Melted Into Dreams – Carol Barnett

Composer: Carol Barnett

Text by: William Shakespeare

Instrumentation: SSSAAATTTBBB choir

Duration: Approx. 5 minutes

Date Written:  2001

Composer’s note: 

This setting of Shakespeare’s iconic text transitions from Prospero’s valedictory speech to images of towers and palaces that are built and dissolved within extended phrases. At the end, the voices divide into 12 parts, shimmering in a myriad of colors.

Melted into Dreams was written thanks to the Commissioning Club of the Choral Arts Ensemble of Rochester, MN, Rick Kvam, director. (Commissioning Club members include Joseph & Lois Duffy, Randall & Marcia Edson, Tom & Lynne Gaffey, Andrew & Alison Good, Mary Ellen Malkasian, John & Joyce Penniston, Ed & Jayne Pompeian, and David & Jane Toft.)  The work was premiered by the Choral Arts Ensemble on March 24, 2001, at Christ United Methodist Church, Rochester, MN.

Texts

Our revels now are ended: these our actors
…were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind.  We are such stuff
As dreams are made of, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

The Tempest; IV, i
William Shakespeare