Brett Dean

Night Window

The trio Night Window was commissioned by Dean-Emmerson-Dean and first performed in a series of concerts in Brisbane, Sidney and regional centres immediately prior to recording. As the title suggests, this work deals with states of mind after dark, that proportion of our lives so often associated with vulnerability, fears and insecurities. The trio opens with a hushed pair of cadenzas for bass clarinet and viola, introducing the principal motivic and harmonic material. The central variation movement acts as a set of dream sequences, or more correctly different versions of the same dream, all being related to the chorale with which this section opens. They progress from serenity, through passages of increasing nervousness and tension, to an elegy that grows further in energy and passion. Forming a framework on either side of these variations are two thematically related, vigorously rhythmic fast sections. In stark contrast to the variations these are full of an extrovert, almost jazz-like character suggesting that night is also a time of movement and dance.