Bells appear literally and programmatically in many many scores, and I was just curious to see if we could list them here with any success. I'm more interested when a composer has used other instruments to evoke bells ringing, than use of actual bells, but both are fine!
Here's what I came up with with from my itunes library:
Barber - Le clocher chante from his french song cycle, Mélodies Passagères op.27. A lovely song, with the main chord closely related to one that Ravel uses in his La Vallee Des Cloches. Also Church bell at night from the Hermit Songs op.29 which is a beautiful little example of scene painting with the bare minimum of notes and maximum economy of gesture.
Ives - Those Evening Bells - an early song, and one of the best before he found his true voice.
Ravel - La Vallee Des Cloches from Miroirs. Ravel in his most purely beautiful and subtle mode, which is about as beautiful and subtle as you can be! There's also Entre-Cloches from Sites Auriclaires for two pianos.
Debussy - Cloches A Travers Les Feuilles from Images 2ieme serié. Another wonderful piece.
Bach - The Prelude from the Sixth suite for solo cello - not explicitly stated by the composer, but as clearly an evocation of bells as any of the others mentioned here. There is a DVD in which Rostropovich tells us of a dream he had of two churches, one distant, one near, with their bells pealing and how it relates to this movement (I have never heard it played better by anyone else).
Messiaen - cloches d'angoisse et larmes d'adieu from his 8 preludes - quite Debussian, though clearly Messiaen. Not my favourite Messiaen opus this, though this piece is lovely.
Langgaard - Bells Pealing: Look! He Comes from Music of the Spheres.
Ottevanger - Evening Bell- Birds Circle from Through the Year. I best not comment (I'll leave it to the composer!) other than to say I really like this one and find it very touching.
Rachmaninov's The Bells I have only heard once a couple of year ago, but I don't remember any actual immitations of the sound of bells in the score. I might be wrong though, as I say, it was ages ago that I heard it!
Part's Tintinnabulum style obviously has to do with bells on one level, but I'm not sure I can think of an instance in which he is deliberately referring to or trying to evoke the sounds of a bell. The Cantus for Benjamin Britten contains a prominant part for a bell.
Any others?
My favorite are the tubular bells in Sibelius's 4th. All too many conductors use the little tinkly glockenspiel instead of the glocken specified by Sibelius. Blomstedt and Bernstein are two of the notable ones who get it right.
Rachmaninoff Prelude #1 op. 3/2 "The Bells of Moscow"
Mahler 3 (part V)
Quote from: Guido on March 25, 2009, 01:10:30 PM
Bells appear literally and programmatically in many many scores, and I was just curious to see if we could list them here with any success. I'm more interested when a composer has used other instruments to evoke bells ringing, than use of actual bells, but both are fine!
Any others?
Here's an example where they are both
suggested and actually used.
[mp3=200,20,0,left]
http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/2/5/2307936/00.%2011.%20Four%20sea%20Interludes%20-%20Sunday%20Morning.mp3[/mp3]
Sunday Morning, from Britten's Peter Grimes.
[mp3=200,20,0,left]
http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/2/5/2307936/11.%20English%20Dances%2C%20Op.33%20No.1%20-%20Allegro%20non%20troppo.mp3[/mp3]
...and the same effect used by Malcolm Arnold in his English Dance, No.1 from Op.33. Though there is no specific programmatic reference here, in my imagination it is a joyful dance, perhaps at a wedding.
Quote from: DavidRoss on March 25, 2009, 01:22:35 PM
My favorite are the tubular bells in Sibelius's 4th. All too many conductors use the little tinkly glockenspiel instead of the glocken specified by Sibelius. Blomstedt and Bernstein are two of the notable ones who get it right.
I'm with you about the use of tubular bells - I feel the glocks trivialise the music a little. But then i've heard conflicting reports about what Sibelius actually wanted. Last thing I read suggested the glocks were what he preferred to be used.
Quote from: Benji on March 25, 2009, 02:43:56 PMI'm with you about the use of tubular bells - I feel the glocks trivialise the music a little. But then i've heard conflicting reports about what Sibelius actually wanted. Last thing I read suggested the glocks were what he preferred to be used.
Well, glocken (tubular bells) is what he wrote in the score, glocken is what he used when he conducted the premiere, glocken is what he told Ormandy he wanted when he visited Finland (and which Ormandy used in his recording of the 4th), and glocken is what sounds right--whereas glockenspiel, as you noted, trivializes the music a bit.
