SKU: PR.114410840

UPC: 680160015689.

See the biography of Michael Karmon on the back cover.
WHEN THE SHEEP WON'T COME:  A SLEEPLESS NOCTURNE FOR GUITAR was composed for Joseph Hagedorn, winner of the 1990 GFA solo competition, and premiered by him in November 1999.  My original idea was to write a serene and moody nocturne in several movements.  However, as I began researching and listening to new guitar pieces, I came across Toru Takemitsu's All in Twilight, and it immediately made a profound impression.  At the time I found it beautiful, moving, and inspiring, but I also felt I didn't have anything to add to what Takemitsu already did, and that I needed to find a new concept for my piece.  So, I decided to view night as a potentially restless time, rather than a serene time, and portray states of mind one might go through during a sleepless night.  The names of the movements evoke, at least in my mind, the moods I am to depict, and the piece becomes progressively more convoluted as it goes on.  By the end, the music is a surreal and weary shadow of the opening.