Program notes
Maroon Dreams (2003) is a cycle of three songs for tenor and ensemble based on poems by Venezuelan painter and writer Susana Amundaraín. The texts —Chestnut Oak Tree, For You, and Dreamplace—evoke reveries of youth, ceremonial experiences, and dream states. The music follows the imagery of the poems closely, moving between intimate lyricism and more dramatic, rhythmically charged passages.
I have wanted to set Susana’s writings for a long time. Our artistic collaboration goes back many years, to several multimedia projects in which her visual world and my music have shared the same space. Her poetry has always struck me as both delicate and powerful, with a strong sense of place and memory that naturally suggested musical gestures.
In 2003 the Renaissance City Winds asked me to write a new work to feature tenor Douglas Ahlstedt in their 2003–2004 season. Maroon Dreams was the result, and it became the last piece I wrote for the ensemble as part of a three-year residency funded by The Heinz Endowments. The score exists in the original chamber version and in an expanded orchestral version.
— Efraín Amaya
Videos
Live performances of the three songs can be viewed below:
I — Chestnut Oak Tree
II — For You
III — Dreamplace
Instrumentation & duration
Orchestral instrumentation:
1.1.1.2 — 2.1.0.0 — 1 perc. — tenor solo — strings.
Original chamber version:
tenor, oboe, bassoon, and two French horns.
Duration: ca. 12 minutes.
Purchase options
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For rental of the orchestral or chamber parts, please see our Rental & Licensing page.