william villarreal

The tagline for Mighty Forces Music (MFM)’s page for this disc is “Conceptual Romanticism for Orchestra.” It sums William L. Villarreal’s music up nicely. As Americana goes, this is lovely, expertly crafted music, with real surgings of hope (as in the first movement of On the Beckoning Air, “In the Wake”). There are no booklet notes whatsoever, no background, and nothing by Villarreal on the Fanfare Archive. There is a clue on the back of the booklet, though, a quote in cursive: “A sudden impulse comes to bear in the wake of secret stirrings and on the beckoning air.” Secret Stirrings is also the title of the disc as a whole. The disc opens dramatically, with rumblings and a tolling bell, for “the Tintinnabulation” that opens Poe—shades of Pärt, one might think, but this is far more American. Rooted there, in fact. “The Cold Hand” has more of a dance element to it, as if straining to break out into “Rodeo” from Copland's eponymous ballet (yes, there’s a lot of Copland in this music). The scoring is chamber-like, transparent, and woodwind solos are pertinently placed (as in “The Perambulation” third movement, a movement that seems to ever so gradually “awaken”). Villareal has a lovely way of using the piano as an orchestral instrument, too. The fourth movement, “The Warm Heart,” initially puts me in mind of “Moonlight” from Britten in Peter Grimes, prolonged into the beginning of the final “The Ululation.” A restrained and subtle use of chorus is a nice touch, and one should acknowledge some fine bassoon playing in this finale. One can trace the movements to Poe as inspiration. The companion piece On the Beckoning Air comprises three movements. The longest, “in the Wake,” a full quarter-hour, is unashamedly neo-Romantic and unfolds slowly but under the control of a firm compositional hand. Again, the piano is beautifully integrated into the sound picture, both in terms of composition and recording perspective. The two remaining movements are slighter, around five or six minutes each. The gossamer-light “Your Smile Enchants Me” is a clear declaration of love; the extremes of pianissimo achieved here by the players are at once both most impressive on a technical level, and most touching emotionally. Finally, there comes more robust “The Beckoning,” with its near-chorales and its more forceful juxtapositions. The pieces are well recorded; the sound is full yet detailed, while performances are uniformly excellent. Colin Clarke