One of foremost living American composers, Roger Reynolds (b. 1934), and his music are well known by those who follow contemporary music scene in America. Critic and musicologist Kyle Gann noted that Reynolds was the first composer since Ives from an experimentalist background to win normally conservative Pulitzer Prize for (1) a paradox that points to one of key facts of Reynolds's In a general sense, his music blends aspects of European avant-garde and American experimental traditions; influence of former is apparent in Reynolds's text usage, spatialization, and theatrical elements, while that of latter can be glimpsed in his innovative formal designs, expansion of serial techniques, editing procedures, and sophisticated use of electroacoustic technologies. Until recently, a moderate number of resources were available to scholars and artists interested in Reynolds's music, including scores published by Edition Peters and numerous commercial recordings; (2) composer's Web site; several journal articles and book entries, most notably in Perspectives of New Music and Music Perception; and composer's own books: Mind Models, A Searcher's Path, and Form and Method. (3) These books present a detailed self-examination of this composer's work; first-listed title outlines Reynolds's more general views on art, music, and society, while latter two detail aspects of his compositional approach. The Roger Reynolds Collection at Library of Congress, established in 1998, significantly expands resources available for study of this composer's life and Through this essay, I discuss genesis of Roger Reynolds Collection, present an overview of materials currently housed in archive, and provide some information about future plans for collection. Reynolds feels that his music and compositional methodology lend themselves particularly to archival preservation and study. On this topic, composer commented: Firstly, because of my background, it happened that my practice-- from beginning--involved making very detailed preparatory plans, sketches, etc., so there was an unusually detailed record of my creative process. This had potential interest to scholars and librarians: an opportunity to look behind scenes. As I was increasingly asked to lecture about my work, these sketches came in handy as ways of instantiating what I was lecturing about. Several publications about my ways as a composer followed, in journals and in book form. It was not only that I wished, of course, to have my own music understood, but also that there has been a notable lack of evidence regarding how later twentieth-century composers did their work: about methods, ideals, etc. As I had evidence, so to speak, it made sense to put it out there where teachers and students could examine, embrace, reject, whatever. Secondly, my work often--but not inevitably--involves intertwining of technology with notated vocal and instrumental materials. It seems probable that place of technology--already prominent in virtually all other aspects of music--will eventually become more central also to so-called music. In this case, libraries and scholars will have to deal with this reality in time. There is also, of course, matter of web. (4) Karen Reynolds, composer's flutist wife, is largely responsible for taking early initiative to locate a repository for her husband's scores, sketches, and private papers, a process that began in mid 1990s. Commenting on this initial impetus, Roger Reynolds stated: There were several reasons for looking into question of assuring that my materials--they were, indeed, a product of our partnership in a larger sense--would be cared for and preserved. Karen and I had led a very itinerant existence, and at outset, as we moved from France to Italy to Japan and then back to US, a good deal of what we had done (correspondence, photos, sketches, concert programs and like) had been lost. …
Search from 250 M+ research papersSearch from 250 M+ research papers
Open Access
Dec 30, 2011
Agnieszka Bartoszewicz 
