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.