Night and Dreams

Written in English for television and directed by Beckett in 1982, the title of this piece is taken from a lied by Schubert, one of his favourite composers. One sings the final seven bars, which correspond to the last two lines of the poem: “Come back, holy night / Sweet dreams, come back”. A reminiscence of an engraving by Dürer, a reproduction of which was in the writer’s childhood bedroom, showing two joined hands, is added to this explicit musical reference. Mostly joined, but also decoupled, here are the singing, sleep, dream, night, a faint light, hands, the past and a ghostly present.