David Biedenbender - You've Been Talking In Your Sleep

A musical omnivore and a passionate collaborator, David Biedenbender is inspired by a diverse array of interests and experiences, and he seeks to fuse the energy and clarity of those influences with his own musical language. His present creative interests include working with everyone from classically trained musicians to improvisers, acoustic chamber music to large ensembles, and interactive electronic interfaces to live brain data. He has had the privilege of collaborating with many talented performers and ensembles, including Alarm Will Sound, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Stenhammar String Quartet, United States Navy Band, Philharmonie Baden-Baden, VocalEssence, Eastman Wind Ensemble, bass trombonist Randy Hawes, and the Atlantic Chamber Ensemble, among others. David is currently Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at Boise State University and completed his doctorate in music composition at the University of Michigan. He has also studied at the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, and carnatic music in Mysore, India. His musical mentors include Michael Daugherty, Bright Sheng, Evan Chambers, Stephen Rush, Kristin Kuster, Christopher Lees, David R. Gillingham, José Luis-Maurtúa, John Williamson, and Mark Cox.

“I am often fascinated by sleep and dreams and, consequently, the incredibly weird and bizarre thoughts, ideas, experiences, and sounds that come out of this seemingly inactive and tranquil aspect of human existence. For instance, while working late at night, I frequently hear my wife talking aloud, presumably either to me or to something or someone with whom she is interacting in her dreams. The language is neither English nor gibberish and contains familiar words and sounds but is completely incomprehensible to me. I often imagine what it would be like to talk with her while she sleeps and experience what she experiences, but alas, I am awake and she is asleep—there is a veil of consciousness between us. For this piece, I imagined a musical language that is a sort of synthesis of both the clarity and compete nonsense of this surreal language—a kind of dialogue between the conscious self and the sleeping self.”
-    David Biedenbender on you’ve been talking in your sleep