Do You Ever Dream Compositions of Your Own?

[Andante]

Don't dream a tram 

Dream of meeeeeeeeeee

https://www.youtube.com/v/j6TmogXhOZ8

[Monsieur Croche]

Last night I dreamt that a tram and a bus ran simultaneously on the same street, and out of their running noises (engines and wheel on tracks) a minuet (of all things!) took shape. 

https://www.youtube.com/v/SK2cmEU3izE

Thread Duty:

When I was far more regularly comping, once in a while upon waking (the only time a dream is recalled) I would seem to be awakened by hearing a snippet of music, a gesture played by a specific mix of instruments, usually 'chamber orchestration like' and nothing more than that. 

These were as if actually hearing live instrumental playing, and there was nothing else, no visual, no score 'seen,' i.e. the sound only.  I never captured any of them as if taking down a dictation (hey, you're waking up out of a sleep state!) so they did not go straight into musical memory for exact replication, if at all (so much for all that ear training when you are emerging from the land of Nod.) 

What would / could happen is that once experienced and semi-forgotten, something 'very like' would crop up in something I was later working on... sometimes up to nearly three-quarters of a year after the fact of the recollected dream. 

What can I say but, "There's stuff battin' about in the belfry most of the time, even if you're not hearing the bells...."

[relm1]

Here is an odd dream I had a few days ago.  I was playing in an orchestra a piece by Shostakovich called "Suite from the Fairy Prince".  It sounded somewhat like Stravinsky's Firebird and opened with mysterious and evocative chords on consordino strings with harp and celesta.  I vividly remember the trombone melody in the climax and wrote it down when I woke up.  I thought it was very strange that I dreamt a completed work by someone else and could remember it after I woke.

[pjme]

Recently:

I was driving on a busy motorway. Itraveled through a mountainous region.  I crossed several bridges. On one of the bridges a group of brass players performed a work I had written. On the next bridge, neatly arranged, side by side, several percussion players performed their score. in spite of all the movement , the sound of other cars ...I was able to distinguish the music. It was a fairly martial, hard hitting composition....

then I woke up...
P.

[Maestro267]

Not sure about in my actual dreams (most of which I can't remember), but I often envisage musical works in my head. A quartet for clarinet, trombone, marimba and cello for starters. And occasionally my mind will return to an idea I had years ago (and I'm sure others have had before me) of an Earth movement for Holst's Planets suite. Hey, if Colin Matthews can do Pluto, then someone can do our planet! And Holst gives us a wonderfully colourful orchestral palate to work with.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Well, last night I dreamt I was conducting a performance of Berio's Sinfonia plus a work of mine for chamber orchestra. I don't remember what the work I wrote sounded like but I thought the orchestration was rather uninspired.

[Cato]

Here is an odd dream I had a few days ago.  I was playing in an orchestra a piece by Shostakovich called "Suite from the Fairy Prince".  It sounded somewhat like Stravinsky's Firebird and opened with mysterious and evocative chords on consordino strings with harp and celesta.  I vividly remember the trombone melody in the climax and wrote it down when I woke up.  I thought it was very strange that I dreamt a completed work by someone else and could remember it after I woke.

Is it possible that the trombone melody is in fact something by another composer, and has been transferred in the dream into an impression that it is original to you?

[relm1]

Is it possible that the trombone melody is in fact something by another composer, and has been transferred in the dream into an impression that it is original to you?

Sure it's possible but I don't recognize it.  So yesterday, I had another dream where I was conducting a recording of a large orchestral score by me.  It was big and bold and I recall the details of the score.  The winds had sextuplets starting very quietly with the flutes and slowly descending as more winds joined one by one until it reached through the contrabassoons at fortissimo.  The winds suddenly ended and the low strings played this figure very agitato.  The opening was based on Also Sprach Zarathustra but with major differences.  Sort of like an homage.  Instead of ASZ's C major to C minor dramatic chords, this went C major to E flat minor with the orchestra + organ hitting a dotted e flat minor fff then playing out the full e major.  The timpani line was different too.  It was a fun dream but I recall alot of the musical details and references.