Opus number: 66

Title: Tarab; a concertino for double cello quartet

Commissioned: Florent Renard-Payen for the Tarab Cello Ensemble

Dedication: Tarab Cello Ensemble

Instrumentation: Eight cellos

Date written: June 2003

Length: ca. 15 minutes

Premiere performance: October17, 2003 Seully Hall, The Boston Conservatory, Boston, MA

Important subsequent performances: February 8, 2004 Taplin Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, April 18, 2004, Wellin Hall Hamilton College, Clinton, NY

Program notes: Tarab was commissioned for the Tarab Cello Ensemble by its founder, Florent Renard-Payen. In three large sections, the work was conceived as a concertino for two cello quartets. Tarab is one of my most experimental pieces of recent years. Here I combine my interest in using high-ratio polyrhythms to articulate the background phrase structure with a new emphasis on working with a large harmonic vocabulary. The two quartets begin by sharing similar characteristics. By the second section the quartets operate entirely in opposition; while one quartet plays slowly and expressively, the other plays resolute and dance-like music. The antiphonal call-and-response between the two quartets reaches its climax at the end of the second section, where all eight cellos play one phrase in unison. In the third section each cello plays a short cadenza. Little by little these solos form duets, then trios, and, finally, the initial quartet juxtaposition is reestablished. The overall shape of the work is one of growing tension, catharsis, and resolution leading the listener-it is hoped-to a state of ecstasy, or ‘tarab’.

—Larry Thomas Bell

Reviews: (performances) ìWhat stood out were the lush harmonies and the fanfare-like motives in the first section of the piece and the two quartets in opposition in the second half, in particular the pizzicato versus chords. I was also impressed with the striking lyrical lines towards the end of the piece. The overall feel struck me as Romantic in its harmonic language and its emotional quality as well. I did get a sense of catharsis that the composer attempts to portray and a final feeling of ëtarabí which translates as ëecstasy.í

—Koren Cowgill, Classical New Jersey Society Journal (March 18, 2004)

Opus number:  62

Title: “Just as I Am”

Instrumentation:  violin and piano

Date written: May 2002

Length:   11 minutes

Dedication: Ayano Ninomiya

Performances:

Recording: in progress

Program notes: “Just as I am” was written for the violinist Ayano Ninomiya, whose enthusiasm for our joint recording project and her lyrical, singing violin playing inspired me. It is based on the old Southern hymn “Just as I am, without one plea.” The two-movement sonata bears a superficial resemblance to Beethoven’s Sonata for Piano, Op. 90. Here the first movement centers around G major and the second movement around E major. A fragment of the hymn is quoted Lontano, at a great distance, in a very high register at the beginning and end of the whole piece.

Opus number: 60

Title: Four Lyrics

Instrumentation: Trumpet and Piano

Date written: arranged October 2001

Length: ca. 10 minutes

Dedication: Fay Chandler

Performances: March 9, 2002; Boston, private gathering, Andrew Sorg, trumpet, Larry Bell, piano

Program notes: This piece was written in exchange for a painting by the artist Fay Chandler called “Multifarious Explanations.” The painting was done in 1974 and was given to the composer in May 2002. The piece is an arrangement of Shakespera Sonnets; see op. 58.

Opus number: 48

Title: Harmonium: Eight Poems for Brass Quintet after Wallace Stevens

Instrumentation: two trumpets, French horn, trombone, tuba

Date written: 1998, Boston

Performances: Bala Chamber Ensemble, ????

Length: ca. fifteen minutes

Program notes: “Harmonium” is a suite arranged from a set of madrigals, “A Cry Against the Twilight,” op. 42, composed in 1996. Harmonium is the title of Stevens’s first book of poems and all of the poetry that I set comes from that book. The poems inHarmonium are concerned with the metaphysical relationships between life and death and the natural elements.

Opus number: 41

Title: Four Pieces in Familiar Style

Instrumentation: two violins

Date written: 1995, Boston

Length: eight minutes

Commissioner: New England Conservatory Preparatory School

Premiere performance: Jennifer Press, Julie Thompson, violins, String Duo Project, January 28, 1995, New England Conservatory Preparatory School

Important subsequent performances: Yoichi Udagawa and John Law, violins, The Boston Conservatory, December 10, 1995.

Recording: Ayano Ninomiya, both violins, CD reocrding in progress; tape of NEC performance at NEC Firestone Library; tape of Boston Conservatory performance at Boston Conservatory library

Program notes: “Four Pieces in Familiar Style” was written for the New England Conservatory Preparatory School and first performed by students at the annual Contemporary Music Festival. The four pieces are characterized by dance rhythms and their sonority is derived from the frequent use of open strings. The movement titles are: I. Sonata in Two Parts, II  Which Side are you on?, III. The Cat and the Moon, V. Four-Voice Fugue.

