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Christopher Cerrone

The Night Mare

for 7 players and electronics

flute (afl), bass clarinet, violin, viola, cello, percussion, piano and prerecorded electronics (2011)
Duration9'
CommissionRed Light New Music
PremiereOctober 3, 2011; Symphony Space, New York, NY; The Red Light Ensemble; Ted Hearne, conductor; Christopher Cerrone, sound engineer
Technical requirementsA MAC or PC laptop computer equipped with the free program Max Runtime 

An audio interface that can output 3 channels

Earpiece for conductor to follow click track
Stereo speakers

Optional: condenser microphones for amplification and light reverb
Optional: Midi foot pedal for percussionist to trigger electronics
PublisherPSNY

Media

Program Note

“Dreams are the genus; nightmares the species.”

—JL Borges, "Nightmares"

“I met the night mare.”

— William Shakespeare (attributed by JL Borges)

Nightmares have long inspired artists to embrace the surreal, the disorderly, the senseless—that nebulous yet recognizable concept known as "the unconscious."  When I came across "Nightmares," a short lecture by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, I was intrigued by his sharply contrasting view of nightmares. Borges accepts that nightmares are a chaotic flash of surreal images remembered from our waking hours, but what was important—artistically—to him was the act of remembering a nightmare—the story that our waking mind only later concocts, with a beginning, middle, and ending.

In my own The Night Mare, the opening sounds are half-remembered sonic fragments of my daily ritual: breathing, noisy clicks, the drone of an idling train. As the piece progresses, these elements are organized into more recognizable and familiar musical elements: first harmonies, then a haunting, recurring melody that forms in the piano and is coated in a hazy texture by the ensemble. The electronics (which are all derived from a field recording of a train) emphasize the blurred lines between the heard and half-heard (what is a train, and what is a flute?) until the work blooms into fully realized musical textures in which all of these elements finally cohere—if only for a moment.

At that moment of coherence, there is a short and sudden shift. Much the way sounds of waking life enter the end of our dreams, this new element jolts the piece into another climax: a sudden and abrupt awakening.

The Night Mare is dedicated to my friend and teacher Ingram Marshall, whose straightforward and effective use of electronics inspired me to explore that field in the first place.

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solo part and piano reduction (Print)

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The full score serves as a performance score for all players. A score PDF file is delivered via email upon receipt. Any electronic files associated with the work are included with every purchase. An email containing a link to download the electronic files is sent to the customer's email address.

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A print edition of the score and part(s) ship to the customer's address upon receipt. Any electronic files associated with the work are included with every purchase. The email containing a link to download the electronic files is sent to the customer.

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A print edition of the score is shipped to the customer's address upon receipt. Any electronic files associated with the work are included with every purchase. An email containing a link to download the electronic files is sent to the customer's email address.

Full Score/Performance Score (Print)
The full score serves as a performance score for all players. Print edition(s) of the full score/performance score are shipped to the customer's address upon receipt. Multiple copies are included if the work has more than one player. Any electronic files associated with the work are included with every purchase.

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A PDF file of the choral score is delivered via email upon receipt. The set is priced to allow multiple copies of the PDF to be printed for performance by the purchasing organization only.

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Mezzo-soprano, 2 tenors, baritone score (Print)

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Study Score (Digital)

SATB choral score (Digital)

Mezzo-soprano, 2 tenors, baritone score (Digital)