Bells done well, that's one thing. But it can be too easily abused. In the fourth volume of the otherwise-admirable Spectrum series of piano pieces (each volume featuring a large number of specially-commissioned pieces by all manner of contemporary composers) it seems that every last piece is some kind of bell-evocation! It's almost as if the composers don't have the imagination to do anything else, and it gets a little tedious in the end.
Oh, and that Ottevanger is truly marvellous, Guido, I agree!
Quote from: DavidRoss on March 25, 2009, 02:52:41 PM
Well, glocken (tubular bells) is what he wrote in the score, glocken is what he used when he conducted the premiere, glocken is what he told Ormandy he wanted when he visited Finland (and which Ormandy used in his recording of the 4th), and glocken is what sounds right--whereas glockenspiel, as you noted, trivializes the music a bit.
Well i'm convinced! ;D
(But then why are so many conductors using the glockenspiel?)
Quote from: sul G on March 25, 2009, 02:54:07 PM
Bells done well, that's one thing. But it can be too easily abused. In the fourth volume of the otherwise-admirable Spectrum series of piano pieces (each volume featuring a large number of specially-commissioned pieces by all manner of contemporary composers) it seems that every last piece is some kind of bell-evocation! It's almost as if the composers don't have the imagination to do anything else, and it gets a little tedious in the end.
That's a shame. Are any of them worth hearing?
Not enormously
Where was La Cathedrale Engloutie on your list?
Quote from: Benji on March 25, 2009, 02:59:27 PM
Well i'm convinced! ;D
(But then why are so many conductors using the glockenspiel?)
What I've heard is that someone mistook the word glocken as an abbreviation for glockenspiel and that later editions of the score have it this way. Also, I need to make a correction for an error. Ormandy's recording was made in 1954 and he used the glockenspiel, as had already become a common practice. His visit to Sibelius was during an orchestra tour in 1955, and that's when Sibelius reportedly told him that he wanted tubular bells. Michael Steinberg discusses some theories about this in
The Symphony; according to him, Sibelius wrote "glocken" in the original score, and although he made several revisions in the course of subsequent printings, he never changed this but always kept it "glocken."
BTW, here's an interesting thread on this topic from rcmr posted to a newsgroup by our own former forum member, Michael Shaffer:
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Rec/rec.music.classical.recordings/2006-03/msg04677.html (http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Rec/rec.music.classical.recordings/2006-03/msg04677.html)
Here's one I bet a lot of you don't know: The Chimes of Liberty by Edwin Franco Goldman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULvjzCuCOJs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULvjzCuCOJs)
Khachaturian: Symphony No 2 'The Bell'
Viktor Kalabis: Symphony No 2 'Sinfonia Pacis' (the end section evokes bells in a very moving way)
Quote from: DavidRoss on March 25, 2009, 03:16:34 PM
BTW, here's an interesting thread on this topic from rcmr posted to a newsgroup by our own former forum member, Michael Shaffer:
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Rec/rec.music.classical.recordings/2006-03/msg04677.html (http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Rec/rec.music.classical.recordings/2006-03/msg04677.html)
That was very interesting, cheers! :)
I hadn't noticed that some performances were using more than one type of bell. I'll have to have a listen to Bernstein's account soon.
Well, how come I only just remembered The Bells of Zlonice (Dvorak's First)?
Le Gibet from Gaspard de la Nuit
The Opening of the 2nd Rach PC
La Campanella
The Bells - Rachmaninov (he had a thing about bells)
1812 Overture
Stokowski's reworking of Mussorgsky's Night on Bare mountain makes effective use of chiming bells (I can't recall if R-K's also does (?)). IIRC the original Mussorgsky doesn't contain that whole stretch of 'calm after the storm, demons be gone' music at the end, so perhaps that was all a Rimsky invention.
Oh, the second section of Respighi's Festivals has an extraordinarily fine piece of bell-evocation. Real bells do eventually appear, but before that you'd swear they were already there.
Quote from: Holden on March 25, 2009, 04:44:41 PM
The Opening of the 2nd Rach PC
That never occurred to me, but now you mention it, it makes perfect sense... The power of suggestion!
Quote from: Benji on March 25, 2009, 04:46:58 PM
Stokowski's reworking of Mussorgsky's Night on Bare mountain makes effective use of chiming bells (I can't recall if R-K's also does (?)). IIRC the original Mussorgsky doesn't contain that whole stretch of 'calm after the storm, demons be gone' music at the end, so perhaps that was all a Rimsky invention.
