Judith Shatin

Flute and Guitar

Composer's Note:

Dreamtigers (1996) was inspired by a prose-poem of that name by Jorge Luis Borges. He describes his joyous memory of tigers from his youth and how, while dreaming, he believes he can conjure them up. But he only sees bits and pieces, mirages that dissolve in the end. To me, both the title and piece were suggestive: when composing it often seems that one is trying to pin down the ephemeral in a material way, to give body to image and idea. The title also suggests something of animal struggles, and the sense of wrestling is one that exists in my compositional process as well. Dreamtigers unfolds in one movement, with transformations that curl back on themselves and ultimately evaporate. It was composed at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts during a residency in the summer of 1996, and is dedicated to guitarist Mike Rosensky, with thanks for the delightful guitar explorations. It was premiered on 10/18/96 by Ekko! members flutist Allison Potter and Mike Rosensky at the University of Virginia. It was recorded by Da Capo flutist Patricia Spencer and guitarist William Zito on the Innova portrait album (#613) of Shatin’s chamber music,  also titled Dreamtigers.