Tetris Dreams
for ensemble
(1997)
picc. cl. alto sax. tpt pno, elec. gtr.
vib. 2vln, vla, 2vc
duration: 10’
GRT • 041
score available from
Australian Music
Centre
program note
The notion of
'Tetris Dreams' is not entirely imaginary. Those who have
played the computer game Tetris for extended periods may
well have experienced restless sleep due to somnambulist
shape–fitting: the tortured equivalent of treading a water
wheel. One imagines that one has achieved progress but the
mental exertion, as in fever, is to no avail and must
forever remain in the land of nod. The strings represent
the world of the 'dream'; the winds come to represent the
'falling shapes' and the piano, vibraphone and electric
guitar represent the dreamer. This piece, therefore, is
written from the perspective of my own suffering and of
several heroic attempts to trash the game from my computer
(my sister has a backup disk – family: always there when
you need them). Tetris Dreams is dedicated to Matthew Hindson for
helping me to waste my life playing computer games and Paul
Stanhope for agreeing to conduct the premiere of this piece
for Sydney Group, Coruscations.