postcards

Danielle’s debut CD postcards features repertoire inspired by travel, from Spain to the Middle East to Maritime Canada.

The recording includes three premières; Thea Musgrave's Postcards from Spain, Violet Archer's Fantasy on Blanche Comme la Neige, and Robert A. Baker's A Forge, and a Scythe.

Also featured on the disc is the unique combination of guitar and percussion, in Lou Harrison's Serenade. Percussionist Andy Morris plays gongs, finger cymbals and hand drums of different timbres which compliment beautifully the sonorities of the guitar.

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Reviews of postcards

The name of Danielle Cumming's new recording of guitar music comes from one of the pieces on it: Thea Musgrave's Postcards from Spain. The travelogue idea, mapping some of the ancient roots of the guitar and its repertoire, is certainly an attractive way to organize an album.

Robert A. Baker's A Forge, and a Scythe, based on Raymond Carver's poem, is quite appealing and a good example of Cumming's provocative, adventurous programming. Other pieces by Lou Harrison, Carlo Domeniconi, Violet Archer and William Walton are similarly satisfying, offering a broad range of expression and unexpected variety.

This album is full of beautiful music, not mysterious or forbidding at all, though quite rigorously worked out. I could listen to that sinuous (Lou Harrison) melody - with its suggestion of the guitar's "Arabic" past - all day long, and far into the night.

Alan Gasser, Wholenote Magazine, October 2001

Postcards is the initial offering from talented guitarist Danielle Cumming, who earned her Masters degree under guitar legend Norbert Kraft and honed her talents with further studies abroad. (Kraft also appears on this album as producer and engineer.)

The driving force of the album is Spain, and in particular its influence over both the artist and featured composers. Rather than presenting a collection of Spanish music, Cumming has assembled an array of pieces by contemporary composers of other nationalities, including two Canadians. Works by Violet Archer and Robert A. Baker evoke for the artist characteristics that are uniquely Canadian.

Cumming's performance on the album is stellar, with a clear and confident tone throughout, and the recording itself allows the instrument to fill the spaces with sound. Although the music is written in the contemporary era, it is accessible, although if you are expecting more traditional "Spanish-sounding"; music you won't find it here. Think of postcards not as a series of boldly detailed photographs, but as impressionist or abstract drawings, leaving something for the imagination.

Mark Russom, Performing Arts and Entertainment in Canada, Vol.34 No.1, Autumn 2002