• Poul Ruders
  • Symfoni Nr. 3, "Dream Catcher" (2006)
    (Symphony No. 3, "Dream Catcher")

  • Edition Wilhelm Hansen Copenhagen (World)

The Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation

  • 3(pic).3(ca).3(bcl).3(cbn)/4331/3perc/str(16.14.12.10.8)
  • 33 min

Programme Note

2005-2006

The subtitle of my Symphony no. 3 is taken from one of the slow movements of my Serenade (for Accordion and String Quartet, 2004). A Dream Catcher belongs to Native American lore, it is a small loop with a feather attached, a device supposedly trapping the good dreams, letting them filter down to the sleeper.

In my symphony, however, things evolve in a far less benign way.

After a fast-paced “wake-up call”, scored for full orchestra, I introduce the “Dream Catcher”-tune from the Serenade, letting it creep up on the listener from behind, played entirely by the strings. Then the tune undergoes a full symphonic transformation, before it “disappears” seamlessly into the second (and last) movement, a Scherzo of extreme velocity and savagery.

One could claim, that what really happens “behind the scenes” in the symphony is the tale of Beauty being devoured by the Beast, a symphonic journey with a less-than happy ending, open to all sorts of individual, metaphorical interpretations.

- Poul Ruders, September 2006


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