Opus number: 39

Title: Quintessence

Instrumentation: woodwind quintet: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn

Date written: 1993, Boston

Length: ten minutes

Commissioner and dedicatee: Martin Frank

Premiere performance: Ariel Woodwind Quintet: Clare Nielsen, flute, Emily Gaberman, oboe, Rebecca Leonard, clarinet, Jonathan MacGowan, bassoon, and Ellen Donohue-Saltman, horn,September 29, 1994, Jordan Hall, Boston

Important subsequent performances: St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble: Elizabeth Mann, flute, Melanie Feld, oboe, William Blount, clarinet, Marc Goldberg, bassoon, William Purvis, French horn, March 26, 1997, Dia Center, New York City

Recording: tape of Ariel Quintet premiere performance at NEC Firestone library

Program notes:Quintessence consists of three movements: Prelude and Fugue, Double Variation, and Scherzo. The Prelude dramatizes each instrument as an individual and the Fugue emphasizes their similarity. In the second movement, Double Variation, there are two themes that each have the same harmony. The first theme is original. The second theme is called “Idumea” (pronounced I–doo´–ma) and is a nineteenth-century hymn whose first line of text is “And am I born to die?” The Scherzo is a jazzy finale with a trio that parodies the second movement’s Idumea melody. The work was completed in January of 1993 and was first introduced by the Ariel Quintet in Boston. Quintessence was commissioned by Dr. Martin Frank, a Pennsylvania cardiologist and amateur clarinetist.

Quintessence received its New York premiere by the St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra Ensemble in March 1997.

Opus number: 38

Title: What Goes Around Comes Around

Instrumentation: flute, oboe, clarinet, viola, cello, and piano

Date written: 1992, Boston

Length: six minutes

Commissioner: Bennington Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East

Premiere performance:  Brenda Levy, flute, David Halpert, clarinet, James Lewin, viola, Edward Bowe, oboe, Robert Secombe, piano, Frank Werber, cello, Larry Bell, conductor, August 1, 1992, Bennington College Chamber Music Conference, Bennington, Vermont

Important subsequent performances: 20th-Century Music Ensemble, December 9, 1994, The Boston Conservatory: Ellen Rakatansky, flute, Tanya Wills, oboe, Kenji Kikuchi, clarinet, Jan Bofinger, viola, Galizitine Trussell-Cullen, cello, Scott Ethier, piano, Yoichi Udagawa, conductor.

Recordings: tape at Boston Conservatory

Program notes: Bell’s What Goes Around Comes Aroundwas commissioned in 1992 by the Bennington College Chamber Music Festival and Composers Forum of the East, where Bell was Composer-in-Residence and conducted the premiere. Written for specific participants of the Festival, it is a streamlined version of the last movement of the composer’s Second Symphony. The work also involves an improvisation on the Southern folk hymn “Idumea.” The title refers to a common figure of speech, suggested here by a tone of ominous warning. It begins and ends with a round.

Opus number: 36

Title: Piano Quartet

Instrumentation: violin, viola, cello, piano

Date written: July, 1991, American Academy in Rome

Length: twenty-one minutes

Commissioner: The Boston Conservatory for its 125th Anniversary

Premiere performance: Boston Conservatory Chamber Ensemble, Victor Romanul, violin, Scott Woolweaver, viola, Andrés Díaz, cello, Janice Webber, piano, February 9, 1992, Boston Conservatory

Important subsequent performances: Joanna Jenner, violin, Sarah Clarke, viola, Eric Bartlett, cello, Larry Bell, piano, Boston Conservatory and Greenwich House, New York, October 20 and 22, 1992

Recordings: tape of premiere at Boston Conservatory; video of Jenner, Bell, Bartlett, Clarke performance at Boston Conservatory library

Program notes:  The Piano Quartet was commissioned by The Boston Conservatory Chamber Ensemble to commemorate the 125th anniversary of The Boston Conservatory. The work was begun and completed in July of 1991 at the American Academy in Rome and was premiered February 9, 1992.

The first movement, fantasia soli, is a sonata form with four themes, one for each instrument. The violin plays con bravura, the viola plays agitato, the ‘cello appassionata, and the piano maestoso. Each instrument plays in its own time and sound world with overlapping cadenzas. The differences among the instrumental characters are reconciled only by sharing the harmonic structure common to all movements.

The second movement, Scherzando duettini, is a light contrast to the first movement. The initial four themes are here reduced to two that imitate one another mockingly. Movement three, Canto a tre voce, or song in three voices, is a lyrical nocturne with a surprising central section in which a song is “discovered,” uniting the disparate conflicts of the first two movements. The fourth movement, Partita di quattro, or “foursome,” is a rondo finale that emphasizes unison rhythms and general agreement while each instrumental pair retains its own individuality.

Reviews:  “The Piano Quartet has an interesting formal design, with overlapping solo fantasy-cadenzas coalescing into duets, then trios, then, in the finale, a unison Partita.” –Richard Dyer, “A mixed all-Bell program at the Boston Conservatory,” The Boston Globe, October 22, 1992