By:

• Ross Harris

Duration:

20' 00"

Instrumentation:

violin, violoncello, soprano saxophone, flugelhorn and bass clarinet

Contents:

This work is almost a monodrama, as the poems and music form a connected sequence states of mind.

Samples

	Score (576k)	Page 1	© Ross Harris
	Recording (468k)	No description
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Availability

• This work has 2 scores and a recording

Programme Note

Commissioned for the opening of the new National Library building in 1987, this work was the centre piece in a concert of New Zealand music which inaugurated the Library’s auditorium. Harris chose Alistair Campbell’s poetry as he has always enjoyed its vernacular quality. Included in the ensemble are some of Harris’ favourite instruments: soprano saxophone, bass clarinet and flugelhorn. Harris views this work almost as a kind of unstaged melodrama. As with his To the Memory of I.S. Totska (2000), Dreams Yellow Lions was written in a period between work on his operas and acts as a substitute for the larger compositional form. Short instrumental interludes link the songs through various emotional states. “It’s all about memories and I always imagine an old man thinking about his younger days, dreaming away, getting old and becoming sick”.

Text Note:

Text by Alistair Campbell

Commissioned:

Commissioned for the opening of the National Library Building in 1985

Difficulty:

Advanced

Performance History

	05 Aug 1987	Performed by David Griffiths (baritone), Richard Panting (violin), Josephine Young (cello), Deborah Rawson (soprano saxophone), David Armstrong (flugelhorn) and June Byng (bass clarinet); conducted by Ross Harris. Available on Harris: Waiteata Collection of NZ Music Volume IV; WTA 004
		David Griffiths