"When I termed this offering of three world premieres by American composer Robert Raines 'intriguing,' it wasn't a left-handed compliment. Raines, a Greenwich Village native, who spent years in New York City learning his craft as a guitarist and studio musician, has a background in jazz, blues and popular music. His formal education includes a Master's from Shenandoah Conservatory, where he studied with William Averitt, and a Doctorate in composition from Florida State University . He credits Averitt and Czech-born composer Ladislav Kubik as having 'taught me most of what I know about writing music.'

 I prefaced this review with the short note on Raines' background by way of illustrating one route by which a modern composer can learn his craft thoroughly. The remarkable thing about Raines' music is not so much that it is technically intricate, which we might have expected, but that it also has the power to move the listener emotionally. 

The two characteristics are inseparable in a work such as Echoes of Sarah (2007) which Raines dedicates to the memory of a fellow musician who died before her time of a rare blood disease. Performed by nine flutists (one piccolo, 5 standard flutes, 2 altos and one bass), the texture is deliberately intricate as the composer explores extremes of range, tone, texture, and tempo, beginning and ending with dense vertical clusters. But something else is going on here. Though Raines provides no program, the course of this 11-minute work seems to me to parallel that of a human life: tentative reaching-out in exploration at the beginning, followed by struggle, conflict, and gratifying moments of triumph such as we all have, then frantically increasing tempi and a sense of urgency, as of someone keenly aware of the terrible brevity of life. Next we have an eerie section in which we hear only the sounds of labored suspiration (probably the result of the performers blowing streams of air without pressing the keys), and then a final brief flourish of tone clusters at the end.

 Menage (2005),a trio in three movements for flute, piano and bass clarinet, explores the relationships between these three instruments, each with its own distinctive timbre, in solo, duet and trio settings. But again, though Raines is quite explicit that the work is abstract and non-programmatic, the music explores a range of emotions: love and hate, sadness and joy, conflict and its resolution. The movements are marked only l, ll, and lll, but seem to correspond to a traditional fast-slow-fast pattern. The second movement was for me the most satisfying.

 The major work on the program is The Return of Ulysses (2007), a 30-minute ballet in three acts and seven scenes based on Homer's Odyssey. The outline is as follows: Act I: Athena Visits Athens; Dance of the Suitors . Act ll: The Cyclops; The Sirens; The Kingdom of the Dead. Act lll: The Return of Odysseus; The Rooted Bed. The Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Vit Micka provides more than capable support, including the high level of individual musicianship that Raines requires in his many solos and passages for families of instruments. The writing is expressive and dramatic, showing Raines' well developed instinct for using the right instrumental combination at the right moment. The Suitors, spoilers of Odysseus' wealth who dishonor his wife Penelope by their unwelcome presence and importunate demands that she marry one of them, are subtly characterized by music that illustrates their arrogance and excess. The Cyclops builds in mystery and intensity, making highly effective use of the brass at the climactic moment. The denizens of The Kingdom of the Dead are more than just pitiable shades: being dead, they are envious of the living and desirous of imprisoning them in their own realm; Raines' robust orchestration gives them a palpable enough presence to be really menacing to his hero. The Return of Odysseus is climaxed by a truly thrilling description of the battle in which the hero slays the Suitors; the music ranges back and forth as in a real battle, with sensationally scintillating writing for the strings. The Rooted Bed concludes the story: Penelope is able to satisfy Odysseus' doubts as to her fidelity by answering his query: 'Who has moved my bed?' The bed, which was the marriage bed of Penelope and Odysseus, cannot be moved any more than the perfect union of man and woman can be shaken, for its frame is the trunk of a massive tree, its bedposts the branches.

Since this is a new work, we can foresee the composer making changes to it with the passage of time as it benefits from changes in choreography and repeated performances, much the same as happened to Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. My initial impression is that the scenario is still too sketchy (an irony, as Raines attests that he edited the final version we have here from his original three-hour design) and could be expanded into a full evening's ballet along lines which the composer himself has already indicated: 'Fear, courage, lust, love, life and death … Odysseus returns home and renews his love for his wife.'

The well-balanced recordings capture all the elements in Raines' dramatic and evocative, but highly economic writing. Keep this premiere offering in your CD collection and treasure it. I have the feeling we will be hearing much from Robert Raines in the future."
Atlanta Audio Society ~ March 2009

 Raised in New York City ’s Greenwich Village by parents who were active in the arts, Robert Raines was immersed in music, theater, literature, and the visual arts from an early age. He attended the High School of Art and Design, one of New York City ’s specialized schools for the arts. He went on to receive a Bachelor of Music, in composition and electronic music, from the Berklee College of Music in Boston , his Master of Music in composition from the Shenandoah Conservatory, and his Doctor of Music in composition from the Florida State University .

 Parallel careers in music and visual arts followed his early education. His experience includes working for a number of years as a guitarist and composer in New York City , during which time he produced and performed on many recordings and performances of jazz, blues and popular music. He has also composed a sizeable body of art music and electronic compositions, and has toured the United States and Europe . During the same period, he achieved professional success in his career as a visual artist, including executive positions at America Online and Time Magazine. 

Robert Raines’ music has been performed and recorded throughout the United States , Europe and Japan .

For more information, visit www.rainesmusic.com

Vít Micka has many years of experience conducting, including the Moravian Philharmonic and the Pilsen Radio Orchestra. He has conducted in Canada , Cuba , Turkey , Spain , Italy , and the United States . He teaches at the Prague Academy of Music and has given master classes in conducting in Europe the United States.