New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall
Program
Music of the Spheres , op. 82 (2006) World Premiere Larry Bell
I. Jupiter VI. Venus
II. Mars VII. Neptune
III. Saturn VIII. Mercury
IV. Earth IX. Pluto
V. Uranus
Larry Bell, pianist
Adagio for Piano (1947) World Premiere Roger Sessions
Larry Bell, pianist
Dream Within a Dream , op. 79 (2006) World Premiere Larry Bell
1. Miracles (Walt Whitman)
2. A Cradle Song (William Blake)
3. A Dream Within a Dream (Edgar Allan Poe)
4. There came a wind like a bugle (Emily Dickinson)
5. Dover Beach (Matthew Arnold)
D'Anna Fortunato, mezzo-soprano
Larry Bell, pianist
Shakespeare Sonnets , op. 58 (2001) Boston Premiere Larry Bell
No. 128 How oft, when thou, my music, music playst
No. 29 When, in disgrace with Fortune and mens' eyes
No. 145 Those lips that Love's own hand did make
No. 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thomas Gregg, tenor
Larry Bell, pianist
Piano Sonata No. 3 , op. 83 (2006) World Premiere Larry Bell
I Adagio
II. Allegretto
III. Largo In memoriam: György Ligeti (June 12, 2006)
IV. Scherzando
Larry Bell, pianist
Lullabye World Premiere James Orleans
James Orleans, double bass
Larry Bell, pianist
Pop Set , op. 74 (2005) World Premiere Larry Bell
I. Backbeat V. Swing Time
II. Habenera VI. Ballad
III. Tango VII. Gospel Jubilee
IV. Folk Song
James Orleans, double bass
Larry Bell, pianist
Music of the Spheres, op. 82, by Larry Bell
The sculptural mobiles of Alexander Calder, which I saw at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in March 2006, inspired this work for solo piano. Calder's preoccupation with the planetary orbits and his unique sense of motion and balance gave me the idea of doing something similar in a musical medium.
While this work has no direct connection to Holst's “Planets,” indirect references to the characters of the Greco-Roman gods can be heard. Jupiter, for instance, begins with a lightening bolt, Mars has a certain militaristic rhythm, and Mercury is quite rapid and fanciful.
Unlike Pythagoras, who was preoccupied by the relationship between harmonic intervals and the proportional distance of the other planets to the earth , my main interest was to derive the rhythmic proportions of the music from the planets' relative distance to the sun . One underlying macro-speed connects all the movements with their respective proportions. That fundamental speed is expressed in time as dotted half note equals 33: In both Mars and Earth the quarter note equals 99, which means the dotted half equals 33. Uranus is scored at dotted quarter equals 66 (so the dotted half equals 33). In Neptune the dotted quarter note equals 44, in Pluto the quarter equals 44 (both two-thirds of 66; a 2:3 ratio); and in Jupiter that quarter is doubled to equal 88. Saturn's quarter equals 66 (twice 33), while for Venus and Mercury it equals 132 (twice as fast as 66, or four times 33).
Earth here is considered to have a 1:1 relationship to the sun. The uniqueness of the Earth is characterized by unison and octave textures. Mercury, the shortest distance, has a relationship of about .4 of that of the Earth, its relative distance closer to the sun. Its relationship in the music is expressed as the polyrhythm 5:2--another way of expressing .4, that is, two-fifths of a beat, or five sounds against two beats. Pluto is approximately 39.5 times further from the sun than the earth, and this is expressed musically in chords whose durations are 39.5 sixteenth notes. In Venus the proportion 5:4, which expresses its .8 of the distance of the Earth to the sun.
Uranus is nineteen times the distance from the Earth to the sun, therefore the chords in its movement occur every nineteen sixteenth notes. Similarly, Pluto has a chord every 39 sixteenth notes. Jupiter, which is 5.2 times the Earth's distance from the sun, is first rounded down to five and written as groups of phrases with five beats. Mars, at 1.5 the distance to the sun, lends itself nicely to 2:3, two beats sound against three beats. Neptune, on the other hand, is thirty times our distance from the sun, and therefore is broken into 5 times 6, or six five-beat phrases = 30. The swirling, circular figures of Saturn represent its rings. Saturn is 9.5 times the Earth's distance from the sun, which I rounded down to 9:2 to represent nine and a half eighths.
In order to present nine separate pieces in a dramatic sequence, I arranged them so that the increasingly further away orbits alternate with the increasingly closer: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto become slower and alternate with Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury, which become faster. Thus the work ends with fastest piece, Mercury, followed by the slowest, Pluto. In addition, the first piece, Jupiter, functions somewhat as an overture that foreshadows each of the other movements. Only after I had written and learned these pieces did astronomers decide to renumber the planets and eliminate Pluto!
