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The music of Lance Hulme has appeared in Fanfare before: Elegy for a Sultry Summer Afternoon (Fanfare 44:1) and Ghost Dialogues plus The Street has Changed (41:2). I welcomed both discs.

A product of Hulme’s lifelong obsession with the Odyssey, Siren’s Song is a symphony in three movements written for the University of Oklahoma Philharmonic, and performed here by the Brno Philharmonic under Mikel Toms. The movements are tracked separately but played continuously, the threads of “Distant Voices” leading into the cacophonous “Dire Straits,” this latter an exercise in orchestral virtuosity. The performance here is magnificent and recorded with real presence so the music has bite. That bite extends through the final section, “The Beckoning Horizon,” which has elements of narration in its continuously developing line. Consonance comes as a carefully timed surprise in Hulme’s storytelling, but it is the mysterious melody that entrances. In the interests of balance, it is worth pointing out I enjoyed this a whole lot more than my colleague, Lynn René Bayley, who reviewed the original release on Ablaze in Fanfare 38:1.

The title of Wildcat refers to an all-wood roller coaster of that name in Ohio. Replete with memories of family outings for the composer (and his father’s change of behavior when on the ride!), Wildcat offers a helter-skelter ride of its own. Relative calm, very welcome when it arrives, is intended to reflect the movements before the headlong descents. The sax “orchestra” (Wildcat 9 Sax Orchestra: two each of soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxes, plus one bass sax) really give their all under the composer’s baton.

With a title inspired by a poem by Alicia Richards (“I walk in darkness/In hope of that distant light/An eternal flame”), and dedicated to the people of Ukraine, An Eternal Flame won the 2021 International Malt Composition Competition. The piece begins in the Heavens before being “grounded” by pizzicato (left-hand). This pizzicato acts as something of a tactus against the music’s circularities. Although written in consultation with violinist Brandon Ironside, the performance here is by Ida Bieler, whose melodies swoop like a curlew while maintaining a perfect sense of underlying pulse (via the pizzicato). I am certain this is cripplingly difficult; it is testament to Bieler’s abilities that we hear this as a powerful piece of music.

Scored for flute and electric guitar, JethroZen is initially tremendously exciting. The idea behind this piece was to compose not just another Syrinx or Density 21.5, but to add electric guitar (a nod to the rock band Jethro Tull). In the slower sections, the flute writing is inspired by one of Hulme’s passions, the shakuhachi (although do not expect a slow, meandering piece), while the electric guitar “becomes” a koto. Another slightly unexpected combination is flute and cello, which we hear in Caritas Abundat: Setting the Diamond. This is setting of Hildegard von Bingen’s Caritas Abundatagainst a “sonic bed” of electronics, “much like a jeweller sets a beautiful gem in a ‘basket’.” The cello performs the “Tonus Peregrinus” psalm tone. The vocal line ricochets as if in a very safe and welcoming echo chamber. Hulme’s piece is both ancient and contemporary, simultaneously. Quite an achievement.

The second disc opens with a vibrant piece which either has a “groove,” or an “asymmetrical polymetric ostinato.” Take your pick, it’s the same thing, one described by the composer, one by Michael Votta, the conductor. Based on three elements that coalesce at the climax (brass fanfares, a syncopated bass line, and a lyrical melody), this is an impressive piece. This is also a terrific performance, full of a sense of discovery and yet tightly delivered. The musical surface is nicely variegated, the rhythmic disjunctions and deliberate misalignments most effective.

While that performance feels perfectly controlled, that of Bonfire Bacchanal feels edge-of-the-seat, but in the wrong way. Tuning can be off, and it all feels a bit ragged. It is a studio recording but feels as if it might have been a rather raucous live performance. Rather gentler is Anna’s Candle for flute, clarinet, and cello. The composer describes a breakthrough led by the music of Sir Harrison Birtwistle (this piece is grounded on E, while that pitch plays an important part in Birtwistle’s output). The title is inspired (retrospectively to composition) by Anna Karenina’s final moments in Tolstoy’s magnificent novel. Hulme describes his struggles with notation, specifically the creation of polyphony within a notational system that omits meter. The result is often remarkably beautiful.

The memorably named Popocetepetl Percussion Duo (Gabielle Petracco and Marko Jugovic, vibraphones) performs Slapdash Redux, a piece written in lieu of a fee for session work for one of Hulme’s grad students. Hulme took a page from Bernard Rands’ orchestration of Canti del Sole and riffed on it. The sound is very beautiful, the vibraphones at times almost sounding like bells: a “slapdash” carillon, if you will.

Nice to have some Appalachian music that is not Appalachian Spring. This, then, is Appalachian Advent, inspired by the composer’s grandfather’s activities as an Appalachian fiddler. As Hulme points out, many Appalachian songs are of Scottish or Scots-Irish origin. The tunes are arranged in Hulme’s own language: Clara O’Brien has the perfect voice for this, using tasteful vibrato but full-toned in “I Wonder as I Wander” against James Douglass’s swirling piano figures. “As Joseph was A’Walking” is a simple take, and Hulme’s individuality in the piano harmonies before “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus” acts as a reminder of the grounding importance of faith in poorer societies (interestingly, O’Brien’s vibrato is a little too intrusive here).

Finally, Sax-Attractor, a four-movement piece for sax and piano. The title refers to an attractor set in math (you want to know? “a phenomenon … in which, with repeated iteration cycles random numbers gradually migrate to the same sub-set”). Anyway, the piece is fun, as the first movement, “Attractor pas-de-deux,” reveals. “Romance Attractor” is the slow movement, eloquently played by Fletcher against Douglass’s oscillating piano part. The third movement is “Toccata Attractor,” with rocketing tendencies (brilliantly realized here) before “Fughettino and Attractor,” nicely contrapuntal and jumpy.

There were some dropouts on my review copy during Siren’s Song. Also, why is the composer’s name written in such a tiny, tiny font on the cover and back cover? That aside, this is a valuable overview of the music of Lance Hulme, carefully programmed and well documented.