Feverish Sleep

This piece is about someone sleeping in a fever-induced delirium. As it starts everything swirls together; objects move in and out of one another as though nothing is its own separate entity and nothing is real. Then an eerie and unstoppable rhythmic motive begins which represents the feeling of unavoidable doom often felt in a delirious sleep. The swirling continues, but the feeling of doom refuses to dissipate. As the piece continues the feeling waxes and wanes until it finally stops, only to be replaced by an even more chaotic section which is almost completely out of control, quickly pushing itself beyond the breaking point. Then the doom motive returns, and this time it’s all encompassing, all three trumpets have some variation of the original rhythmic motive. Finally, the delirium begins to calm and the sense of impending doom dissipates, although the swirling continues leaving us unsure of whether we’ve returned to reality or if there’s more terror-filled dreams just around the corner. Rachel Kincaid, Freiburg i. Br., Germany, July 2007