Night Fantasies

Night Fantasies is composed in one continuous movement and has a duration of roughly 24 minutes. Carter conceived it as "a piano piece of continuously changing moods, suggesting the fleeting thoughts and feelings that pass through the mind during a period of wakefulness at night." The composer further described the form of the work in the score program note, remarking: He added, "In this score, I wanted to capture the fanciful, changeable quality of our inner life at a time when it is not dominated by strong, directive intentions or desires – to capture the poetic moodiness that, in an earlier romantic context, we employ in the works of Robert Schumann like Kreisleriana, Carnaval, and Davids-bundlertanze." ==Reception==

Night Fantasies has been praised by musicians and critics alike. The pianist Charles Rosen, who co-commissioned the piece, described it as "perhaps the most extraordinary large keyboard work written since the death of Ravel." ==References==