Sound Files

Updated 9 June 2025

Ariadne's Thread [1'59"]

A passage from Ariadne's Thread (1994), for string quartet and quadraphonic computer sound. This work takes the phenomenon of "line" as its basis. The computer element was done on Xenakis's UPIC system. It was recorded by the Arditti Quartet for a double-CD of Reynolds's string music by Auvidis in Paris.

Aspiration [6'51"]

A passage from Aspiration (2004-5), a violin concerto jointly commissioned by the Oslo Sinfonietta and the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne for violinist Irvine Arditti. Available on Double-CD "Aspiration".

The Emperor of Ice Cream [1'02"]

An excerpt from Reynolds's notorious chamber theater work created for the ONCE Festival in Ann Arbor, but first performed at Nuova Consonanza Festival in Rome (1965). This recording is by the Gregg Smith Singers, conducted by Smith.

imAge/violin [3'0"]

In recent years, Reynolds has composed relatively short, contrasting pairs of solos for particular instruments. imAge/violin is of an Articulative and Assertive nature. It was developed, collaboratively, with Irvine Arditti.

last things, I think, to think about [11'52"]

This song cycle, based on the poems of John Ashbery, involves wide-ranging vocal production and a virtuosic piano accompaniment. "Faust", a mock, mini-opera, is one of eleven songs in the work.

Piano Etudes, Book 1 [17'27"]

A Fromm commission, Reynolds's Piano Etudes comprise two Books of 6 works each. Each Book has a “linking” etude used to bind the various others in its Book into a continuity chosen by the performer. Here Eric Huebner combines three etudes from Book I.

Toward Another World: Lament [25'07"]

A work for solo clarinet and real-time algorithmic transformation. Anthony Burr, Clarinet, Jacob Sundstrom, Real-time algorithmic transformation. Premiered at a Society for Music Perception and Cognition Conference in the Calit2 Auditorium, University of California San Diego.

Transfigured Wind I [10'45"]

A set of separate works explore the four contrasting movements for solo flute that comprise Transfigured Wind I. An elaborate set of computer transformations and spatializations of these “seed” movements form a sonic tapestry against which the solo flutist is heard: with quadraphonic sound (TW IV), with chamber orchestra (TW III), or with symphonic orchestra (TW II). All are large-scale, rhapsodic forms. Transfigured Wind I comprises only the unaccompanied solos.

Whispers Out of Time, movement VI [10'17"]

While on a Visiting Professorship at Amherst College, Reynolds found a powerful and elusive poem by John Ashbery: Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. Seeking to understand its ruminations on time, portraiture and the artist, he composed a six-movement work for string orchestra. The Portrait’s Will to Endure is the 6th and last.