So, I was having a restless sleep one night last week and the strangest thing happened – I was having a dream about the concerto. I was standing in front of an orchestra, feeling nervous about the rehearsal we were having in a small rehearsal room that looked more like an over-sized classroom. I wasn’t sure if the musicians respected me enough as a conductor or if I could exude enough confidence to control the mass of disinterested players in front of me.
As if that wasn’t weird enough, suddenly the regular conductor enters the room and they all tap the top of their stands with their bows and sit to attention and I was really confused. I realized I was sitting at a piano with a piano player observing the rehearsal. As they started to rehearse their parts, the person at the piano with me started asking me about my intention for the chords, playing what I had written and being insistent that I explain myself and say if this is EXACTLY what I wanted. I was confused, because the sound from the orchestra was gorgeous and exactly the surreal experience I was hoping it would be.
I could hear Cora playing the ‘astral’ violin part from another room or space on top of the orchestra and it all sounded fantastic to me. Seriously!
Then it got weirder. I was now in a house with the piano player who I still could not 
identify but appeared to be a female form who was working hard to have me focus on my intended texture. She made me look at her fingers on the piano as she played the chords and clearly played out this three chord sequence that was the fundamental building block of the texture. After watching forever, in my dream, I took manuscript and wrote down the three chord progression and mentally stored the concept of how it was being used. The idea was that the structure from the chord, could be deconstructed and triggered throughout the instruments of the orchestra to create an echo chamber of sorts based on the chords themselves. It was shocking, beautiful and trippy writing it down!
Just before waking up, a close friend of mine who passed away a number of years ago picked me up in the car and we went to the funeral of another of our friends who as far as I know is still alive! I woke up, a bit overwhelmed by it all, but quickly grabbed my notebook (at 5am) and wrote down the chords before it passed into memories past…
Do you want to know whats funny now, a week on? I still vividly remember the chords, the orchestra and the texture and the sensation that it brought to the music. Its going to have to get written in…
The Hope Concerto Project 