You Must Sleep, but I Must Dance

Andrew Ford

General Info

Year: 2010
Duration: c. 20:00
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Australia
Cost: Score and Parts - $0.00   |   Score Only - $0.00

Instrumentation

Multiple Percussion
Viola

Program Notes

For viola and percussion
Commissioned by the University of Sydney and the Dean and Principal of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music
First performance by Roger Benedict (viola), Daryl Pratt (percussion)
Sydney Conservatorium of Music, 17 October 2012

The title of this piece comes, via Cormac McCarthy, from the 19th-century German poet Theodor Storm. In fact, in his poem 'Hyacinths', Storm wrote, 'Ich möchte schlafen, aber du mußt tanzen', which is the other way round: 'I would sleep, but you must dance'. But it was McCarthy's inversion of it in Blood Meridian that popped into my head one morning in mid 2010 as I was pushing my baby daughter's pram through the streets in an attempt to get her to sleep. (Now that she is a toddler, it is Storm's original line that seems the more apt.)

The piece is in four connected movements, which might be thought of as 'sleep' – 'dance' – 'sleep' – 'dance', though there is no real program behind the music.

You Must Sleep, but I Must Dance was commissioned by the University of Sydney to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music . It was first performed by Roger Benedict and Daryl Pratt for whom it was written at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, 17 October 2012 , and it is dedicated to my daughter Elsie.

Recent Performances

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Works for Percussion by this Composer

A Walk to the Japanese Garden - Vibraphone; Voice - Soprano
After the Ball Was Over - Percussion Quartet
Alchemy (Ford) - Marimba Quartet; Bass Clarinet
Boat Song - Marimba; Bass Clarinet
Composition in Blue, Grey and Pink - Multiple Percussion
Getting Blue - Vibraphone; Alto Saxophone
Jouissance - Vibraphone; Trumpets (2)
Mondriaan - Multiple Percussion; Flute
Palindrome: Jesus Meets St Veronica - Multiple Percussion; Clarinet; Bass
Soave sia il vento - Percussion Duo - Marimba/Vibraphone
Tattoo - Percussion Sextet (12 Timpani); 4 Pianos
The Armed Man - Multiple Percussion
The Art of Puffing: 17 elegies for Thomas Chatterton - Multiple Percussion; Bass Clarinet or Alto Saxophone
The Crantock Gulls - Percussion Duo
War and Peace - Marimba; Violin
Winterreise - Multiple Percussion - Sleigh Bells Solo
You Must Sleep, but I Must Dance - Multiple Percussion; Viola