A Pressure Triggering Dreams

The work "a pressure triggering dreams" was commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra for Carnegie Hall, in May, 1997, and was to be a work that included electronics. I elected to respond to this request by incorporating computer-processed flute sounds within the orchestral tapestry and to expand the orchestra by using live sampler keyboards, electric bass, and by selectively amplifying solo instruments. The title is a rough translation of some remarks made by Nietzsche in ?Birth of Tragedy? when he is speaking about the effect of Wagner?s musical language and materials upon the listener?these remarks characterized my subjective response to the piece I was then composing and therefore serves as a kind of emblem for the composition. A wide variety of materials is deliberately compressed in an attempt to create a saturated musical environment somehow related to the experience of the persistent musical afterimages suggested by Nietzsche?s brilliant observations. This work has been recorded on EMF 033.