Paul Hughes

Drifting and Dreaming

Drifting & Dreaming is intentionally direct in its compositional approach. Beginning with a relaxed and pianistic, Satie-esque opening, the piece develops by way of increasingly chromatic harmony, and faster rhythmic motifs. Tension is built with the use of occasional changes in time signature, from 3/4 to 2/4 (and later 12/16), and of further chromaticism and dissonance (partly through use of the whole-tone scale). The piece then starts to wind down using similar melodic material as at the outset, but with different, shifting harmonic colours. The change of metre from 3/4 to 4/4 releases tension, and the initial slow harmonic movement of this passage lends the music a dream-like quality as the piece draws to a close. Note that some whole tone sections have been enharmonically spelled to aid reading. Paul Hughes