I dreamt I was made of gossamer

2025 . for string quartet . c. 8’15 .

I dreamt I was made of gossamer takes place in sleep. I wanted to explore the weaving of fibers: sometimes crisscrossing, snagging, pulling, or packing together in symmetry, making textures in the shape of a dream that one can’t quite remember.

Recent research on the makeup of the human body has posited the discovery of a new organ: the interstitium, as it’s named, is a network of compartments throughout our bodies, surrounded by a dense interweaving of spindle-like collagen. I began thinking, what if bodies are just folds of a beautiful, complex fabric of fascia, and we might pull apart or plait together tighter at any time?

As I was writing the piece, I imagined whisper-light pinpricks of sound threading over and under into a pattern, the shuttle of an old fairy loom carrying spiderweb threads of gossamer thread back and forth, back and forth, faster and faster until a blurry image emerges. The fibers cross, snag, pull, and wind back together, until the music settles once more into neat rows of warp and weft. But, as all things, the threads of the melody eventually fray apart and float away into the ether of the dream. From dust to dust.

Performed by the JACK Quartet, February 6th, 2025 .