Dialogue with Time

For orchestra

Dialogue With Time

An eight-minute orchestral work by Lera Auerbach — compact, concentrated, and suspended between motion and memory.

Year 1997
/ 2006
Duration 8′
Scoring For
orchestra
Publisher Boosey & Hawkes
/ Sikorski
Full Catalogue Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski Score and Rental Material Abbreviations PDF

World Premiere

13 February 2007. Chicago, Illinois — Roosevelt University Orchestra, conducted by Stephen Squires.

The Work

Dialogue With Time belongs to Auerbach’s orchestral catalogue as a brief but highly charged encounter with musical time: compressed in duration, but expansive in implication.

The title suggests not simply the passing of time, but a confrontation with it — a musical exchange between pulse and suspension, memory and arrival, what has already sounded and what still approaches.

A compact orchestral meditation on time as pressure, memory, and motion.

Work Information

Full Title
Dialogue With Time
Opus
op. 39b
Year
1997/2006
Scoring
For orchestra.
Duration
8′
Instrumentation
3(=afl).3(=corA).3(=bcl).3(=dbn)-4.3.3(=btrbn).1-timp: perc(3): tgl/chimes/BD/cyms/gong/xyl/glsp/vib-hp-cel-pft-str(16.14.12.10.8).
Abbreviations PDF
Commission
No commission listed.
World Premiere
13 February 2007 — Chicago, Illinois; Roosevelt University Orchestra; Stephen Squires, conductor.
Publisher
Published by Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski .
Territory
This work is available from Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski for the world.
Rental
Score and rental materials: Zinfonia.

Orchestral Frame

The score uses full orchestral forces with expanded winds, brass, harp, celesta, piano, percussion, timpani, and strings. Its scale is symphonic in color, while its duration remains concentrated and aphoristic.

  • Time The subject is not narrative time alone, but time as musical pressure.
  • Orchestra Full orchestral color is compressed into a concise single movement.
  • Memory The work feels retrospective and forward-moving at once.
  • Concentration A short duration holds a larger emotional and structural arc.

Online Materials

Listening, performance documentation, publisher, rental, catalogue and reference materials for Lera Auerbach’s Dialogue With Time.

  • Video / Listening

    Embedded Vimeo performance. Educational listening access opens after the listening agreement.

    Vimeo · Embedded performance
  • Audio / Context
    Lera Auerbach on Her Dialogue with Time

    Audio feature from To the Best of Our Knowledge discussing Auerbach’s relationship with time and including examples of her musical and literary work.

    To the Best of Our Knowledge
  • Performance Archive
    Boston Conservatory Orchestra — 2019

    Archived concert program documenting a performance of Dialogue with Time for Orchestra with the Boston Conservatory Orchestra.

    Boston Conservatory at Berklee
  • Performance Archive
    Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Mainz — 2019

    Archived program documenting Dialogue with Time with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Mainz under Hermann Bäumer.

    Staatstheater Mainz
  • Publisher
    Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski Work Page

    Official publisher information for Dialogue With Time.

    Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski
  • Rental Material
    Score and Rental Material

    Score and rental-material search for Dialogue With Time.

    Zinfonia
  • Catalogue
    Full Catalogue

    Return to the complete Lera Auerbach compositions catalogue.

    LeraAuerbach.com
  • Reference
    Standard Abbreviations PDF

    Boosey & Hawkes standard scoring and language abbreviations.

    Boosey & Hawkes
Dialogue With Time publisher logo — Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski

Publisher and Materials

Dialogue With Time is published by Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski. Score and rental materials are available through the official publisher and Zinfonia links.