Blissful Nightmares is a symphonic work written for full orchestra depicting the nature of dualities and bipolarities. I originally conceived of the piece as I lay in bed, attempting to get some much-needed sleep before school the following morning. I had no luck doing so. Instead, I kept humming a melody under my covers, unable to escape music’s grip on my mind. Following my music theory teacher’s composition advice, I decided to record my humming on my phone so I could remember the theme, but still be able to sleep at a reasonable hour. Still unsatisfied after recording my ideas, I ran to my computer and spent the remainder of the night composing Blissful Nightmares, a piece ironically born out of a daydream in bed.
The composition is divided into three distinct sections: fast, slow, fast. The first section begins by struggling to find rhythmic and tonal integrity, just like a dreamer struggling to find reality. The time signature fluctuates and the harmonic tension builds to a cliff-hanger: an unresolved chord and dramatic silence. The second section emerges out of the silence in a steady meter and flowing sound with a melody traded between the woodwinds and violins. This brief sense of consistency and stability is quickly shattered in the third and final part of the composition, when bliss turns tonightmare. The dissonant chords and unsettling complex time signatures bringabout a powerful ending where the entire orchestra fully envelops the audiencein a wash of sound.
The composition is divided into three distinct sections: fast, slow, fast. The first section begins by struggling to find rhythmic and tonal integrity, just like a dreamer struggling to find reality. The time signature fluctuates and the harmonic tension builds to a cliff-hanger: an unresolved chord and dramatic silence. The second section emerges out of the silence in a steady meter and flowing sound with a melody traded between the woodwinds and violins. This brief sense of consistency and stability is quickly shattered in the third and final part of the composition, when bliss turns tonightmare. The dissonant chords and unsettling complex time signatures bringabout a powerful ending where the entire orchestra fully envelops the audiencein a wash of sound.