Your cart

Total
NZD
Shipping and discount codes are added at checkout.

Work


Dwalm

for saxophone quartet

Year:  2018   ·  Duration:  8m
Instrumentation:  SATB saxophone quartet

Year:  2018
Duration:  8m
Instrumentation  SATB saxophone quartet

Composer:   Gemma Peacocke

Films, Audio & Samples

Gemma Peacocke: Dwalm — VIDEO

Embedded video
See details ➔

Gemma Peacocke: Dwalm — AUDIO

Embedded audio
See details ➔
Sample Score

Sample: pages 1–4 of score

See details ➔

Borrow/Hire:

To borrow items or hire parts please email SOUNZ directly at info@sounz.org.nz.

About

There is a strangeness to the duality of the word "dwalm". It is an old Scottish word with two meanings: a stupor or daydream (as in the phrase "in a dwalm"), and to faint or fall ill. It comes from the Old English word "dwolma", which means "confusion".

What is strange is that a daydream is such a light and lovely drifting of the mind, whereas fainting or falling ill is a sudden wrenching. Perhaps though, they are different surfacings of the same darkness.

This piece is half lullaby, half keen; both songs to set someone to rest, whether by drifting off or being bid a final, fearsome farewell.


Commissioned note

Commissioned for the 2018 Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab by Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting


Dedication note

to my sister, Chloe, who has always found light in darkness