Music for Toys & Dreams

Music for Toys & Dreams was commissioned by the Farrelly Ensemble for their performance at the 2016 Unbound Flute Festival in Brisbane, Australia. With a childlike simplicity, the piece evokes music heard while napping, as we drift in and out of dreams, with melodies interrupted and fragments of distant stories interwoven. Each instrument becomes the child's voice for a toy, sometimes telling its own story, sometimes reacting to another toy's story, and sometimes enacting a story jointly with the other toys. It starts with the toys waking up, or with a child picking up different toys and introducing them to us. Initially the child is animating the toys, and then the toys begin to animate themselves within the child's dreams.

The artwork above is Pyrus Malus III by artist Richard Hutter and is used with permission. © Richard Hutter