Piano Sonata no. 5 (op. 166)

program notes: Larry Bell Piano Sonata no. 5, A Landscape of Small Ruins, Op. 166
Piano Sonatas nos. 4, 5, and 6 were written in 2020 specifically for three pianists: Carmen Rodríguez-Peralta, Jennifer Elowsky-Fox, and Maja Tremiszewska. These three sonatas are based on original hymn tunes included in Bell’s A Hymnbook for Congregational Singing, op. 169. Sonatas 4 and 5 are based on two versions of the same hymn tune text, “Thou God of Love” by Isaac Watts (1674–1748). In Sonata No. 4 the version uses a sixteen-note series harmonically and two verses of the text are included at the end of the second and final movement with an optional vocal part.
The second version of “Thou God of Love, Thou Ever Blessed,” the basis for Sonata No. 5, is more diatonic and tonally centered in D minor. The one-movement Sonata No. 5 alternates between slow, meditative music and faster, more animated music. Fragments of the hymn tune are suggested from the beginning, but not until the end does one hear a complete statement of the melody.
The subtitle of Piano Sonata No. 5, A Landscape of Small Ruins, is taken from V.S. Naipaul’s book A Turn in the South. Although Naipaul was from Trinidad, his book begins with a prologue entitled “Down Home: A Landscape of Small Ruins.” Here he beautifully describes the county in North Carolina where Bell was reared. The “Small Ruins” are discarded farm equipment and rusted tobacco barns, part of the cultural landscape of the past.
Piano Sonata No. 5 is dedicated to Jennifer Elowsky-Fox in gratitude for her premiere performance of six of Bell’s Twenty-four Preludes and Fugues, Op. 156, on March 8, 2020, in Boston.