D'Arcy Reynolds is a well known composer on the West Coast where her compositions have been premiered at numerous concert halls and music festivals. In recognition for her outstanding work D'Arcy has won several grants from such prestigious organizations as the American Composers Forum, the American Music Center and Meet the Composer.
She has written works for Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Chorus, Chamber Ensemble, Voice and Piano. She has completed three song cycles for soprano and chamber ensemble (The Past Keeps Changing, Beyond Dreaming, and Listening to Winter), all of which have been written in collaboration with living poets. Recent premieres include Cloven Dreams, performed by Tessa Brinckman & the East/West Continuo in Portland, Oregon, Elegy by the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, 21 for piano, and The Past Keeps Changing, performed at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA.
In addition to her work as a composer and pianist, D’Arcy Reynolds is the founding Director of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the American Composers Forum. The Chapter became an important arts organization for artists throughout Northern California, and as Director of the San Francisco Chapter, Ms. Reynolds developed an innovative Composer in the Schools Program, held salons with new works by Northern California Composers and administered interdisciplinary granting programs with composers, poets and choreographers.
She received a 2004 Meet the Composer Global Connections grant and is traveling to South Africa where the Sontonga String Quartet will perform her string quartet Cloven Dreams at the University of Cape Town.
|
|
|
|
|
Thursday, May 05, 2005
C l o v e n D r e a m s
Cloven Dreams was commissioned by Tessa Brinckman in 2003 for flute and string trio. The piece was immediately orchestrated for full orchestra, and then re-orchestrated for string quartet when I began planning this trip to South Africa to work with the Sontonga Quartet.
Tessa lent me a reference copy of This is My World by Sue Imrie Ross, and Hugh Tracey's African field recordings from the 1940's as a basis for Cloven Dreams. Both the field recordings and the images had an incaluable influence on the compositional process.
The piece lays down a groove that is based on the African field recordings, and gradually introduces bird sounds, and various utterances from the other strings. This evolves into a dense rhythmic interplay, similar to the hocketing of the African marimba family with three to four players. The first section has a lively, playful feeling that reflects the bouyant quality of the Camel Yard. This gradually builds to a more complex and vibrant climax.
Owl House Kitchen
We enter the Owl House with the sudden introduction of the eb ostinato in the violin. The static, almost eerie sound is very evocative, and represents the red stillness within Owl House. The tremelo in the violin evokes the rustling of the thornbush; muted flautando parallel fourths a glass-like quality, like the glistening stained glass and tiny crushed glass framents that permeate the walls and ceilings.
The sparseness of this section ends when the Little Devil comes to life. (The Little Devil is the one being that was created entirely by Helen Martins, the rest having been fashioned by her assistants from the village). The final section of the piece begins with the Little Devil dancing an irregular rhythmic figure as it enters the Camel Yard for the first time. Her Little Devil shadow-side is finally permitted out into the world. A kind of musical redemption for Martins, Cloven Dreams presents the healing and integration of her Little Devil when it dances with the rest of the archetypal images Martins has created in the Camel Yard.
Little Devil
posted by D'Arcy Reynolds
3:52 AM
| |
