From his mystical, poetic titles, and the small range of his timbral palette, one may suppose that
Jeffrey Mumford's chamber music is visionary in outlook and intensely private in expression.
Mumford's titles are significant, for they indicate a break from conventional formal descriptions and point to his conception of organic content as the determinant factor of a work's shape.
Mumford's pieces for solo instruments -- viola in Wending (2001), piano in A Landscape of Interior Resonances (2001), and alto saxophone in The Milliner's Fancy (2003) -- suggest an equally integrated approach to performance; because the works have been composed specifically for the performers recorded here -- even derived from letters in their names -- they seem quite dependent on them for their expressive qualities and unique interpretations. Yet even in his works for more than one instrument, such as The Promise of the Far Horizon for string quartet (2002) and A Window of Resonant Light for cello, piano and percussion (1997),
Mumford has planned the music for the players' strengths and given the pieces an intimacy that would be difficult to reproduce without these sympathetic musicians. Violist Wendy Richman, pianist
Margaret A. Kampmeier, and saxophonist Rhonda Taylor all contribute a corresponding sensitivity and intensity to
Mumford's tailor-made meditations, and the
Corigliano Quartet and the
Core Ensemble are similarly attuned and involved. Albany's sound quality is fine.