Character, apparently means a whole list of things. Here are a few of them:

1.	the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing.

2.	one such feature or trait; characteristic.

3.	moral or ethical quality: a man of fine, honorable character.

4.	qualities of honesty, courage, or the like; integrity: It takes character to face up to a bully.

5.	reputation: a stain on one's character.

6.	good repute.

7.	an account of the qualities or peculiarities of a person or thing.

8.	a person, esp. with reference to behavior or personality: a suspicious character.

9.	Informal. an odd, eccentric, or unusual person.

10.	a person represented in a drama, story, etc.

11.	a part or role, as in a play or film.

12.	a symbol as used in a writing system, as a letter of the alphabet.

13.	the symbols of a writing system collectively.

14.	a significant visual mark or symbol.

Some others that I like:

Roman Catholic Theology. the ineffaceable imprint received on the soul through the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and ordination.

in harmony with one's personal character or disposition: Such behavior is not in character for him.

And its origin:

1275–1325; < class="ital-inline">charaktr graving tool, its mark, equiv. to charak- (base of charáttein to engrave) + -tēr agent suffix; r. ME caractere < class="luna-Img" src="http://cache.lexico.com/dictionary/graphics/luna/thinsp.png" alt="" border="0">

I like the idea that a character can be represented (or created) by a mark that was left by an engraving tool... like a soul tattoo. So what is the character of a dream? What is the un-erasable engraving that marks a dream, and how could one represent it in music?

In my lesson we talked about the UNreality of it... that you're never quite sure whether it's real or not, but I'm not sure that's it for me. I think you can recognize a dream's UNreality by small but distinct markers that aren't separate from reality, but are weird in a normal, realistic context. Like Dali's dripping clock, it's not that it couldn't happen, it's just that it probably wouldn't. Those are physical things, though... what about the mental things that probably wouldn't happen? Like the running and getting nowhere, like the flying, like the knowing who somebody is even though you also know they look nothing like that person? So, if a dream does have a singular character made up of a series of characteristics, how do you musically represent it?

more unclear bits on text

a. same text, slightly different telling
i. dreamer:
1. faster, more alarmed
2. stranger details?
3. ends with “and then I woke up”
4. go in, strange details
5. end with a nap on the couch in the basement
6. Ooor, with a crash and passing out in the basement
ii. waker:
1. slower, more matter of fact
2. less interested “brown or something, I don’t really remember” shrug
3. ends with “and then I fell asleep
4. end with taking a nap on their couch
a. or falling and hitting my head on
b. have it be the dream about going to my friend’s house
i. ends with falling asleep on the couch, which happened in dream and real life
c. have it be the dream about the kitchen that swoops and catches me after starting with a crack to the head
i. against a story about cracking my head on the basement floor

the space between dreaming and waking

Sometimes, waking up from dreams and suddenly jumping into one can be very dynamic experiences.
I used to lull myself to sleep by meditating until I could feel my bed spinning, my body pushing against my mattress, dragging it along the floor without really moving at all. I would normally spin laterally, like a disc of pizza dough being tossed, but sometimes would see how dynamic I could make it, spinning as if I were tipping with my head or feet going toward the floor, such that I might slide off my bed onto the ground. Inevitably, this would segue directly into me flying across some landscape, or falling off my bed in a dream, and going on to explore the similar but suddenly different world. The relationship between was pretty cool, and I miss the spinning.
I also had experiences of pain or strange sensations or visual images carrying over out of my dream. Once, in the dream, I shocked myself by touching two wires together, and woke up mid-air nearly flying off my bed, my arm aching from where I had seemingly shocked myself with my other fingertip. Another time, I was being held down my some monster in a parking lot that was accusing me of being phony, and as it released the pressure on my chest, I watched as its hand turned into the sheet hanging off the edge of my upper bunk.

I would love to try reflecting these shifts through music. Something normal or recognizable intentionally changing itself into something unusual or impossible, or finding a strange sense of order out of something that was soup a second ago. thinking...

Titles

Dreamscape
Shared dream
Shift
Parallel dreams
parallel planes
rescue in an evening
a resting mind
a resting musician
a rest of the morning
last, stretch, exhaust, rest

Start

This is seemingly the season for starting new blogs, so this one will document our progress for the next couple weeks, collaborating on a piece written for my final recital with MSU, a program revolving about dreams (this is Nate). So far, we have had some discussions, written some notes, and improvised around some ideas, but the ending piece is far from written, and this is a topic wide enough in scope that there have been a number of focus shifts in the planning stages.

Shared dreams:
Same thing from two perspectives: a scene from both sides of the room at once
Speaks of an amazing connection between two things, so deep that they can't help but gravitate back toward each other, heading off in different directions, but with such a completely shared past and present, the future can't help but remain common
Other things (more editing later)

Two of the same thing, one dream, one real:
Two people speaking, same or similar text, but one person starts earlier than the other
Earlier person is speaking slower, such that the one who started late "catches up" and they end together.
Maybe not the same words, but one person speaking of a dream, and the other speaking of an uncannily similar real happening.

So far, we have players we may not have even confirmed, but at least Maggie playing flaut, me on contra-alto-fiddle, and maybe both of us speaking false dreams, and hopefully our other friends playing flute and piano. Heh, we talked about a bass-drum in the mix, and there will certainly be a drumset there, so who knows.

Viola:
drones, context, sloooowly changing in ways that you notice only long after they've happened
(gotta practice my bow-speed)
Cross-tuned regular high A and D, G up to A, C down to A
bow pressure pushes octave A's away from eachother, looser low A goes sharp, tight high A stays steady
Timbreal shifts are potentially wide, with so many A's, such different sounding A's,
Use harmonics percussively, bow constsant, no fingering, but changing mode of vibration between two low A's

This is rough, but some notes for now.