And the original piano version of Pictures at an Exhibition has, in The Great Gate, some wonderfully voiced bell-tones which are among the simplest and best evocations of bells on the instrument I know - it's all down to note selection, not to complex textural effects.
Quote from: sul G on March 25, 2009, 04:47:37 PM
Oh, the second section of Respighi's Festivals has an extraordinarily fine piece of bell-evocation. Real bells do eventually appear, but before that you'd swear they were already there.
Yeah, that really is a beautifully evocative piece. Just listening now!
There's a bit in the second movement of Bartók's second piano concerto (where it's just piano and timpani) that reminds me of a bell tolling.
The first movement of Vaughan Williams's London Symphony has a recreation of the Big Ben chime. Very beautiful and chilling in its context.
In Moussorgsky's Boris Godunov Rimsky-Korsakov wrote some very beautiful bells for the coronation of Boris. In Peter Grimes one of the orchestral interludes has bells that easily remind one of R-K's in Boris G.
Benjamin Britten : Cantata academica - final movement
Death in Venice - the city bells are realistically portrayed
Gordon Crosse : "Changes" a beautiful work ( oratorio/cantata) for soprano, baritone,chorus,children's chorus & orch. The first section uses inscriptions from churchbells. the orchestra glitters with all kinds of chimes & tubular bells. horns and strings evoke the tolling of bells. it's available on Lyrita and I strongly recommend it to those who like ,say, Brittens Spring symphony.
Alun Hodinot : Symphonia fidei - also available on Lyrita - a lovely, quite lyrical work for soprano, bar, chorus & orchestra.
Darius Milhaud ' ballet "Les cloches" after Poe
Rachmaninoff : suite for two pianos ( last mov.)
Hindemith's mighty sonata for two piano's - starts with a dazzling "Glockenspiel", Die Harmonie der Welt- finale
Respighi : La campana sommersa - opera
Kodaly : Harry Janos - finale and Vienna clock
Chostakovitch : Stenka Razin - cantata, symphony nr 14, symphony nr 11
Charles Tournemire : symphony nr 6- finale and Symphony nr 3 "Moscou" ,which has an exquisite movement called "les cloches" !
Pfff; there's much more..later!
Peter
What an odd idea for a thread... ;D ;D (which is to say I'm finding it an even more enjoyable and informative experience than usual 0:))
My submission is Lutoslawski's Dzwony cerkiewne (Church bells? Russian-orthodox-church bells?)
The last page of Свадебка (Les noces). of course.
But of course! Svadebka.That ending is magical!
And let's not forget those ominous bells in Chostakovitch 13th symphony, Benjamin Britten's War Requiem ,and Cesar Franck's Le chasseur maudit! ( BTW, next week three forgotten biblical cantatas of Franck will be premiered in Liège - I'll give the details in a separate post).
De Falla : El amor brujo
Honegger : Jeanne d'Arc au bucher ( two pianos do all the bell work)
Debussy : Iberia
The second movement of Radulescu's Piano Sonata No 2, "Byzantine Bells".
Here are a few more from the piano repertoire:
Liszt: Christmas Tree Suite I: Abendglocke
II: Glockenspiel
Grieg: Lyrical pieces: Op.54.6: Klokkeklang
Op.65.6: Wedding Day
Bonis: Op.31: Carillons mystiques
Op.121: Cloches lointaines
Medtner: Op.20.2 Campanella
http://www.youtube.com/v/9EejSUdpa2M
The three movement La Catedral by arguably the greatest guitarist-composer of all time, Agustin Barrios, has three movements each thematic of the sensory and religious impression made by the cathedral in downtown Montevideo on Barrios (the second movement is also a homage to Bach). The first (prelude) and third (allegro solemne) movements vividly recreate the cathedral bells. The Prelude was added many years after the Andante and Allegro and its sense of the gentle chiming bells on a quiet morning are a vivid contrast to the bells (now carried in the bass) in the bustle of the allegro.
A stunning virtuoso showpiece, there are countless recordings of this. I would recommend Voorhorst on Naxos and avoid John Williams (despite "discovering" Barrios his transcription is weak IMO).
I don't think this one has been posted yet.
Charles Valentin Alkan, Op 63, Esquisses (sketches), Book 1, number 4 ...... Les Cloches (The Bells) !!
It is a short musical image of chiming church bells ..... wonderfully done (as is everything in Alkan ....)
