Project Description
SATB, Male and Female Speakers, Flute, Bassoon, Guitars, and Percussion
1989
19 min.
Listen Now
Preview Score
Instrumentation
SATB | Male Speaker | Female Speaker | Flute | Bassoon | Guitars | Percussion
- All percussion instruments are to be played by singing members of the choir
- Indian bells (15, assorted pitches–may substitute sleigh bells, maracas, castanets or tambourines–no triangles)
- Tubular chimes (3– G, B, C#)
- Anvil (2)
- Brake Drum (may substitute any other clanging metallic instruments)
- Additional instruments at letter E: 2 or more guitars, organ, harp, autoharp, etc. ad libitum. Any or all of these instruments, or any substitutions, may be used as they are available; played by singers.
Program Note
The poetry for this small cantata comes from a dark time of the 20th century – the Vietnam era, the Cold War at its height, the prospect of nuclear winter. The feelings expressed are graphically nihilistic, yet the simple beauty and joy of music emerge as the ray of hope. The piece is a collection of dramatic solo recitations, solo readings, and choral songs all with instrumental accompaniment.
Notes on Performance
Unison Declamation
The unison declamation at the beginning of this work should be done in a forcefully dramatic manner growing from deliberate to frenetic.
Sizes and shapes of words and phrases indicate both dynamic and pitch levels, i.e., large=high and loud; small=low and soft. Words and phrases are shaped to indicate certain inflections. With the words “SHADOWS FLYING UP GREY WALLS…” (after letter B) shaping is abandoned and it is expected that speech patterns normal for intense, dramatic presentation will be used.
Spaces left between words in this declamatory section indicate distinct, unnatural (in terms of normal speech) breaks. Words that are to be elided as in normal speech are hyphenated.
Percussion
All percussion instruments are to be played by singing members of the choir.
Texts
All or part of the following texts have been used by permission of the authors. Acknowledgement should be made in any printed program.
The Generation of Love; I Have Been Guilty of Giving Birth; Some Three-Line Stanzas; Winter Walking Fields; We Will Go Out Of This: Written by Dave Kelly from At A Time-A Dance for Voices, The Basilisk Press, Dunkirk, copyright 1972; and Instructions for Viewing a Solar Eclipse, Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, Conn., copyright 1972
Dirge for Jimmy by Howard M. Wilchins; Saga of the Slothful Soul by Adrienne Wolfert; and Dirge by Kaoru Maruyama; printed in Poet Lore Winter 1972
Further Reading
Interview with Tiffany Woods (2003)
In May 2003, Tiffany Woods emailed David a series of questions in the course of writing a paper. She was a student at the University of North Carolina Greensboro and taking a Band Literature course [...]
From the Maslanka Archive – No. 34, Julian Velasco’s Interview of Gary Green
From the Maslanka Archive features media and stories of David's life and work. This week, we are excited to feature Julian Velasco's interview of Gary Green from the Wharton Center in East Lansing, MI from October 24, 2017.
From the Maslanka Archive – No. 33, John Floridis’s Interview of David
From the Maslanka Archive features media and stories of David's life and work. This week, we are excited to feature an episode from Montana Public Radio's Musician's Spotlight featuring John Floridis interviewing David about his music and background as a composer.
From the Maslanka Archive – No. 32, Julian Velasco’s Interview of David – Part 2
From the Maslanka Archive features media and stories of David's life and work. This week, we are excited to feature Part 2 of Julian Velasco's interview of David from his home in Missoula, MT in 2016.
From the Maslanka Archive – No. 31, Julian Velasco’s Interview of David – Part 1
From the Maslanka Archive features media and stories of David's life and work. This week, we are excited to feature Part 1 of Julian Velasco's interview of David from his home in Missoula, MT in 2016.
Maslanka Weekly: Best of the Web – No. 110, Images of Hell
Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we feature three of David's works that reference Hell: Hell's Gate, A Child's Garden of Dreams, and O Earth, O Stars.
From the Maslanka Archive – No. 29, David on Dreaming and the Unconscious Mind
From the Maslanka Archive features media and stories of David's life and work. This week, we are excited to feature a speech David gave on matters of dreaming and the unconscious mind before a performance of A Child's Garden of Dreams by the James Madison University Wind Symphony.
From the Maslanka Archive – No. 15, A Child’s Garden of Dreams
From the Maslanka Archive features media and stories of David's life and work. This week, we are excited to feature pictures from David's residency with Stephen K. Steele and the Illinois State University Wind Symphony for a performance of A Child's Garden of Dreams in 2012.
Maslanka Weekly: Best of the Web – No. 72, Life
Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we feature three of David’s compositions that focus on the spirit of life and living: Unending Stream of Life, Traveler, and “Movement 4” from A Child's Garden of Dreams.
Maslanka Weekly: Best of the Web – No. 69, Dream Space
Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we feature three of David’s compositions (of which there are literally dozens to choose from) that explore a vast array of dream space: A Child's Garden of Dreams, Traveler, and California.
Maslanka Weekly: Best of the Web – No. 66, Vistas
Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we feature three of David’s compositions that emulate various kinds of vistas: Symphony No. 8, A Child's Garden of Dreams, and Symphony No. 6.
Maslanka Weekly: Best of the Web – No. 63, Malcolm W. Rowell, Jr.
Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we feature three of David’s compositions that Malcolm W. Rowell, Jr. and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Wind Ensemble championed: A Child's Garden of Dreams, Symphony No. 4, and Tears.
Maslanka Weekly: Best of the Web – No. 48, Water Music
Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we continue to look at more of David's music that uses water as a symbol or motif: A Child's Garden of Dreams, Sea Dreams: Concerto for Two Horns and Wind Ensemble, and UFO Dreams: Concerto for Euphonium and Wind Ensemble, Movement II - "The Water is Wide."
Maslanka Weekly: Best of the Web – No. 39, Dreams & Meditations
Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we feature three compositions that specifically mention "dreaming" or "meditation" in their title: A Child's Garden of Dreams, Movement I, Sea Dreams: Concerto for Two Horns and Wind Ensemble, Movement III, and Recitation Book, Movement I, "Broken Heart: Meditation on the chorale melody Der du bist drei in einigkeit."
David Maslanka: Works for Younger Wind Ensembles
Here are more than twenty works for wind ensemble, arranged in approximate ascending order of difficulty, with commentary by David Maslanka
The Nature of Consciousness: Correspondence
We'd love to encourage you to write to David with questions or comments that you have about his music. He loves hearing your thoughts and feelings. Get in touch on the Contact page. June 6, [...]
Recording the Wind Ensemble Music of David Maslanka
Mark Morette of Mark Custom Recording shares his extensive experience in recording wind ensembles.
Remarks before the premiere of A Child’s Garden of Dreams, Book 2
Remarks made 7 December 2008 in Boone, NC before the premiere of A Child's Garden of Dreams, Book 2, by the Appalachian Symphony Orchestra, James Allen Anderson, conductor. I'm not going to say [...]
Some things that are true: Reflections on being an artist at the end of the 20th century
Society of Composers Incorporated Region VIII Conference, University of Montana at Missoula. Keynote address by David Maslanka – November 20, 1998 As soon as one speaks about “truth” there will be objections. Since we live [...]
An Analytical Study of David Maslanka’s A Child’s Garden of Dreams
The five movements of A Child's Garden of Dreams are inspired by five dreams selected from Carl Jung's Man and His Symbols. Dr. David Booth's doctoral dissertation on A Child's Garden of Dreams provides an analysis of each of the work's five [...]
