By David Balakrishnan, for string quartet. As heard on the album “Spider Dreams.”
Overall description of the movements: “The complete version of the ‘Spider Dreams Suite” is seven movements, these four included here are the ones that were most suitable to being performed as individual pieces on their own, and they work together well as a grouping, in the tradition of the typical western European 19th century four movement string quartet compositional model.” Length: 24:00. (to purchase individual movements separately, click on the respective title below)
I. Spider Dreams
“When my daughter Selena was very young, she had a series of nightmares she called her “Spider Dreams”. She would come upstairs into our bedroom in the middle of the night, tell me these terrifying visions she had, then curl up at the foot of our bed and go to sleep, while I stayed awake worrying about her. During that time, I was experimenting with modifying one of the “double-shuffles” used in fiddle tune classics like “Beaumont Rag” and the “Orange Blossom Special.” The result had a menacing quality which reminded me of the alien terror so vivid in a child’s dreams.” Length: 5:07