IIRC the Laus Deo from the same set also has some impressive bell ringing
A pretty amazing one is the bell piece in Grieg's Lyric Pieces, Klokkeklang, from op 54. It demonstrates that Grieg was capable of much more daring things than the safe genre pieces one might associate with him, especially in this group of works. It's really a very ahead-of-its-time idea in its obsessive concentration on one gesture, one interval. But then Grieg could be like that - much more extreme than one might think. Here's a picture of the opening page:
Thanks for all these guys. ;D
I've had a great time listening to as may of them as I can on Spotify.
Cheers!
And ...anything that cought your imagination?
How about the 'Carillon' from Bizet's l'Arlesienne.
Quote from: pjme on March 30, 2009, 05:45:39 AM
And ...anything that cought your imagination?
Lyotoshinsy's 4th Sympony" developers a section which involves bells. Anyone out there who likes the symphonies of this significant compose? I'm sure he's been mentioned in probably various threads. Accompanying on my disc is his "On the Banks of the Vistula." Probably a folkloric Polish piece? Question: Years ago I saw a movie starring Gary Cooper called "Hangman's tree."
The background music to this film, as I recall, has similarities to Lyo's "Vistula" work. Probably a coincidence which has nothing to do with the Polish (I think it's Polish) folkorlic piece. Lyrotyoshinsky's orchestral variation is wonderul. The film piec probably belongs on another thread. At any rate the Lyotoshinsky recording is dramaric, moving, and sincere.
Quote from: schweitzeralan on July 02, 2009, 12:02:23 PM
Lyotoshinsy...
Lyo...
Lyrotyoshinsky...
Lyotoshinsky
Is that all the same person? ;D
(They also spell him Lyatoshinsky or Lyatoshynsky sometimes. That makes six variants... ;D ;D ;D)
Quote from: Maciek on July 02, 2009, 03:00:06 PM
Is that all the same person? ;D
(They also spell him Lyatoshinsky or Lyatoshynsky sometimes. That makes six variants... ;D ;D ;D)
I know. My wretched typos. Rien de nouveau. Still like Lyo. Like the abbreviation. I'll just back to the 4th.
The finale of Vaughan Williams' 8th evokes an almighty carillon.
Near the end of the 3rd movement from Alkan's "Quatre ages" piano sonata, Alkan notated 10 repeated "bell chimes" that signify 10 pm. Apparently, this time held special significance to Alkan, as he sometimes would stop mid-conversation and leave any engagement he was attending when the hour came.
Kleiberg's 'Bell Reef Symphony' - last movement.
Quote from: vandermolen on July 04, 2009, 01:03:18 AM
Kleiberg's 'Bell Reef Symphony' - last movement.
Interesting work; did order courtesy of my having read reviews or commets about Kleiberg on this forum. Overall atmospheric nuances in his works suggest impressionistic effects throughout, with exceptions, to be sure. The musical "language" is not Debussyian, nor Baxian, as the program editor suggests. The harmonies, modes, in general suggest Modernist tendencies; i.e., post Scriabin, Moeran, Sibelius, etc. Remins me of post fifties sonorities, although "The Barrier Reef" is certainly not atonal; nor is it avant garde. Good work,by all rights.
Quote from: schweitzeralan on July 05, 2009, 03:35:57 AM
Interesting work; did order courtesy of my having read reviews or commets about Kleiberg on this forum. Overall atmospheric nuances in his works suggest impressionistic effects throughout, with exceptions, to be sure. The musical "language" is not Debussyian, nor Baxian, as the program editor suggests. The harmonies, modes, in general suggest Modernist tendencies; i.e., post Scriabin, Moeran, Sibelius, etc. Remins me of post fifties sonorities, although "The Barrier Reef" is certainly not atonal; nor is it avant garde. Good work,by all rights.
Glad you enjoyed it.
Quote from: vandermolen on July 06, 2009, 06:07:52 AM
Glad you enjoyed it.
Bells also in Layatoshinsky's 4th Symphony. Fine work.
Like the use of cow bells in Mahlers sixth - like the way he uses them as a kind of interlude before the barrage begins again ;D
Quote from: offbeat on September 08, 2009, 12:07:04 PM
Like the use of cow bells in Mahlers sixth - like the way he uses them as a kind of interlude before the barrage begins again ;D
I agree. Bells also figure @the finale of Lyatoshinsky's 5th. Just got the symphony; very few available. By the way, the 6th is my favorite Mahler symphony. Tremendous.
