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.
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Thursday, May 05, 2005
Coming Home
It is 4:15 in the morning now, so you can see that I am adjusting well to the time change. I awoke at 1:30, and
felt fresh and invigorated for the new day! So, wrapping up the trip now, there are several closing remarks and links that I want to provide for Blog readers so you can learn more about Sontonga, Owl House, ILAM, and South Africa.
The Sontonga Quartet will be touring the U.S. in the fall of 2006, and if you are interested in booking them please view their site http://www.sontongaquartet.com , or contact contact Marc Uys directly at sontonga@webmail.co.za.
The Owl House Foundation Website is http://www.owlhouse.co.za/. The Owl House is currently raising funds for several projects. The documentary film needs additional funding to complete the editing, production and distribution of the film. Secondly, they would like to have This is My World republished by Oxford University Press. Oxford has requested pre-payment of the publication costs. Perhaps a pre-publication subscription by individuals, along with some donations will complete this funding. They have raised 25,ooo Rands to date, which is one quarter of the production costs. Restoration of the camel yard sculptures is also needed, due to gradual decline from outdoor wear and tear. Mark Wilby can be contacted directly at ibis@intekom.co.za.
The International Library of African Music at Rhodes University has a wealth of information, recordings, and instruments from throughout Africa. Their Website is : http://www.ilam.ru.ac.za/.
I have two premieres coming up in mid-May: the orchestral version of Cloven Dreams, and Ten Day Miner for Concert Band. These are both in association with my school residencies. Please come to the concerts if you are
in Northern California, and would like to hear the sounds of Africa, or the blasting of the Cornish Miners down in the gold mines of the Sierra Foothills!
Cloven Dreams for Orchestra
San Francisco School of the Arts, Theatre Auditorium
555 Portola Drive
San Francisco, CA
Saturday, May 14, 7:30 p.m.
http://www.sfsota.org 415- 695-5700
Ten Day Miner for Concert Band
Magnolia Intermediate Gold Band
Cottage Hill Elementary School Auditorium
22600 Kingston Lane Grass Valley, CA 95949
Telephone: 530.268.2808/
Wednesday, May 18, 6:30 p.m.
http://www.pleasantridge.k12.ca.us/magnolia/
posted by D'Arcy Reynolds
4:15 AM
F i n a l C o n c e r t
We finished most of the filming today, and Sontonga played an afternoon concert for the villagers. As you can see, the front row was filled with children, and the repertoire was tailored to the audience. A movement of Haydn String Quartet, Op. 77, No. 1, Schumann 3rd Quartet, 2nd movement, Cloven Dreams, a movement of a Peter Klatzow Quartet (UCT), the Pizzicato Polka by Strauss, and arrangements by Mattheis van Dijk of Voodoo Child and Paint it Black.
We went to a great brewery after the concert with extraordinary beer and cheeses.The cheeses were direct from their two goats. The goat cheese was blended with olives and a liquor and served with sweet beet roots and brown bread. Combine this with a tasty dark beer, and we were all in heaven...
posted by D'Arcy Reynolds
4:11 AM
T h e V i l l a g e
I managed to get out early this morning to get some pictures of the countryside inthe early morning light. The birdsong breaks the morning silence with continuous, yet varied calls. The light is amazing - it is their fall light - and the reds, yellows,and whites create a kind of Tuscan palette.
The township lies just at the base of a hillside, and is about four city blocks fromthe village. Smoke rises, creating a thick cloud above the houses. You can hear dogsyelping, children crying, and see people leaving early to get to work. It is a very different world from the silent early morning 'village proper'.
posted by D'Arcy Reynolds
4:06 AM
D o c u m e n t a r y
Mark Wilby, the curator of Owl House, started developing the idea for this documentary several months ago. Overthe past year I've been e-mailing him about the prospect of a Meet the Composer (MTC) grant, and then about the process of writing Cloven Dreams, and finally planning the trip to South Africa after receiving the MTC grant.
His aim is to create a film documenting the creative process related to the the music written about Owl House. Today we filmed the Sontonga Quartetin the camel yard playing Cloven Dreams. In our evening session, Owl House was illuminated with paraffin lanterns, and the glass-covered walls glittered late into the night (well, 1:30 a.m.). Tommorow the crew finishes up the final shots, and then Sontonga will give a concert for the village in the afternoon.
Film Crew Sontonga Quartet at Owl House in the Camel Yard 
posted by D'Arcy Reynolds
4:01 AM
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
N i e u-B e t h e s d a / O w l H o u s e
Driving into Nieu-Bethesda yesterday afternoon was like arriving in Mecca aftera long journey. The camel yard was alight with late afternoon sun, and the figures gradually turned to shadow as the cold crept into the high-desert mountain air. The camel yard was more playful and amusing than I had realized. Juxtaposing the owls, camels, peacocks, mona lisas, and mermaids, creates a playful flurry of activity.
Glass is imbedded in many of the figures, and the foliage around the camel yard has an interesting way of ornamenting the figures. There is a preponderance of mythic figures in the yard, with numerous wise men, the baby jesus in the manger, pyramids, and sphinxes. The massive rush of figures heading towards Oos (East) is so congested, that it is ominously reminiscent of an uncontrollable compulsive disorder to create (the figures).
Owl House has created an industry for the townspeople who sell replicas of Owl House figures, jewelry, lamps, and key chains with little owls on them. Koos, Helen Martins' last assistant, was an important figure in Helens' life, and it feels like the people who are making the Owl House figures are continuing the Koosian tradition of sculpting for a living in this tiny village.
posted by D'Arcy Reynolds
3:44 AM
April 23 and 24 Sontonga Quartet concerts
The next two concerts with Cloven Dreams are tonight in Grahamstown, and Sunday afternoon in Port Elizabeth. Then we'll be filming in Nieu-Bethesda during theweek, and will have another concert next Saturday afrernoon, perhaps at the Owl House.
Sat 23 April 20:00
Beethoven Room, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape
Haydn Op. 77 no. 1,
Reynolds Cloven Dreams
Schumann Piano Quintet with students from Rhodes University
Sun 24 April 16:00
UPE (University of Port Elizabeth) Auditorium
Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape
Haydn Op. 77 no. 1
Peter Klatzow String Quartet no 3
Reynolds Cloven Dreams
Schumann String Quartet Op. 41 no.3
posted by D'Arcy Reynolds
3:38 AM
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