Pipe Dreamer

About

A "pipe dream" is a hope that is unattainable, the unrealistic dream of the idealist. This piece was written with a feeling of roaming aimlessly, searching but never finding. Although such a piece sounds at times distant, ethereal or unearthly, the inspiration or idea for the piece I (and surely many other people) often get everyday, especially under the pressures of studying at university - an artist will constantly search to find something new and impressive or never before discovered but only to be disappointed. It has been discovered before... it is experienced once, then thrown away... our art is forgettable, dispensable to the people that matter - or so we think.

This piece is composed using the whole tone scale - a sense of wandering and wondering. A simple melodic idea was constructed in a way that could be linked together seamlessly and transposed along the whole tone scale to create a dream-like quality. There are brief moments that deviate from the whole tone scale which symbolise a vision of hope or an idea, however, the questions always remain unresolved and we return to the murky water. Attention is given to pedaling technique with the intention to create a fine line between beauty and ugliness, hope and dispair. The pedal on the piano can create an exquisitely ethereal quality to the sound, yet too much can plunge us into muddy, murky waters.