Iblard

Year Composed:	2005
Instrumentation:	fl/picc/a.fl, cl/b.cl, vln, vcl, pno, perc
Duration	19 minutes

Program Notes

Iblard is a continuation of ideas I had explored in another composition, Dreamscapes. It opens with a depiction of the surface of calm water, mirroring the world around it, distorted by occasional ripples. The music then plunges beneath the surface; the descent represents a journey into the unconscious. I wanted to portray a world where dreams are not so much a refuge from the real world, but an intensification of it. Because dreams are a projection of our greatest desires and fears, they are in some ways more ‘true’ than reality itself, which can wear many facades.

The title "Iblard" is the name given to a series of paintings by Japanese artist Inoue Naohisa. The paintings depict an imaginary world of wonder and warped physics. The moment I saw these paintings I felt a close connection to them, as if they were products of my own psyche.

Performances

• January (?), 2006 - University of Toronto, conducted by Bill Rowson. Walter Hall, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto