Dreams of the Mirage

Dreams of the Mirage (2024)

Freud’s theories on dreams and the unconscious provide a profound framework for understanding Dreams of the Mirage. This work originates from a vivid dream of mine: I returned to a concert hall and heard my own music being rehearsed — an experience that was both familiar and ahead of the reality. This moment reflects the inner longing for creation and the continuation of artistic life, even within the realm of sleep.

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After waking, I was seized by a strong desire to capture every fragment of the dream: the echo of the hall, the changing harmonies, and the performers’ secondary interpretation of the music. This impulse to transform the dream into real sound echoes Freud’s theory of sublimation, in which hidden desires and unconscious energy are transformed into creative expression. Through composition, the dream is no longer a fleeting illusion but becomes a vivid soundscape, like a living mirage.

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From a musical perspective, Dreams of the Mirage explores the space between I. The Unconscious (bars 1–49) and II. Between Dream and Reality (bars 50–end), including the Coda (from bar 99 to the end). The music unfolds in multiple layers, employing whole-tone and chromatic ascending or descending motion to create colorful harmonies. In the dream, powerful brass sounds are heard at the very beginning — even within the dream, such solid sonorities convinced me that I was truly in the rehearsal hall. I resolutely wrote down all musical details after waking and worked to adjust the balance of sounds; rhythmically, I generated new material through a process of fission-( ). From simplicity to complexity, the horizontal motion of pitch becomes faster and faster, enriching the vertical harmonic colors. The orchestral timbres—sometimes bright, sometimes dark—shift fluidly. Gentle transitions connect each section, as if one were standing inside a mirage that is constantly reshaping itself.

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The second section, II. Between Dream and Reality, consists largely of extended techniques. Specifically, I used many instruments to create air sounds and white-noise textures—for example, woodwinds playing without reeds, brass without buzzing, and strings on the bridge with muted left hands. Some materials stand out for their distinctive color: brass with dif erent mutes, vibraphone played with medium soft xylophone mallets and bowing to create pitch bending, trombones producing metallic impacts with the slide, and double basses creating percussive effects by drumming on the body of the instrument.

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This section is like a dialogue between consciousness and the unconscious—between the composer within the dream and the composer who awakens to create. It invites the listener into a threshold where sound, memory, and desire intersect—where music itself becomes the dream within a dream.

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Coda: Dream within a Dream

The previous themes return at half their original tempo, unfolding in a serene and contemplative manner, as if upon awakening from a dream. The orchestration becomes more sparse and transparent: strings alternate between sul ponticello and sul tasto, woodwinds switch between two timbres (bisbigliando), accompanied by a minimal amount of percussion. It guides the listener into a realm where sound, memory, and desire intertwine — a space where the music itself becomes a dream within a dream.

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Duration: 7'10''

Premiere: MSM Symphony Orchestra, April 11, 2025, Aaron Davis Hall, The City College of New York (CCNY)