Insomni
Instrumentation: Woodwind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon)
Year Composed: 2023
Duration: 23 minutes
Pages: 62
Cost: Purchase: $45.00
Movements:
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I. Luminous dark birds, perched on lamps of water, guarding our dreams II. Speaking the glyph of plants III. Time corroded by its own clocks IV. The squirrels of forgetfulness V. The place on the circle where everything crosses in time at the bottom of sleep |
Listen to audio mock-up of the piece, made through Finale
Movement I
Movement II
Movement III
Movement IV
Movement V
Click here for samples of the score from movements I, II and III.
Program Notes:
The titles of the movements of Insomnia come from four different poems by the poet Olga Cabral (1909-1997). The opening movement's title comes primarily from her 1976 poem House of the Poet, but I stole the "luminous dark birds" part from a later poem of hers (The Scream). House of the Poet also provided the title for movement III, again with some minor adjustments to the line. The poem The Meadow (homage to Paul Klee) (1976) provided the title for movements II and V. The fourth movement's title comes from the poem which also provided the title for the work as a whole, Insomnia (1980):
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With the pallor of butterflies locked in ice the moon walks grandly down the staircase the stars buckle themselves in for the night the squirrels of forgetfulness run here, run there looking for black peonies I lie lightly over the whole earth and cover it with my body like snow. |