Quote from: schweitzeralan on September 10, 2009, 05:47:34 AM
I agree. Bells also figure @the finale of Lyatoshinsky's 5th. Just got the symphony; very few available. By the way, the 6th is my favorite Mahler symphony. Tremendous.
yes i agree re Mahler 6 - or maybe a dead heat with 9
excuse my ignorance but what style music is Lyatoshinsky - one of many names ive seen here but new to me ::)
Quote from: offbeat on September 10, 2009, 01:09:40 PM
yes i agree re Mahler 6 - or maybe a dead heat with 9
excuse my ignorance but what style music is Lyatoshinsky - one of many names ive seen here but new to me ::)
Boris Lyatoshinsky is a Ukrainian composer who was a student of Gliere. He is basically a post romantic who composed several orchestral works which include 5 symphonies. 1st Symphony bears resemblance to his mentor. His later symphonies are more modernist. Very dramatic and somewhat dissonant. He's not all that well known, but there are recordings available.
Quote from: schweitzeralan on September 10, 2009, 05:50:39 PM
Boris Lyatoshinsky is a Ukrainian composer who was a student of Gliere. He is basically a post romantic who composed several orchestral works which include 5 symphonies. 1st Symphony bears resemblance to his mentor. His later symphonies are more modernist. Very dramatic and somewhat dissonant. He's not all that well known, but there are recordings available.
Oh tks for that Schweitzeralan sounds interesting - must log on to Amazon - The only Gliere ive heard is his massive third symphony which is overblown but i like - possibly a forerunner to somebody like Scriabin !
Quote from: offbeat on September 11, 2009, 01:17:09 PM
Oh tks for that Schweitzeralan sounds interesting - must log on to Amazon - The only Gliere ive heard is his massive third symphony which is overblown but i like - possibly a forerunner to somebody like Scriabin !
His symphonies are quite dramatic, and, it may take repeated listening to appreciate. His "Banks on the Vistula" is excellent and is paired with his 4th. His 1st is heavily influenced by the "Ilya." His later symphonies tend to be more dissonant.
Quote from: Guido on March 25, 2009, 01:10:30 PM
Bells appear literally and programmatically in many many scores, and I was just curious to see if we could list them here with any success. I'm more interested when a composer has used other instruments to evoke bells ringing, than use of actual bells, but both are fine!
Here's what I came up with with from my itunes library:
Barber - Le clocher chante from his french song cycle, Mélodies Passagères op.27. A lovely song, with the main chord closely related to one that Ravel uses in his La Vallee Des Cloches. Also Church bell at night from the Hermit Songs op.29 which is a beautiful little example of scene painting with the bare minimum of notes and maximum economy of gesture.
Ives - Those Evening Bells - an early song, and one of the best before he found his true voice.
Ravel - La Vallee Des Cloches from Miroirs. Ravel in his most purely beautiful and subtle mode, which is about as beautiful and subtle as you can be! There's also Entre-Cloches from Sites Auriclaires for two pianos.
Debussy - Cloches A Travers Les Feuilles from Images 2ieme serié. Another wonderful piece.
Bach - The Prelude from the Sixth suite for solo cello - not explicitly stated by the composer, but as clearly an evocation of bells as any of the others mentioned here. There is a DVD in which Rostropovich tells us of a dream he had of two churches, one distant, one near, with their bells pealing and how it relates to this movement (I have never heard it played better by anyone else).
Messiaen - cloches d'angoisse et larmes d'adieu from his 8 preludes - quite Debussian, though clearly Messiaen. Not my favourite Messiaen opus this, though this piece is lovely.
Langgaard - Bells Pealing: Look! He Comes from Music of the Spheres.
Ottevanger - Evening Bell- Birds Circle from Through the Year. I best not comment (I'll leave it to the composer!) other than to say I really like this one and find it very touching.
Rachmaninov's The Bells I have only heard once a couple of year ago, but I don't remember any actual immitations of the sound of bells in the score. I might be wrong though, as I say, it was ages ago that I heard it!
Part's Tintinnabulum style obviously has to do with bells on one level, but I'm not sure I can think of an instance in which he is deliberately referring to or trying to evoke the sounds of a bell. The Cantus for Benjamin Britten contains a prominant part for a bell.
Any others?
I just acquired the Grainger orchestration of "La Vallee des Cloches." Beautiful.
Quote from: schweitzeralan on September 21, 2009, 01:35:21 PM
I just acquired the Grainger orchestration of "La Vallee des Cloches." Beautiful.
Where?
Quote from: Guido on September 22, 2009, 05:20:59 AM
Where?
Ordered from Amazon. Simon Rattle on EMI. Called "Percey Granger In A Nutshell". The original is a pianistic work from Ravel's "Miroirs"." You can access various performances of the piano version (including Ravel's) on YouTube.
