This week on All Ears, we examine the dream state through sound.

We hear several pieces composed by modern-music pioneer John Cage. His works Totem Ancestor, Dream and Double Music evoke REM state.  These compositions actively bounce from one thought to the next, lingering on a memory or word.

Tod Machover's setting of William Blake's poem The Angel is heard in I Dreamt a Dream (the texts include "I dreamt a dream! What can it mean?"). It's scored for treble youth voices with electronics, and describes waking and connecting thoughts to reality.

Other reveries on the program include a trance-like, yet romantic classical guitar cover of Erik Satie's Gymnopedie No. 1, as well as a dazed and ghostly piano composition simply called Trio.

Just dream, dear listeners.

Playlist:

John Cage: Totem Ancestor
Philipp Vandre, paino
Mode

Erik Satie: Gymnopedie No. 1
Angel Romero, guitar
Telarc

John Cage: Dream
Leo Smit, piano
Music Masters

Tod Machover: I Dreamt a Dream
Young People's Chorus of New York
Francisco J. nunez, conductor
Todd Machover, computer
Vital Records

Gavin Bryars: Sub rosa
Gavin Bryars Ensemble
ECM

Arvo Part: "The Beatitudes"
Theatre of Voices
Paul Hillier, conductor
Marmonia Mundi

John Cage/Lou Harrison: Double Music
Quatuor Helios
Wergo

John Cage: Suite for Toy Piano (1948)
Margaret Leng Tan, toy pianos
ECM

Egberto Gismonti: Musica para Cordas
Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra
Gintaras Rinkevicius, conductor
Egberto Gismonti, piano
ECM

Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Sonata No. 2 in B Minor, op. 61
Colin Stone, piano
Olympia

John Harbison: Trio (1968)
Amelia Piano trio
Naxos

Einojuhani Rautavaara: Clarinet Concerto: II. Adagio assai
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
Leif Segerstam, conductor
Ondine

Ingram Marshall: Holy Ghosts
Libby Van Cleve, Oboe d'amore
New Albion