with Kathryn Goodson, piano
Recorded live, April 6th, 2014 in The University of Michigan's Britton Recital Hall

Program Note:

The initial inspiration for Dreams in the Dusk came while walking on my father-in-law’s farm on a cold, snowy evening. Situated in rural Michigan, miles from the nearest city and on the flattest and land I have ever seen, I came the closest I have ever come to feeling real silence. The silence, stillness, and peace that I found in the fleeting moments of daylight while walking in the crisp, fresh snow was one of the ways that I dealt with the passing of my sister-in-law, Julia Hope Voelker, a mere 23 years old, who lost her battle with cancer in January of 2013. Those walks at dusk became a kind of ritual for me during the last few weeks of her life, as our family had gathered together to be with her as she lived out her final days in her childhood home. Searching for a voice for the many emotions I was feeling, I turned to one of my favorite poems, “Dreams in the Dusk” by the American poet Carl Sandburg. For me, this poem captured the essence of that sacred time at the waning of the day in a way that was beautiful and profound.

Dreams in the Dusk

By Carl Sandburg

Dreams in the dusk,
Only dreams closing the day
And with the day’s close going back
To the gray things, the dark things,
The far, deep things of dreamland.

Dreams, only dreams in the dusk,
Only the old remembered pictures
Of lost days when the day’s loss
Wrote in tears the heart’s loss.

Tears and loss and broken dreams
May find your heart at dusk.

 Sandburg, Carl. Chicago Poems. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1916, 1999.

There are two primary musical gestures that most often occupy the musical foreground of the piece, including a moaning, groaning, or wailing, which is usually manifest in the form of long, slow portamenti between notes in various melodic structures, and sharp, quick crescendi, which are usually orchestrated into either spacious chords or tight harmonic clusters. The melodic groans are a kind of musical mourning, analogues of sung or spoken lamentations. The quick crescendi are used in a variety of contexts in Dreams in the Dusk, but, for me, they represent the musical icon of reverse tape playback effects, which are nearly ubiquitous in popular and electronic music. More important than a genre or technique reference, they take on a specific personal significance within the context of this piece, signifying a desire to turn back time, to start again, to change the diagnosis, to return to a time when all was well.



David Biedenbender's Dreams In The Dusk

Anthony O’Toole began writing in his teens and has composed more than 100 works over the last 13 years, writing for virtually every major idiom and instrument. 


Mr. O’Toole is primarily self-taught as a composer but credits his mentors, Jack Stamp and Mark Camphouse as being pivotal to his development as a composer and musician. Anthony has also had the opportunity to learn and engage with many respected composers such as Richard Danielpour, Dana Wilson, Frank Ticheli, Cindy McTee, Ryan Nowlin, Drew Hemenger, George Crumb and others. 

His music has been commissioned and performed by musicians and ensembles all around the world. Mr. O’Toole’s music for wind band has been performed and recorded by some of the finest bands including the United States Coast Guard Band, The Kansas State University Wind Ensemble, ‘The President’s Own’ United States Marine Band, The University of North Texas Wind Symphony, The Singapore Wind Symphony, The Alabama Winds and others. His piece “Fanfare to ‘The Hammer’” is featured in the 10th edition of the GIA Publications series ‘Teaching Music Through Performance in Band’; which features a recording by the UNT Wind Symphony an in-depth analysis of the work. Hammer also appears in the ‘Sourcebook for Wind Band and Instrumental Music’ by Russ Girsberger, Frank L. Battisti, and William Berz. His piece 'Prelude to Something Big' is featured in Volume 11 of this series. 

He has received numerous awards for his compositions including the Grand Prize in the 2012 Garritan Composition Contest, and Second Place in the 2014 Van Galen Prize for wind chamber music. In 2014 Mr. O’Toole was inducted into the Sigma Alpha Iota Music Fraternity as an honorary member for his musical contributions. He is also a member of Phi Mu Alpha Music Fraternity, ASCAP and The American Composer’s Federation. Anthony currently resides in Los Angeles, CA where he fulfills his commissions for new works and does orchestrations and arrangements as a freelance writer; he also serves as Composer-in-Residence for the Carson Symphony Orchestra and Staff Arranger for the Southern California Brass Consortium.

