Shadows of Dreams: Composing the Final Section

Sketch page 5-1

Final Score page 7

Final Score page 8

Tomorrow, May 28th, I am invited to attend the final rehearsal for Shadows of Dreams at U.C. Santa Cruz.  So today I will spend some time looking at my score and notes.  I need to prepare to work with the ensemble tomorrow.  As I was looking at my notes I came across my initial sketch for the final section of the piece (Sketch page 5-1, above).  My goal for the finale was to combine the various melodies and themes into a distinct and cohesive unit.

The sketch consists of 3 staff systems.  The first is the opening alto flute melody (untransposed, measures 1-8).  The second system contains the melody from the 3rd section (measures 102-11) in the 2nd flute.  The 1st flute counterpoint from measure 103 is added to fill the rests.  This 2nd  flute melody is transposed down a half-step so that the two melodies will blend together.

The third system is the first attempt at combining the two melodies.  This happens to be the way it appears in the score beginning at measure 120.  The primary difference is that the 1st flute plays the melody, from the 3rd section, up an octave.  Measure 135 brings that melody back to the 2nd flute in the original octave and the combination of the two melodies is expanded to bring the piece to a more natural close.

I provided the final copy of the notated score illustrate how the sketches come together.  This section of the sketch score spans 4 pages due to various edits and deletions.