Pipe Dreams

Composer’s note: “There is something innately human about cherishing one’s deepest desires while knowing that they are impossible. Part of the model in this work is also the folly that a flute – the instrument itself – might harbor its own secret wishes. In a universe where all is possible, what might a flute dream?” “The work uses one of my preferred architectures: a single movement with three sections in the classic form moderate-slow-fast. Although the solo line is unashamedly virtuosic, the intention is not to dazzle but to explore as much dreaminess as possible, filtered through the willfulness of a metal pipe which believes it has no limits. There is no specific consideration in this music of the opium pipe, from which the term pipe dream originates.”