A Dream
I had a really wonderful dream last night. The guitar orchestra had decided to do an opera, and we were playing one of the concerts. (The first? In CIT? Except the auditorium looked more like a school hall.) The dream started about half an hour before the concert, and I was talking to an old friend from secondary school in the seats for a while. Then I left with Brendan, the director, for a walk. We ended up walking across this huge footbridge which spanned a ford. It was only wide enough for two or three people, and its sides were a ledge, about, perhaps, four inches high, and a wooden rail about four foot high. There were, presumably, vertical pillars every so often, but all I remember is the nearly-four foot of space. I remember this because Brendan and I were talking about suicide, and (or because) it was beginning to transpire that he had thought of it very seriously often before. At one point he lay down, and I, fearing he would roll off the side into the water - which was about forty metres below - lay down beside him, and we continued talking. He did roll off, but I, having expected it, caught him. It was still a bit of a surprise, so I had to make sure I had good grip and leverage before pulling him up, and this left him between worlds for a minute or two. But I pulled him up in the end, and we didn't say anything for a while, because what do you say after your friend has tried to commit suicide?
Anyway, this meant that I missed the first half of the opera. So should Brendan have, by rights, but this is a dream. He somehow made it on time, and the suicide attempt had no repercussions at all in the rest of the dream. I arrived at the end of the first half, then started tuning up and playing a small bit to get the guitar under my fingers. Unfortunately, no-one had turned off the microphones, so this was being heard very loudly throughout the hall.
Then the Second Act. It started with a baritone coming out and doing a bizarre combination of singing and playing the trombone. Later, it became such that there was a flautist, more singers, different sorts of guitar, a violin or two (I think?), and generally a really rich instrumental palette. The soundworld of the piece was American/early jazz/Hotel California, and I was really enjoying it. There was another really weird moment, when we had to play flute with pens (I mean, they were the flutes), but, whatever, it worked somehow. The other guitarist on my stand was Leonard, one of my St. Andrews classmates.
After Act 2, the soprano ran out from backstage to alert us that she couldn't find her top, one that she had thrown off when she was on stage during the performance, or something. All the house lights were off at this point, so the light was very murky, but she was still quite clearly topless and completely unbothered by the fact, expending her energies looking for the top instead. If this were not a dream, it would have been the second time in my life I'd been around a at-least-part-naked girl in a very public place. It's bewildering.
But anyway. It was a very good dream, and I really want to play that opera.. Incidentally, the opera had some sort of prelude for just percussion: maracas, congos, etc. I can't place this temporally, but it was such an interesting idea that I would very much like to turn it into a real piece! I would also like to write the opera.
Anyway, this meant that I missed the first half of the opera. So should Brendan have, by rights, but this is a dream. He somehow made it on time, and the suicide attempt had no repercussions at all in the rest of the dream. I arrived at the end of the first half, then started tuning up and playing a small bit to get the guitar under my fingers. Unfortunately, no-one had turned off the microphones, so this was being heard very loudly throughout the hall.
Then the Second Act. It started with a baritone coming out and doing a bizarre combination of singing and playing the trombone. Later, it became such that there was a flautist, more singers, different sorts of guitar, a violin or two (I think?), and generally a really rich instrumental palette. The soundworld of the piece was American/early jazz/Hotel California, and I was really enjoying it. There was another really weird moment, when we had to play flute with pens (I mean, they were the flutes), but, whatever, it worked somehow. The other guitarist on my stand was Leonard, one of my St. Andrews classmates.
After Act 2, the soprano ran out from backstage to alert us that she couldn't find her top, one that she had thrown off when she was on stage during the performance, or something. All the house lights were off at this point, so the light was very murky, but she was still quite clearly topless and completely unbothered by the fact, expending her energies looking for the top instead. If this were not a dream, it would have been the second time in my life I'd been around a at-least-part-naked girl in a very public place. It's bewildering.
But anyway. It was a very good dream, and I really want to play that opera.. Incidentally, the opera had some sort of prelude for just percussion: maracas, congos, etc. I can't place this temporally, but it was such an interesting idea that I would very much like to turn it into a real piece! I would also like to write the opera.