I wish is a musical portrait of an inner space, in which unattainable longings, ambiguous desires, and persistent fears jostle for position. The piece was constructed from a few vocal and instrumental fragments taken from a simple song of lament titled Home, performed by Rita Rankin, which I composed several years earlier.

I wish is the 2nd in a series of works concerned with the interplay between memory and imagination where the pieces merge soundscape, radiophonic, and acousmatic elements into abstracted musical portraits of times and places.

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I wish was realized in 2000 in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of the University of Birmingham (UK) and premiered on November 10, 2001 during the “Novars” concert produced by BEAST at the CBSO Centre (Birmingham, UK). The work has also been presented in SEAMUS 2001 (Baton Rouge, LA, USA), and BEAST: Spatial Awareness (Birmingham) in 2003, and in other events in Canada. The composer acknowledges financial support from the Nova Scotia Arts Council during the creation of this work.

Premiere

• November 10, 2001, Novars: BEAST Concert 3, CBSO Centre, Birmingham (England, UK)