Dream Flower
Wind Quintet



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What if you slept 
And what if 
In your sleep 
You dreamed 
And what if 
In your dream 
You went to heaven 
And there plucked a strange and beautiful flower 
And what if 
When you awoke 
You had that flower in you hand 
Ah, what then?

-Samuel Taylor Coleridge


This wind quintet in four connected movements is based on this quote. I originally imagined it as an art song, and it went though a phase as an unusual combination of instruments (Clarinet, English Horn, Euphonium, and Bassoon) before settling in as a wind quintet. The movements are programmatic, but only loosely. The harmonic language of this piece is based primarily on the fourth, both the interval of the perfect fourth (and quartal harmony), as well as triads with fourths added. To me, these sounds invoke the ambiguity of dreamscape, while the delicate melodic lines of the third movement represent the ‘strange and beautiful flower’.


for information on obtaining sheet music, please contact me at WalkerWilliamsMusic@gmail.com