Quote from: schweitzeralan on July 02, 2009, 12:02:23 PM
Lyotoshinsy's 4th Sympony" developers a section which involves bells. Anyone out there who likes the symphonies of this significant compose? I'm sure he's been mentioned in probably various threads. Accompanying on my disc is his "On the Banks of the Vistula." Probably a folkloric Polish piece? Question: Years ago I saw a movie starring Gary Cooper called "Hangman's tree."
The background music to this film, as I recall, has similarities to Lyo's "Vistula" work. Probably a coincidence which has nothing to do with the Polish (I think it's Polish) folkorlic piece.
The movie is
The Hanging Tree with
Karl Malden as the villain who tries to ravish
Maria Schell. :o
The music is by
Max Steiner, and since it is late 1950's
Max Steiner it is not in the same league as
King Kong, but then again, what is? Not impossible that he borrowed the tune, although
Dmitri Tiomkin was more (in)famous for that!
Concerning Evocations of Bells: it is almost too easy!
I am listening to the first movement right now with its evocations of bells!
Dvorak: Symphony #1
The Bells of Zlonice 0:)
Quote from: schweitzeralan on September 22, 2009, 08:42:09 AM
Ordered from Amazon. Simon Rattle on EMI. Called "Percey Granger In A Nutshell". The original is a pianistic work from Ravel's "Miroirs"." You can access various performances of the piano version (including Ravel's) on YouTube.
I adore Miroirs - it's one of my favourite piano pieces. I've just listened to the recording you mentioned on Spotify - very nice indeed.
Quote from: Cato on September 23, 2009, 12:06:05 PM
Dvorak[/b]: Symphony #1 The Bells of Zlonice 0:)
Cato, remember you started a thread called "Worst First Symphony", and you mentioned this one. >:( >:( >:(
I apologize if it wasn't you. ;D
Quote from: ChamberNut on September 23, 2009, 03:19:52 PM
Cato, remember you started a thread called "Worst First Symphony", and you mentioned this one. >:( >:( >:(
I apologize if it wasn't you. ;D
Certainly it has a good number of defects, especially in the final movement. (Some very clumsy stuff in the last minutes! :o ) I have revisited it, because I recently purchased the
entire Dvorak symphonies by Rowicki: still one of the worst first symphonies! 8)
But it does evoke bells! ;D
Quote from: Cato on September 23, 2009, 12:06:05 PM
The movie is The Hanging Tree with Karl Malden as the villain who tries to ravish Maria Schell. :o
The music is by Max Steiner, and since it is late 1950's Max Steiner it is not in the same league as King Kong, but then again, what is? Not impossible that he borrowed the tune, although Dmitri Tiomkin was more (in)famous for that!
Concerning Evocations of Bells: it is almost too easy!
I am listening to the first movement right now with its evocations of bells!
Dvorak: Symphony #1 The Bells of Zlonice 0:)
Right. The movie was "The Hanging Tree." I saw the movie once or twice some time ago, and I remembered the music but didn't know who the composer was. I thought it was a good movie; I still recall the musical theme, and it seemed to be somewhat sad. Striking similarity with the Layatoshinsky tone poem. I think the resemblance is mere coincidence. The tone poem is excellent , and I heartilly recommend it.
The ending of ALwyn's 5th, Hydrotaphia has bells-- very nice.
One of the things I liked so much about Mussorgsky's score(s) for Boris Gudenov, is that, for the Coronation scene, the bells were in free time.
I love bells. One of the coolest things about visiting a Buddhist Temple in Thailand is that you are encouraged to ring the dozens of bells they have around to earn merit. Usually, I need to be restrained from ringing them.
On the Environments label in 1969 was a cool track called Tintinnabulation, which was bascially synthesized tones of large bells with a long decay. Back in the days of vinyl, you could play it at any speed-- I grew to love it at 45 RPM. On the CD version, they did the 16 rpm version which was tough to take. I needed to edit it up to my favorite speeed.
And yes, I have a thing for wind chimes that decency forbids me to disclose any further.
Quote from: Guido on September 23, 2009, 03:04:04 PM
I adore Miroirs - it's one of my favourite piano pieces. I've just listened to the recording you mentioned on Spotify - very nice indeed.
Right on. I've ordered the Ravel score 'Miroirs." Ill dabble thru "La Vallee des Cloches." Like to hear myself playing it, even if it isn't up to profesional level.
Is that a bell in the final movement of Mahler's 2nd?
