Hometown: Duluth, Minn.
Composition: A Dream Forgotten
Tell us about the piece you have submitted to Minnesota Varsity.
"A Dream Forgotten" is a text setting of the poem "A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky" by Lewis Carroll. I see this poem as portraying a man (probably Lewis Carroll himself) who is nearing old age and lamenting lost childhood. In Alice, who was in reality the young daughter of a family friend, Carroll recognized the potential of youth but also how easily its innocence can be lost and forgotten. While Carroll's title for the poem reflects the happier, more hopeful elements of the text, I chose to focus on the slightly darker, more lonesome themes. My piece continually modulates from major to minor, reflecting the conflicting, ever-changing emotions of the text. In the last line of the poem, "Life, what is it but a dream?", Lewis Carroll is making a reference to the popular children's song "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." Likewise, the final line of my composition is an embellished interpretation of the main melodic idea of the popular song.
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