fl (+picc&afl), ob (+ca), cl (+bcl), bn (+cbn), hn, hp, perc (vib, mar, cencenos (jazz cbells), hi-hat, w blk), str

for chamber orchestra

Architecture and Dreams

Conductor's score and parts on hire

Anthony Powers

Description

Programme Notes:

The title (which came late in the composing) suggests two apparently quite different aspects of music; but dreams have their own form and logic and architecture has its dimension of fantasy, so the two are not mutually exclusive.
Lasting in all about twenty minutes, there are three movements which play without a break. The first is a mosaic of many different ensembles (from duo to tutti) each with its own distinctive music. The ensembles interlock in various ways in an 'architecturally' proportioned structure of recurrence and development. The slow second movement is a "song without words" for (mainly) alto flute, horn and strings, but this 'dream' is not undisturbed. The final movement mixes the rhythms of various dances (from waltz to samba) on a fast moto perpetuo background. Here too the structure is 'proportional', and, though the dream has its nightmarish aspect, three times the accumulated energy dissolves into nothing.
Architecture and Dreams was commissioned by the City of Worcester for Music in Our Time 1992 with financial assistance from West Midlands Arts.
© Anthony Powers 1992
Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press

Architecture and Dreams

Conductor's score and parts on hire

Anthony Powers

Composer Information