Percussion in Mahler's second symphony : Requires total of seven players)
Timpani (2 players and 8 timpani, with a third player in the last movement using two of the second timpanist's drums)
Several Snare Drums
Bass Drum
Cymbals
Triangle
Glockenspiel
bells (Mahler requires that they be steel bars of deep,
indefinite, but widely-differentiated pitch)
Rute, to be played on the shell of the bass drum ( an unusual instrument, made of many pieces of
rattan, it looks like a large clothes-brush or small broom, and is used to
play the bass drum (sometimes on the shell of the instrument). It is
used only in the third movement
2 Tam-tams (high and low)
Offstage Percussion in Movement 5:
Bass drum with cymbals attached (played by the same percussionist), Triangle, Timpani
It's the tam-tams that make most noise in the finale. ( tam tams look like gongs, but are not tuned (gongs can be tuned) - they are flatter and make a more "spreading" sound.
P.
Quote from: Guido on March 25, 2009, 01:10:30 PM
Bells appear literally and programmatically in many many scores, and I was just curious to see if we could list them here with any success. I'm more interested when a composer has used other instruments to evoke bells ringing, than use of actual bells, but both are fine!
Here's what I came up with with from my itunes library:
Barber - Le clocher chante from his french song cycle, Mélodies Passagères op.27. A lovely song, with the main chord closely related to one that Ravel uses in his La Vallee Des Cloches. Also Church bell at night from the Hermit Songs op.29 which is a beautiful little example of scene painting with the bare minimum of notes and maximum economy of gesture.
Ives - Those Evening Bells - an early song, and one of the best before he found his true voice.
Ravel - La Vallee Des Cloches from Miroirs. Ravel in his most purely beautiful and subtle mode, which is about as beautiful and subtle as you can be! There's also Entre-Cloches from Sites Auriclaires for two pianos.
Debussy - Cloches A Travers Les Feuilles from Images 2ieme serié. Another wonderful piece.
Bach - The Prelude from the Sixth suite for solo cello - not explicitly stated by the composer, but as clearly an evocation of bells as any of the others mentioned here. There is a DVD in which Rostropovich tells us of a dream he had of two churches, one distant, one near, with their bells pealing and how it relates to this movement (I have never heard it played better by anyone else).
Messiaen - cloches d'angoisse et larmes d'adieu from his 8 preludes - quite Debussian, though clearly Messiaen. Not my favourite Messiaen opus this, though this piece is lovely.
Langgaard - Bells Pealing: Look! He Comes from Music of the Spheres.
Ottevanger - Evening Bell- Birds Circle from Through the Year. I best not comment (I'll leave it to the composer!) other than to say I really like this one and find it very touching.
Rachmaninov's The Bells I have only heard once a couple of year ago, but I don't remember any actual immitations of the sound of bells in the score. I might be wrong though, as I say, it was ages ago that I heard it!
Part's Tintinnabulum style obviously has to do with bells on one level, but I'm not sure I can think of an instance in which he is deliberately referring to or trying to evoke the sounds of a bell. The Cantus for Benjamin Britten contains a prominant part for a bell.
Any others?
Enescu's "Poeme Rouman," an early work of the composer, is a symphonic suite which describes, in his own words, the "distant impression of familiar images of home." Interesting work. The Arte Nova CD also includes the "Vox Maris," and the "Voix de la nature."
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51C1YDX27SL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Quote from: Guido on March 25, 2009, 01:10:30 PM
Bells appear literally and programmatically in many many scores, and I was just curious to see if we could list them here with any success. I'm more interested when a composer has used other instruments to evoke bells ringing, than use of actual bells, but both are fine!
Here's what I came up with with from my itunes library:
Barber - Le clocher chante from his french song cycle, Mélodies Passagères op.27. A lovely song, with the main chord closely related to one that Ravel uses in his La Vallee Des Cloches. Also Church bell at night from the Hermit Songs op.29 which is a beautiful little example of scene painting with the bare minimum of notes and maximum economy of gesture.
Ives - Those Evening Bells - an early song, and one of the best before he found his true voice.
Ravel - La Vallee Des Cloches from Miroirs. Ravel in his most purely beautiful and subtle mode, which is about as beautiful and subtle as you can be! There's also Entre-Cloches from Sites Auriclaires for two pianos.
Debussy - Cloches A Travers Les Feuilles from Images 2ieme serié. Another wonderful piece.
Bach - The Prelude from the Sixth suite for solo cello - not explicitly stated by the composer, but as clearly an evocation of bells as any of the others mentioned here. There is a DVD in which Rostropovich tells us of a dream he had of two churches, one distant, one near, with their bells pealing and how it relates to this movement (I have never heard it played better by anyone else).
