You'll be Sorry you Knew that Dreams Come True

[steepholm]

I've been having very vivid dreams recently, and while nothing could be more boring to relate to others, last night's was unsettling enough and I woke from it suddenly enough for me to want to record the end of it. The earlier parts involved missing children, dark woods and severed limbs, so let's not go there, but it ended far more spookily, with a chorus of ghostly infants singing me this eldritch music. I don't recognize the tune, but could well have dredged it up from somewhere - any ideas? I've always disliked 3/4 time for some reason, and I think my id knows this and chose to twit me with it. As for the lyrics, all I remember is the penultimate line: "And you'll be sorry you knew that dreams come true."

And with that I started awake.

Comments

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I've ever had a dream with a soundtrack. I'm fascinated by your remembering with sufficient clarity to reproduce it.

Are the images from your dreams clear enough to draw/paint?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I don't usually remember tunes (a line or two of poetry is more common), but I woke from this one suddenly enough to be able to get it down before it was sucked back into the void.

The images are vivid, but alas I can't draw well at all.

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

But with imaginary drawing skills, you'd be able to reproduce the images?

I think that I can remember dream images, but when I try to look at them, they're more like feelings than visuals. I can't see how I'd begin to capture them with my imaginary skills.
It's a bit like my memory of my grandmother - that feels vivid and yet I can't actually picture her face. I remember smells, a few dresses, things she did, and mostly the way I felt about her.

Words and phrases do follow me out of dreams though.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

With imaginary drawing skills, I'd be great!

But yes, I know what you mean about the visual not being the strongest element of these things. The emotional content can't be conveyed straightforwardly at all, though - I think you'd need to change other things in order to get it across in a narrative. Words can't take the same shortcuts that dreams and memories can.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Very spooky! I didn't recognise the tune, though there are faint echoes of familiar tunes in there.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's rather tantalizing: I'm sure it wasn't cut entirely from new cloth.

[thinkum]

How absolutely, eerily captivating. I think there's a short story in there, singing its way out.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I'd certainly like to think so!

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

It's giving me a broken icon instead of the music, but I agree with thinkum - you ought to write this!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry it proved iconoclastic!

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I've just got round it - it occurred to me to try the link in Internet Explorer instead of Firefox, and hey presto! I like the tune - evidently no problems with 3/4 - though I can't quite work out how to make the line fit. Does what seems to me like the last complete line of the verse start with "you knew", or do some of the words of "that dreams come true" use more than one note?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

There's one syllable per note. If it helps, "And you'll be sor" is the only set of four consecutive rising notes in the whole tune.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Some part of my brain thinks there's a bit of a Chopin waltz in there, but none of those I've tried on Youtube matches the memory.

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

Dear God. That's terrifying. And I don't recognise the tune, but am actually maybe a bit glad of that!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

It's worse when it's being sung by a choir of spooky ghost-children!

Listen again to the first few notes.

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

Late med or Tudor carol, variations on, I make sure of it. Which, I cannot quite tease out, but it'll come to me.

Re: Listen again to the first few notes.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

That's quite possible. I fixed it in my mind when I woke up by playing it on a recorder that happened to be in easy reach, and it sounded quite natural on that instrument.

In fact...

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

... it might even be an estampie.

Bugger. This is bound to keep me awake all night.

Estampie, eh?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Your mentioning that word woke a memory, particularly of this track from an album with which I was mildly obsessed for a while, circa 1976. There is definitely a family resemblance, I'd say!

Speaking of Gryphon, it was Richard Harvey as much as David Munrow who inspired me to keep up with the recorder (hence its being within reach of my pillow), not least with his rendition of Kemp's Jig from the same album, the last two verses of which set a standard I could chase only limpingly as he piped into the mountains.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Wow. Your unconscious writes good music. I'm astounded you remembered it on waking.

Nine

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

It's not such a feat of memory, as I got it down literally within 30 seconds of waking, with the eerie voices still whispering through the reed-like stereocilia of my inner ear. I am impressed with the workmanship of my unconscious, though.

[booksandtea.livejournal.com]

The beginning sounds a bit like a tune from a Harry Potter movie.

Like others, I'm very much impressed that you can recall a dream tune long enough for recording it! And that dream sounds horrible all through.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

It wasn't pleasant. I've only seen the first two HP movies, though no doubt I've been exposed to the music in other ways, so it's a possibility.

[ron-broxted.livejournal.com]

You obviously have something on your mind. Ask yourself - What is worrying you?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Alas, I know too well what's worrying me. (Don't worry, I've not killed any children though!)

[sovay]

The earlier parts involved missing children, dark woods and severed limbs, so let's not go there, but it ended far more spookily, with a chorus of ghostly infants singing me this eldritch music.

You are evidently destined to write the next great creepy opera with children, because that melody is awesome. It sounds almost like something I know, but not enough for me to identify it.

(Seriously, do something with it. It's haunting.)

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going to have to do something with it, if only to get it out of my head!