Cody Wright, Daydream (2001)

“I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the Promised Land...”

Daydream was originally intended to be one movement from a suite for sax and percussion that was to be called A Day in the Life. The idea for the suite was to take various words that could be associated with everyday activities in life: Go, Eat, Sleep, Daydream, Flirt, etc., and find a way to represent them musically. However, I started with Daydream and it took on a life of its own, separating itself from the suite idea.

The texture of the work is imitative of a dream, no real linear development, presented in a soft cloud of patches here and there to be sewn together by the dreamer upon waking. When we dream, we perceive things in fragmentary chunks, and when we awake we derive some sort of meaning from them, The meaning can be specific or ambiguous, and often presents itself on many different levels.

The recorded material consists of speech material which has been processed to create harmonic pitches, which then provides the harmonic material for the vibraphone. The rest of the pitch material is almost entirely derived from the hymn We Shall Overcome.

While the piece is, on one level, a reflection on the struggles and achievements of the civil rights movement, that is only one of many possible interpretations. Keeping in line with the original idea, Daydream will hopefully infuse a sense of hope and comfort on top of whatever meaning you happen to derive from the work.

Daydream is dedicated to my brother and sisters, Casey, Chelsea and Tiffany.