“Thoughts and Prayers is an album of tributes that draw upon composer Larry Bell’s personal, social, national, and international awareness. The music is drawn from a solemn personal conviction and desire to preserve the lives of others in our memory. It is also a simple act of bearing witness to events that may be all too soon forgotten or too painful to contemplate.” -Albany Records (paraphrasing the composer)
I am honored to premiere two major new works for viola on Larry Thomas Bell‘s new CD, Thoughts and Prayers, produced by Andrea Olmstead. The viola has a history of elegies, contemplative pieces, and works releasing pathos in the face of suffering and loss. Bell brings this tradition into twenty-first century contexts with Newtown Variations and Domenica a Filicudi.
Newtown Variations
Newtown Variations represents one of three major works on Thoughts and Prayers that respond to national tragedies. Bell writes, “Newtown Variations was written in memory of the twenty-six children and adults who were victims of a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 12, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut. Newtown Variations contains 26 variations, one for each child and adult killed in the shooting. Unlike a classical theme and variations, there is no theme; we begin with Variation 1.”
When we began rehearsing Newtown Variations in 2017, I remarked, “Larry, this is a hard work!” Although Bell wrote us substantial rhythmic intricacies and technical challenges, the primary difficulty lies in emotional projection and endurance. The piece requires intense engagement from performers and listeners. While we may not reach ultimate resolution, the final chords provide catharsis and release.
Here’s a link to the “Newtown Variations“ track from the Thoughts and Prayers CD.
Domenica i Filicudi
Fortunately, we do reach resolution and peace with Bell’s song for mezzo-soprano, viola, and piano, Domenica i Filicudi (Sunday in Filicudi). This song continues an instrumentation tradition begun by composer Johannes Brahms’s Zwei Gesänge (Two Songs), Opus 91.
Commissioned by Joan, Mary, and Cathy Collins in memory of Joan’s daughter Deborah Collins, Bell’s trio sets a poem that Deborah wrote in her final year:
Domenica i Filicudi
Aeolus frolicking in the fronds,
Caressing the bouganvillea,
Cavorting in the soft ripples of the blue Tyrrhenian Sea.
Swallows dipping, the occasional raven croaking,
All else is quiet.
My world is at peace.
Since Deborah was a violist herself, Bell represented her musical voice in his orchestration.
Click to hear the Thoughts and Prayers recording of Domenica i Filicudi.
A Friendship Born of Thoughts and Prayers
As I reflect on Larry Bell’s new CD, I’m reminded of how we met. In the fall of 2014, Arnold Friedman, the Chair of Berklee College of Music’s Composition Department at the time, invited Larry and me to perform as part of a symposium organized by Berklee, Northeastern University, and New England Conservatory. The three-day festival focused on the music of one of Israel’s leading composers, Menachem Wiesenberg. For our part, Larry and I performed Wiesenberg’s Like Clay in the Potter’s Hand for viola and piano.
Like Clay in the Potter’s Hand is a meditation for viola and piano based on a Yom Kippur prayer:
Like the clay in the hand of the potter
Who thickens or thins it at his will
So are we in Thy hand, gracious God
Forgive our sin, Thy covenant fulfill
Enjoy an explication of Wiesenberg’s work:
and our performance:
Because Larry and I enjoyed an easy and inspiring chemistry, we continued to collaborate, break bread, and get together.
Spending time with Larry naturally included his wife, award-winning musicologist and author, Andrea Olmstead. Olmstead’s book, Juilliard, a History, had proven revelatory to me during my final years as a doctoral student at Juilliard and during my fourteen years as a professor there. Thanks to her detailed narrative, I began to understand the school’s institutional DNA, leadership, and motivations much better.
Larry once wrote me, “I have found that over the years I can never say anything derogatory about anyone who went through The Juilliard. We are all like war buddies who were in the trenches together.”
–Now there’s a thought!
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