Adagio for Piano, by Roger Sessions
In March of 2006, while researching material for Andrea Olmstead's new biography of Roger Sessions in the University of California at Berkeley's archives, we discovered a hitherto unknown work by Sessions. It is a short, one-movement work written to commemorate the retirement of the University's provost Monroe Deutsch. Sessions's inscription reads: For Monroe Deutsch with admiration and sincere affection (and apologies that it is a somewhat gloomy piece!) Roger Sessions Berkeley August, 1947.
Dream Within a Dream , for voice and piano, by Larry Bell
“Dream Within a Dream” takes it title from the poem by Edgar Allan Poe that forms the center of this set of five songs. The other songs are based on a diverse group of American and British poets: Whitman, Blake, Dickinson, and Arnold. These songs may be performed as a whole, or as individual songs, by either male of female voice. They were written in the spring of 2006 and dedicated admiration and affection for my student Robin Reinert.
Miracles (Walt Whitman)
Why, who makes much of a miracle?
As to me I know nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the houses to the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the edge of the water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk with anyone I love, or lie at night with anyone I love,
Or animals feeding in the fields,
Or birds or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
Or the wonderfulness of sundown, or the stars shining so quiet and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring;
These with the rest, one and all are to me miracles,
To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
Every square yard of the earth is spread with the same.
To me the sea is a continual miracle,
Fishes that swim the motion of the waves,
What stranger miracles are there?
A Cradle Song (William Blake)
Sweet dreams form a shade,
O'er my lovely infants head,
Sweet dreams of pleasant streams,
By happy silent moony beams.
Sweet sleep with soft down,
Weave thy brows and infant crown,
Sweet sleep Angel mild,
Hover o'er my happy child.
Sweet smiles in the night,
Hover over my delight,
Sweet smiles Mother's smiles
All the livelong night beguiles.
Sweet moans, dove-like sighs,
Chase not slumber from thy eyes.
Sweet moans, sweeter smiles,
All the dove-like moans beguiles.
Sweet babe in thy face,
Holy image I can trace.
Sweet babe once like thee,
Thy maker lay and wept for me.
Wept for me for thee for all,
When he was an infant small.
His image ever see,
Heavenly face that smiles on thee.
Smiles on thee on me on all.
Smiles on thee on me on all.
A Dream Within a Dream (Edgar Allan Poe)
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
This much let me avow
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we may see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
Here I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
them with a tighter clasp?
O God! Can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
Is but a dream within a dream?
There came a wind like a bugle (Emily Dickinson)
There came a wind like a bugle;
It quivered through the grass,
And a green chill upon the heat
So ominous did pass
We barred the windows and the doors
As from an emerald ghost;
The doom's electric moccason
That very instant passed.
On a strange mob of panting trees,
And fences fled away,
And rivers where the houses ran
The living looked that day.
The bell within the steeple wild
The flying tidings whirled.
How much can come
And much can go,
And still abide this world! How much can come
And much can go,
And still abide this world!
Dover Beach (Matthew Arnold)
The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full,
The moon lies fair
Upon the straits
On the French coast the light Gleams and is gone;
The cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and fast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night air!
Only from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon blanched land.
Listen! You hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high stand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow,
And bring The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound of a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
Ah, love let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, no peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain;
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
These four songs were written in the spring of 2001 and are dedicated to Catherine Thorpe in appreciation of her first performance of my “Ten Poems of William Blake.” The formal structure of Shakespeare's sonnets is directly mirrored in the music. Each sonnet contains three sections of four lines and a two-line summation at the end. The third song is a parody of the first song's ardent seriousness. The songs were originally conceived, as were the Sonnets, from a man's perspective, but they are not gender specific. Tonight's performance by Thomas Gregg is the first time they have been sung by a male voice.
Sonnet No. 128
How oft, when thou, my music, music playst
Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds
With thy sweet fingers when thou gently swayst
The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,
Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap
To kiss thy gentle inward of thy hand,
Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap,
At the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand.
To be so tickled they would change their state
And situation with those dancing chips,
O'er whom they fingers walk with gentle gait,
Making dead wood more blest than living lips.
Since saucy jacks so happy are in this,
Give them thy fingers, me thy lips, to kiss.
