Daglarym/My Mountains was commissioned by Volti, Robert Geary, Artistic Director, for its 30^th Anniversary season.  The title is drawn from folk music of Tuva, an autonomous republic of the Russian Federation bordering Mongolia.  The texts, adapted from folk song lyrics by Katherine Vincent, are the fruit of an excursion to Tuva for linguistic and folk song research in which Kate took part.  These brief poems are evocative of the vast expanses of this country through which nomadic tribes of herdsmen move across the landscape in an eternal seasonal cycle.  As a musical basis for the piece I used melodic fragments from folk tunes which the poet and violist, Kate Vincent, notated in her journal, and I also listened to a good deal of Tuvan throat singing on recordings, though I didn’t utilize that technique in this piece.  It was definitely my aim to be musically evocative and to offer many different textures during the course of the work, showing off the suppleness and color of Volti’s singers.  Daglarym/My Mountains was composed during the summer and fall of 2008 and received its premiere performances by Volti in Berkeley, San Francisco and Palo Alto on May 15 - 17, 2009.    - Donald Crockett