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Fanfare

With 31 listings in the Fanfare Archive (a most valuable research tool for the serious collector), Roger Reynolds (b. 1934) has received fairly consistent critical support in these pages, not surprising for a composer who is a 1989 Pulitzer Prize laureate as well as the recipient of numerous other accolades and awards. This disc of four works for chamber ensembles of rather substantial size will richly reward his fans.

Opening the program is The Promises of Darkness, in which four instrumental groups meld three simultaneous sonic streams of unique and distinctive character. One of these is disjunct and shot through with sforzando accentuation, ornamentation, and sharp dynamic contrasts, while another contrasts this with uniform durations and dynamics. A third evidences evolution in its gestures, which include glissandos, chromatic progressions, and the like. Occasionally throughout the work, there are points of arrival by all three groups, serving to delineate 10 short “movements,” although these are grouped into four “sections” in the 23-minute work. The conflation of all these elements forms a fascinating and aurally stimulating mélange of sounds that characterize this composer’s musical voice. Its score employs both traditional and graphic notation, and its opening is reproduced in the booklet, with everything clearly specified and delineated.

Mistral takes quite a different, i.e., much freer, approach. Here, the score specifies the instrumentation—six brass players, six strings, and an amplified harpsichord—with the broad instruction to “play.” The structure of the work consists of an assemblage of eight self-contained musical segments, each ranging from a few seconds to several minutes. The brass and string sextets juxtapose bold expressions with quiet and intimate ones, while the harpsichord’s crystalline and piquant tones embellish the other instruments to create a compelling tapestry of sound that the composer describes as “ripples, flutters, swaying, and bending.”

The pitting of one instrumental group against another continues in Dionysus, an octet in which one group consisting of piccolo, clarinet, percussion, and double bass is set off against another containing trumpet, horn, bass trombone, and piano. The work was commissioned by the New Music Ensemble of my own alma mater Indiana University and its founding director Harvey Sollberger, and received its premiere here in 1990. The piccolo, perhaps more than any other instrument, sets this work off from its discmates, as the inherent shrillness of the instrument penetrates in a way that no other instrument can. Textures in this work tend to be more homophonic (i.e., chordal) than in the preceding ones, because of the “battle” that occurs between the two instrumental groups. As with the other works, the level of virtuosity required of all the performers is nothing short of breathtaking.

Positings, which closes the program, is the most recent (2013) work heard here. It also calls for the smallest assemblage of performers, requiring only an instrumental quintet augmented by computer-processed sound. Interestingly, one of the members of the quintet is required to do double duty on both piano and percussion. The 23-minute work is divided into five sections, each of which is introduced by a “Posit” (a musical affirmation) and concluded by a “Response,” a musical reaction to the Posit that reiterates its material in altered form. Thus, in the words of the composer, the Posits present “five musical spaces, each of which, in turn, arises out a single, central gesture made by one member of the quintet.” As in the opening work, but in contrast to the other two offered in the recital, this work includes exploration of “noise,” including pressure scratches, shrieks in the violin, tone clusters in the piano, the computer-generated sounds, and the like, adding new colors to Reynolds’s already very colorful writing. Indeed the sonic variety that the composer draws out from the relatively sparse ensemble is most remarkable, and the work is my favorite on the recital, although there is much to like in all four works.

Clearly, Reynolds has been influenced by composers such as Varèse and Xenakis, but his sonic universe remains his own. Although I knew none of these works prior to hearing this disc, the performances of each one sound absolutely compelling to my ears, and surely will to other listeners who are well tuned to the advanced music of our era. To such aficionados I give a hearty recommendation of this very generously filled and well-recorded disc.