Roger Reynolds The Promises of Darkness

	PROGRAM NOTE Last modified 26 June 2024 The Promises of Darkness (1975) (Flute and String Quartet) by Roger Reynolds The Promises of Darkness was written in memory of Roberto Gerhard and represents a personal response to his music, humanity, and intellect. In it, I attempted to identify and inhabit aspects of my mentor’s work that I remembered as meaningful and also shadowed. Four instrumental groups (flute, clarinet, violin: trumpet, horn, cello; piano and percussion; trombone, bassoon, contrabass) are used to project three concurrent streams of sound, each with its own musical character. One is disjunct, marked by sforzando accents, ornamented releases, and suddenly changing dynamics; another, connected, using uniform durations and dynamics as well as ornamental arabesques; the third also connected but undergoing constant evolution (through glissandi and chromatic progressions), using complex modes of sound production and continuously shifting dynamics. These streams occasionally arrive at nodal points, resulting in ten brief “pieces”, each employing a unique instrumental combination. The pieces are lettered A through I in the score, those later in the series having been compositionally derived from those earlier (though this chronology of the generative process is not respected in the final work). The whole is continuous, but in four sections: the first dense and exploratory, the second tightly constrained and germinal, the third expressive and more flexible, the last cutting across characteristic allegiances in an effort at expressive directness. This work was premiered by Arthur Weisberg’s memorable Group for Contemporary Music at the Lincoln Center’s Tully Hall, 8 January 1976. – Roger Reynolds

PROGRAM NOTE

Last modified 26 June 2024

The Promises of Darkness (1975)
(Flute and String Quartet)

by Roger Reynolds

The Promises of Darkness was written in memory of Roberto Gerhard and represents a personal response to his music, humanity, and intellect. In it, I attempted to identify and inhabit aspects of my mentor’s work that I remembered as meaningful and also shadowed. Four instrumental groups (flute, clarinet, violin: trumpet, horn, cello; piano and percussion; trombone, bassoon, contrabass) are used to project three concurrent streams of sound, each with its own musical character. One is disjunct, marked by sforzando accents, ornamented releases, and suddenly changing dynamics; another, connected, using uniform durations and dynamics as well as ornamental arabesques; the third also connected but undergoing constant evolution (through glissandi and chromatic progressions), using complex modes of sound production and continuously shifting dynamics. These streams occasionally arrive at nodal points, resulting in ten brief “pieces”, each employing a unique instrumental combination. The pieces are lettered A through I in the score, those later in the series having been compositionally derived from those earlier (though this chronology of the generative process is not respected in the final work). The whole is continuous, but in four sections: the first dense and exploratory, the second tightly constrained and germinal, the third expressive and more flexible, the last cutting across characteristic allegiances in an effort at expressive directness. This work was premiered by Arthur Weisberg’s memorable Group for Contemporary Music at the Lincoln Center’s Tully Hall, 8 January 1976.

– Roger Reynolds