Instrumentation: Piano & Cello

Downloadable sample pages found at the link here.

John Brown Dreaming is a sequel to my theatre piece John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat, a staged realisation of the picture-story book by Jenny Wagner and Ron Brooks. In that work, an episode ‘John Brown thought’ sees Rose’s dog John Brown come to terms with Rose letting in the Midnight Cat.

I wondered later, what might John Brown have dreamt? This work explores that idea.

A meditative opening for solo cello develops John Brown’s theme in a plainsong-like reverie. Changing metres and irregular note values loosen its temporal moorings and we drift from day to twilight and into sleep.

The piano announces the arrival of REM sleep … and the vivid arrival of the Midnight Cat who is at once terrifying, yet isn’t it beautiful? It is unwanted, yet let it in! There is chasing it away, yet willing it to stay.

In Dream Cycles is deep sleep, acceptance and calm. John Brown floats drifts through a slowly revolving and evolving cosmos where life and imagination comingle - waking and dreaming; journey and destination; daytime dog and nighttime cat.