This work was designed to be energetic and enticing, to engage the audience’s ears and function as a welcoming overture at the start of an orchestral program. What sort of ideas would one least expect to hear at a traditional symphony concert? Could one create a musical sequence so unexpected, so other-worldly, that you wouldn’t dream of it? But then you did ... dream of the undreamt.

At the its core is a short rhythmic pattern typical of the repetitive drive found in rap music. This pattern provides the momentum in the second and last of the work’s four sections. Since the work is nominally a fanfare it begins with brass - four horns and a trumpet, but playing softly. This is the overture’s overture, gently awakening the listener and encouraging responsiveness to the dancing energy to follow.

The third section is heralded by solo harp, leading a search for the most unexpected instrumental combinations I could muster in the confines of a standard symphony orchestra. The search slowly grows in intensity and volume, culminating in a recapitulation of the primary theme, louder and more energetic. I don’t expect the audience to be dancing at the end, but they may at least feel in some way unburdened.

- Carl Vine, March 2023

Dreams Undreamt was first performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
on 28 February 2025. It was made possible through the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s
50 Fanfares Project and was commissioned by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
with the generous support of Geoff Ainsworth AM and Johanna Featherstone.