Dwalm for saxophone quartet (hard copies - score and parts)

Dwalm (SATB saxophone quartet) 8'

2018

Programme Note

There is a strangeness to the duality of the word dwalm. It is an old Scottish word with two meanings: a stupor or daydream (as in the phrase in a dwalm), and to faint or fall ill. It comes from the Old English word dwolma, which means confusion.

What is strange is that a daydream is such a light and lovely drifting of the mind, whereas fainting or falling ill is a sudden wrenching. Perhaps though, they are different surfacings of the same darkness.

This piece is half-lullaby, half-keen; both songs to set someone to rest, whether by drifting off or being bid a final, fearsome farewell.