You May Say I'm a Dreamer

Brian Mark

You May Say I’m a Dreamer

for Solo Trombone, Digital Delay Processing Pedal and Pre-Recorded Narration

May, 2022

You May Say I’m a Dreamer You may say I’m a dreamer is written for solo trombone, delay pedal, and pre-recorded narration of the late John Lennon, featuring snippets of recorded interviews of the singer and musical quotations from iconic Beatles songs as source material. This piece focuses around Lennon's political engagements, peace activism, and fight for civil rights.

The work includes musical quotations of 2 iconic Beatles songs: “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “I am the Walrus” (both written by John Lennon and credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney), and the other 2 works featured are from Lennon’s solo years (“Give Peace a Chance” and “Imagine”).

The title of this piece comes from a verse of Lennon’s famous signature song (“Imagine”). After my collaboration with Cole from a previous composition involving delay pedal, the trombonist requested I write a similar type of work using spoken narration for a grant he was eligible for. As my 2021 Christmas holiday to England was approaching, we agreed to work with speeches from this British legend, and create a composition in a surrealist landscape, which eventually lead to our live collaboration for a thematic concert. More specifically, I had chosen these two Beatles songs since they have always inspired me during my early years when exploring the psychedelic era of the 1960s. In addition, I have selected these 2 widely known solo works by John Lennon due to the political messages that were carried out from these songs.

You may say I’m a dreamer was commissioned by Madison based trombonist Cole Bartels, and was made possible for a grant that Cole was awarded by the UW Madison Division of the Arts. This work was premiered on 8 May, 2022 in Madison, WI, as part of Ensemble in Process Midwest debut concert “Ensemble in Process: Surrealist Dreamscapes.” * Please note that a digital delay-processing pedal (indicated when pressing down with arrows over the first and last bar, respectively) is required for this work. The pedal should have a delay time of at least 2500 milliseconds or 2.5 seconds, as the feedback and delay time knobs should be set to around 70-75%. This setup can also be executed through Ableton Live. The tempo slightly varies throughout the work but is mostly constant, as the performer is required to work with the timings, due to the alignment with the narration track of Lennon’s spoken interviews. In addition, all fermatas over the empty bars are not traditional fermatas in the conventional sense. The bars with fermatas indicated should have a slight hold of a few seconds to let the loops materialize before going on to the next bar (but must align with the indicated timings). The pedal should be pressed on the last bar when 60-75% of the loops fade out, therefore eventually clearing the loops to niente.

Solo Trombone

1

commissioned by Cole Bartels

You may say I'm a Dreamer...

(Strawberry Fields Forever) 0:04.22/0:05.00 START 0:11.15 PLAYBACK Y

q = 100-104

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"Peace on Earth"

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0:31.00

Brian Mark

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"Peace on Earth"

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slight rit.

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25

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2:10.19 a tempo (Dreamy like) 29

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(slight cresc.)

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"Peace on Earth Speech"

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"I think all of our society is run by insane people..."

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© 2022 by Brian Mark (ASCAP)

43

"If anybody can put on paper what our government..."

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"You know and what they think they are doing, I'd be very pleased to know..."

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slight rit.

1:33.06

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1:03.07

0:18.00

(slight cresc.)

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You may say I'm a Dreamer...

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32

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02:27.23/02:28

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03:00.16

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Straight Mute

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-----DIALOGUE CONTINUES----

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Senza Mute

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"We all have it, we all want it, somewhere along the line...

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"And that was a message from me to America..."

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03:58.02

(slight pause/ fermata)

03:49.21

57

œ #œ œ #œ ˙ "and sing with them"

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"Well if peace really lost its meaning, we didn't invent a word..."

"So we're saying give people a chance, you know, like nobody has done before..."

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Senza Mute

(Give Peace a Chance) 03:29.00

52

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03:10.15

* Solotone Mute œ bœ 48 œ b œ œ ?

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38

02:49.12

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"For peace on earth at Christmas, because that's what it's about..."

(stately)

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* Play notes in this order ONLY ONCE, and then vary them randomly, legato, as fast as possible until end of passage (bar)

3

You may say I'm a Dreamer...

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"We are art, you are art, this is art now..."

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06:01.24/06:02.00

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93

3

"There's no limit, that art isn't something in a corner...."

(Fleeting like a bird)

06:15.24/06:16.00

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"The only reason, if I'm going to get on the front page...."

05:57.00

88

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"You want nice middle class gestures for peace!..."

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(I am the Walrus) 05:08.00 Piu Mosso (q = 108-112)

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"Peace in your mind, peace on earth, peace at work..."

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"War is a game that has gone too far..."

* First play first two notes consecutively (like a trill) for a seconds, then Play all notes in this order ONLY ONCE, and then vary them randomly, legato, as fast as possible until end of passage (bar)

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4

You may say I'm a Dreamer...

06:33.10

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97

Majestically! tempo I (q = 100-104)

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06:54.22/06:53.00

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"Anybody knows that the people have the power..."

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œ J ‰ P

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07.11.22

tempo II (q = 108-112) Dreamy Like

Start somewhat slow and graduate to a tempo by end of bar 106

? œ œ # œ œ œ œ œ œ µ œ i œ i œ œ i œ i œ µœ œ œ œ ˙

105

p

3

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109

07.31.20

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3

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112

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115

3

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"It's too try to get people orientated to think peace, like eat for the peace..."

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e.

e.

(no fermata)

∑

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ R ≈ ‰ F œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ≈ œ œ R ‰ f

(no fermata)

∑

≈

"Peace of mind, peace in the street, peace in your own home"

U

∑

5

You may say I'm a Dreamer...

08:03.00 118 Straight Mute

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e.

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ R ≈ ‰

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121

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124

08:32.20 127 Harmon Mute œ œ œ œ œ œ œ

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p

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133

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ R ≈ ‰ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ≈ œ œ R ‰

09.14.00 poco rit.

? œ p

139

œ

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P

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"That's what I mean by peace, I think, I can't define things...

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ≈ œ œ R ‰

U

≈

∑

∑

(no fermata)

(no fermata)

∑

"And peace means that to me, don't hurt people..."

U

≈

∑

"When we have peace on earth, that poster won't exist only as history..."

a tempo (q = 100-104) ?

∑

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ R ≈ ‰

09:04.12 (Imagine) 136 Solotone Mute œ œ œ

(no fermata)

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ R ≈ ‰

? œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œR

130

∑

(no fermata)

œ

œ

(Ghosty, from the distance, like a whisper)

œ

œ

œ

œ

œ iœ

iœ

œ

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œ J ‰ π

œ J p

‰

∑

"Peace on Earth" TWICE (FADE OUT)

U

∑

Y