Link: A Dream Within A Dream

Version 2: A Dream Within A Dream (A BIG "thank you" to Ray for his suggestions to improve the prosody of the lyrics.)

A reply to one of Floyd's songs (see here https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=819525#Post819525)
gave me the idea to write a song about the old Descartes quote “I think, therefore I am”.
Do I _really_ exist or am I just part of a dream?
Or a dream within a dream?
Or an AI gone wild?

Since this is a deeply philosophical question, I've decided NOT to write another radio-friendly pop song that will never be played on the radio.
This song is, um, something else (and will never be played on the radio).
For lack of a suitable genre (at least I couldn't find anything suitable), I'll call this "Symphonic Theatrical Punk" until I'm told otherwise.
Poor man's Richard Wagner or something.

It may not be to everyone's taste, but I had a lot of fun writing it and got (most of) the lyrics for free from a guy in the US of A, so
how could I resist?

Lessons learned:
  • I am definitely not Elton John. It is NOT easy for me to write music to existing lyrics.
    I'm not wired that way
    I admire him for that gift
  • Poe's prosody doesn't lend itself to songs. It was never meant to be abused in this way by an unworthy fellow from Germanistan.
    Had a hard time making this sound musical.
  • It's a bit out of my comfort zone, but as they say "no risk no fun", and I learned a lot and that alone was worth the effort
  • almost maxed out my DAW. A symphonic orchestra needs juicy hardware.
  • for a long time I didn't know _at all_ if I could make this song work, or if the puzzle was just TOO big for me to solve.


Feedback (the good, the bad and the ugly) as always highly appreciated.

As always, a BIG thank you to Marty for taking the time to listen to my WIP and give me feedback.


Some technical information:
Style: BOTTLE.STY

The band:
Bass: 2754
Drums: BluesRockEv + SkaSlow70sWes
Piano: 1533
Guitars: 697, 648, 3623, 3738, 3931, 4387, 4388, 522 + myself
Viola: 2336
Violin: 2512
Synths, church organ, symphonic orchestra and other shebang: yours truly
Vocals: Goldmania Bella

Mixed by B.D. Thomas

You can find the lyrics in the next post.

Last edited by B.D.Thomas; 09/02/24 01:00 PM. Reason: Remix link added
Goldmania Bella
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