Sonnet No. 29
When, in disgrace with Fortune in mens' eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love rememb'red such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Sonnet No. 145
Those lips that Love's own hand did make
Breathed forth the sound that said “I hate”
To me that languished for her sake;
But when she saw my woeful state,
Straight to her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was used in giving gentle doom,
And taught it thus anew to greet:
“I hate” she altered with an end
That followed it as gentle day
Doth follow night who like a fiend,
From heav'n to hell is flown away.
“I hate” from hate away she threw,
And saved my life, saying, “not you.”
Sonnet No. 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May:
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, of Nature's changing course, untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest,
Nor shall Death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou growest.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
My Third Piano Sonata was written in June of 2006 and grew out of a desire to understand the musical language of one of my teachers, Roger Sessions. After a thorough analysis of the Sessions nine symphonies, I began to notice a consistent (although unorthodox and unsystematic) approach to the choice of pitches. Most notable, however, was the absence of any techniques associated with dodecaphony or serialism.
Instead, I noticed a distinct preference for half-step fluctuations between scales of the same type (such as whole tone and octatonic scales). Furthermore these scales were embellished with “non harmonic” tones that lay outside of these collections. Although these groupings were clearly not tonal, they also seemed to eschew any type of system. The pitches were chosen rather freely, but always in relation to a principal motive or theme.
My own sonata follows the classical scheme: first movement, sonata form with three expositions (a form dear to Sessions and derived from Beethoven); a second-movement minuet and trio; an elegiac slow movement; and a frenetic and somewhat sardonic finale. While composing the third movement I learned of the death of the great Hungarian composer, György Ligeti, hence the subtitle.
I recorded my first Piano Sonata on “New American Romantics” in 1996 on North/South Recordings (N/SR 1007) and my Piano Sonata No. 2 (Tâla) on “Piano Music of Larry Bell,” Albany Records (Troy 828).
Pop Set was written in April of 2005 and is dedicated to its commissioner Allan von Schenkel. Allan wanted a set of short pieces in a lyrical and popular style that would be especially suited to his unique “solo bass.” Unlike classical solo bass tuning (up a whole step) Allan's bass is tuned aperfect fourth higher than the usual orchestral double bass. In order to make this piece more accessible to classical bassists, I made a version (that you will hear tonight) for the normal orchestral bass tuning. Although Allan has played the “Habenera” movement many times over the past year, this is the first performance of the complete set.
About the artists
Recognized by The Chicago Tribune as “a major talent,” composer Larry Bell has been awarded the Rome Prize, fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, and the Charles Ives Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and grants from the American Music Center, the American Symphony Orchestra League, and Meet the Composer
Bell's music has been widely performed in the United States and abroad by such orchestras and ensembles as the Seattle Symphony, RAI Orchestra of Rome, Juilliard Philharmonia, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Ruse Philharmonia (Bulgaria), Hopkins Symphony Orchestra, University of Miami Symphony, ÖENM (Salzburg Mozarteum), Boston Chamber Music Society, Speculum Musicae, St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, New York New Music Ensemble, the Borromeo String Quartet, North/South Consonance, and Music Today (NYC), as well as at festivals in Ravinia, Aspen, Valencia (Spain), Pontino (Italy), San Salvador, Russia (Moscow Autumn), and New Zealand. The Juilliard String Quartet premiered Bell's first String Quartet, written when the composer was only twenty-one. Bell's music has been commissioned and performed by a distinguished array of performers including Eric Bartlett, Joel Krosnick, Andrés Dìaz, Ayano Ninomiya, Sara Davis Buechner, D'Anna Fortunato, Jonathan Bass, John Muratore, and conductors Gerard Schwarz, Jorge Mester, Gil Rose, and Benjamin Zander. He and his music have also been the subject of documentaries on National Public Radio's “New Directions in Europe,” and Concertzender Radio Amsterdam. Recordings of Bell's works appear on North/South Recordings, Barking Dog Records, Vienna Modern Masters, New England Conservatory Recordings, Pont Neuf, and Albany Records (available in the lobby).
As a pianist Bell performs his music regularly and has championed works by American composers. He has given recitals throughout the United States, as well as in Italy, Austria, and Japan. Boston's WGBH-FM radio gave their first live broadcast on the World Wide Web of his trio Mahler in Blue Light , and performed as soloist on three CDs of his piano music ( Going Home ), his Piano Concerto, Piano Sonata, and as an assisting artist on the recordings River of Ponds (the complete cello music), The Book of Moonlight (the complete violin music), and Larry Bell Vocal Music. Bell's music is published by Casa Rustica Publication and Ione Press, a division of ECS Publishing .