Dr. Kevin Day (b. 1996) is an award-winning, multi-disciplinary composer, jazz pianist and conductor based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Internationally acclaimed as one of the world’s leading musical voices, Dr. Day’s work is known as a vibrant exploration of diverse musical traditions from contemporary classical, jazz, R&B, Soul and more. A unique voice in the world of classical music, Dr. Day takes inspiration from a broad range of sources, including romanticism, late 20th century music, jazz fusion and gospel. Across all areas, his work explores the complex interplay of rhythm, texture and melody across genres.

Dr. Day burst onto the musical scene in 2018 with his Concerto for Euphonium, which has since gone on to become a Classic FM sensation and has been recently performed by the United States Marine Band. Since then, some of the world’s top instrumental soloists, wind bands, chamber ensembles and symphony orchestras have commissioned and performed his works, including the Boston Brass, Castle of Our Skins, Cincinnati Opera, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Winds, the National Intercollegiate Band, Nu Deco Ensemble, Capitol Quartet, Puerto Rican Trombone Ensemble, Syrinx Quintet, Sheffield Chamber Players and many others throughout the United States, Canada, Austria, Taiwan, South Africa, Australia and Japan. His music has also been streamed over a million times across YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, & SoundCloud. Dr. Day is the recipient of numerous awards, including the TCU Band of Fame, ITEA Harvey Phillips Award for Excellence in Composition, a Copland House Residency Award, the MacDowell Fellowship for Music Composition, the BMI Composer Award, the TCU Alumni Outstanding Young Professional Award, a three-time ASCAP Morton Gould Finalist, a finalist for the ABA Sousa-Ostwald Award, a finalist for the NBA Revelli Award, and many more. 

Dr. Day’s original opera, Lalovavi: An Afrofuturist Opera, will premiere July 2026 at the Cincinnati Opera as the lead work in its ground-breaking new Black Opera Project. The work is the first of three commissioned by the Cincinnati Opera as part of its initiative to engage Black creators in developing new works celebrating Black stories. As part of the project, Dr. Day is collaborating with renowned director Kimille Howard and librettist Tifara Brown, who’s recognized as one of the country’s leading performance poets. Other recent works include his acclaimed Concerto for Wind Ensemble and Birds in the Cathedral, as well as Ignition, commissioned by the Boston Symphony Low Brass and Unquiet Waters, commissioned by Jordan VanHemert.

In addition to his work as a composer, Dr. Day also enjoys an active career as a jazz pianist. Passionate about collaborations that reimagine and advance the future of jazz as an art form, he brings his extensive musical background to the stage and studio as improviser and collaborator. He’s currently working on a debut solo album. His music has been featured on numerous high profile releases, including albums by Thomas Mesa and Michelle Cann, The Alias Chamber Ensemble, Jeremy Wilson, Jarrett McCourt, and Nicki Roman.

Dr. Day currently works as Artist Teacher in Residence, Composition at the Keys Conservatory at the Pinecrest Academy in Henderson, Nevada. He holds degrees from Texas Christian University (TCU), the University of Georgia, and the University of Miami. He has studied composition with Dorothy Hindman, Charles Norman Mason, Peter Van Zandt Lane, Emily Koh, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Neil Anderson-Himmelspach. Dr. Day is an alumnus of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, an honorary member of the National Chapter of Tau Beta Sigma, and an honorary member of the National Chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi.

Improvise ( Saxophone + Electronics )

This music is made with improvising software I made that was originally inspired by nuclear physics.

Saxophonist working in and across the classical tradition.

David Biedenbender's Dreams In The Dusk

Jonathan Hulting-Cohen