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Belinda Reynolds: CoverNew Millennium Ensemble Ensemble, Belinda Reynolds Performer
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Belinda Reynolds is a California-based composer and educator whose own original music couldn't be farther away from the university aesthetic of "the more difficult and complex the music is, the better it is, even if you don't like it." Reynolds' music is all about communication, and it enables young musicians to both grasp and enjoy playing it with relative ease. She has earned much praise for her commissioning program "Custom Made," where she writes piano duets to the requirements of specific students. Innova's Belinda Reynolds: Cover is the first all-Belinda Reynolds disc, and the music is very thought-provoking, not just due to Reynolds' practicality and responsiveness to the needs of musicians, but in its accessibility to the listener. Hers is not a "chic nostalgia for tonality" but a contemporary and upbeat approach to writing music that represents a skillful compromise between feeling, mood, and technique.Seven compositions, ranging from 1995 to 2003, are featured in performances by American Baroque, New Millennium Ensemble, Citywinds, Claricello, pianist Teresa McCollough, guitarist Sergio Puccini, and percussionists Thomas Burritt and Peggy Benkeser. The pieces are extremely consistent in style, generally serious in tone, and rigorously straightforward in the musical language employed. There is only sparing use made of the repetition one would normally associate with minimalism, but the music is driven by different kinds of patterns, so it isn't built with melody so much as it is with individual lines that react together in a way that creates a sort of linear harmony. Reynolds sometimes will throw a modulation into the mix to relocate the center of her complexes, and then the stream changes direction on a dime. This sounds like tremendously rewarding and fun music to play, but it isn't always as fun to listen to; the guitar piece Yawp is concentrated in a very limited locus of pitches and is more likely to inspire a "yawn" than a "yawp." The title work and Solace seem to nail down the basic principles behind this music, and from there on out, it is just more of the same—a tad more variety would not hurt it.
One does not want to be too hard on this music, however, for if you like Reynolds' basic style, then the whole disc will appeal to you. No matter what its flaws, Belinda Reynolds: Cover is a well-played and well-realized statement of her talents as a composer, and it bodes well for future efforts.
© Uncle Dave Lewis , All Music Guide
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© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.