Bell received his DMA from The Juilliard School, working in composition with Vincent Persichetti and Roger Sessions, in solfège with Renée Longy, piano with Joseph Bloch and with Joseph Rollino privately in Rome. He later taught in Juilliard's Pre-College Division. Bell is on the composition faculty and is chair of music theory at the New England Conservatory of Music Division of Preparatory and Continuing Education. Larry Bell resides in Boston and is married to musicologist Andrea Olmstead. For more information and streaming of the music, visit www.LarryBellmusic.com.
Mezzo-soprano D'Anna Fortunato has brought versatility to both her singing and teaching careers. In her singing career, she has won many awards, including those from the Metropolitan Opera Regional Auditions, the Naumberg Prize in Chamber Music, the C.D. Jackson prize at Tanglewood, and the Alumni Achievement Awards from both the New England Conservatory of Music and Bucknell University, as well as the Jacobo Peri Award for Achievement in the Vocal Field. Professionally, she has created leading roles for such companies as the New York City Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Kentucky Opera, Connecticut Grand Opera, Rochester Opera, and Opera San Jose.
As a concert and oratorio soloist, Fortunato has appeared internationally as a long-time member of the Bach Aria Group, and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, St. Luke's Chamber Orchestra, New York's Musica Sacra, the Boston Camerata, Rome's Bach Festival Orchestra, the Telemann Chamber Orchestra of Japan, and Berlin's Spectrum Concerts, among many others. Her festival appearances are numerous, as are her return singing engagements with major symphony orchestras, including the top ten American orchestras. She has forty-five CDs to her credit, including eight premiere Handel opera CDs (among them the Grammy-winning “Imeneo”), and award-winning first recordings of the songs of Amy Beach and Charles-Martin Loeffler. She has recorded a CD of Larry Bell's vocal music on Albany Records (Troy 741).
First performances have included works of John Harbison, Roger Sessions, Stephen Albert, Elliott Carter, Milton Babbitt, Larry Bell, Daniel Pinkham, John Heiss, and David Schiff, among others. Ms. Fortunato resides in Boston and is a vocal professor at New England Conservatory.
Tenor Thomas A. Gregg enjoys a wide-ranging career, including performance in early music, opera, oratorio, ensemble, recital, and chamber music. His early music performances have been with the Boston Early Music Festival, The Early Interval in Columbus, Ohio, PanHarmonium in Alabama, and the Texas Baroque Ensemble and the Orchestra of New Spain in Dallas, Texas. Opera appearances have been with companies in New Orleans, Memphis, Columbus, Ohio, and historical operas in Boston and Washington, D.C. His many solo appearances in oratorio include performances with orchestras in Columbus, Ohio, Memphis, Tennessee, Lake Charles, Louisiana, and numerous choral groups, such as the Cincinnati Choral Society, the Quincy (Massachusetts) Choral Society, the Back Bay Chorale in Boston, Chorus Pro Musica, and the Providence Singers. He has performed with the Harvard University Choir, including a recent performance of the C.P.E. Bach St. Matthew Passion , under the direction of Christopher Hogwood, and the New York premiere of John Knowles Paine's Mass in D .
His extensive professional ensemble work includes Boston appearances with the Handel & Haydn Society, Emmanuel Music, Boston Baroque, the Trinity Choir, and the Boston Secession, as well as Cantari Singers in Columbus, Ohio, and the Washington Bach Consort. He is currently a member of the professional choir at historic King's Chapel in Boston. Dr. Gregg enjoys an active career as a recitalist, with highlights including the Fontana Festival in Michigan and many guest recitals at colleges in the southern United States. His European debut was at the 1995 Franz Schubert Institute in Baden-bei-Wien, Austria. As a chamber music specialist, he performs with harpist Emily Laurance as the duo DoubleAction and as a member of the Early American music ensemble Columbia's Musick. DoubleAction's newest CD of German Lieder, The Harper's Song , is now available for purchase on CDBaby.com.
Dr. Gregg holds degrees from Capital University in Ohio, the University of Michigan, and The Ohio State University, and he has won numerous performance and academic awards, including fellowships to attend two Bach Aria Institutes and two Aston Magna Academies. He teaches at The Boston Conservatory and Tufts University.
James Orleans , Double Bass, has been a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1983. He was previously a member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. His chamber music activities have included Boston Music Viva, Collage New Music, and the Boston Chamber Music Society. Orleans has written articles on 20th-century music programming and has served on advisory panels of organizations including the American Composers Orchestra, the American Symphony Orchestra League, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His recordings appear on CRI, Northeastern, and GM.