Messiaen - cloches d'angoisse et larmes d'adieu from his 8 preludes - quite Debussian, though clearly Messiaen. Not my favourite Messiaen opus this, though this piece is lovely.
Langgaard - Bells Pealing: Look! He Comes from Music of the Spheres.
Ottevanger - Evening Bell- Birds Circle from Through the Year. I best not comment (I'll leave it to the composer!) other than to say I really like this one and find it very touching.
Rachmaninov's The Bells I have only heard once a couple of year ago, but I don't remember any actual immitations of the sound of bells in the score. I might be wrong though, as I say, it was ages ago that I heard it!
Part's Tintinnabulum style obviously has to do with bells on one level, but I'm not sure I can think of an instance in which he is deliberately referring to or trying to evoke the sounds of a bell. The Cantus for Benjamin Britten contains a prominant part for a bell.
Any others?
Quite a few postings. One work I failed to mention was the "Manfred Symphony." A truly late masterpiece. Anyone appreciative of the work?
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Celebration overture
"I wanted to celebrate a joyous and historic occasion.....The celebratory image that persistently came to me was the ringing of bells, so I allowed the work to issue from this image..."
QuoteIt's the tam-tams that make most noise in the finale. ( tam tams look like gongs, but are not tuned (gongs can be tuned) - they are flatter and make a more "spreading" sound.
Absolutely right. However very few recordings capture both tam-tams making the kind of noise that they should be making in the final bars of this symphony. It's the same with the bells - few recordings have the deep bells specified by Mahler.
Thread is
Evocation of bells in music.
I would take this to mean bell-sounds not produced by bells. Brass wind instruments have bells, but I don't think that's the meaning of the topic.
Listener, I think the posters were indulging in a brief off-topic discussion, not misinterpretting the thread subject.
Here is a rare one I've discovered by Theodor Kirchner. Kirchner was a pianist-composer who suffered because he was not a virtuoso. Nevertheless, he wrote some excellent music. He evokes bells in Op. 18 Legenden (Dichtungen) no.8 with a good deal of polyphony too.
Have we mentioned the evocation of bells in Britten's Four Sea Interludes yet? The horns do a fine job of evoking both the clanging and the ringing of bells. (I know that there is a real bell later in these Interludes, but wouldn't want to upset anyone... :P )
For evocation, it's hard to top William Byrd's "The Bells," played on harpsichord:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmbbmQmepys
Boris Tishchenko (b1939 Ukriane) - Sonata no7 for Piano with Bells, in C major op85 (3mvts, 18'00", 21'31", 11'58".
Total time = 51'29") Albany CD #Troy 096).
Aurelius.
I've just come across the Prelude The Bells by Boris Tchaikovsky on a Hyperion disc; and pretty striking it is too!
Quote from: schweitzeralan on February 17, 2010, 09:58:14 AM
Quite a few postings. One work I failed to mention was the "Manfred Symphony." A truly late masterpiece. Anyone appreciative of the work?
Listened again to the Percy Grainger orchestration of Ravel's "Valle Des Cloches." Dreamlike and transcendental; wonderful work. Brief but memorable.
Carillon World Federation
https://www.carillon.org/
A couple fo keyboard evocations (apologies in advance if already mentioned - I haven't read every post!);
Grieg - Bell-ringing (from Lyric Pieces) Op.54 No.6 - Grieg at his most impressionistic
Bax - closing pages of Piano Sonata No.1 - not specifically referred to as bells but a seeemingly clear evocation of massed Russian Bells from Bax's journey to Russia in around 1910 - a terrific concatenation of sound!
Bach's Prelude No.1 in C from the 48.
My favourite piano evocation is the Gibet middle part of Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit. What often annoys me, in pieces such as this or the various other Debussy and Ravel 'cloches' evocations, is when the pianist indulges in some rubato which effectively breaks the illusion of a tolling bell.
Langgaard with his 4th Symphony. The Sunday Morning section evokes church bells and it's quite effective.
https://www.youtube.com/v/IG28LX-lNbA
This work: Aleksander Lason: Cathedral, for orchestra (don't recall if I've talked about it previously)
It's that hell of a piece! If you have sympathy with Penderecki, Lutoslawski, Schnittke, Scelsi styles, don't miss it then!
Melartin - Lyric Suite no. 3 Impressions de Belgique: V. Les cloches
https://youtu.be/D8Zu0q6BW5g
Haven't checked to see if this has been mentioned yet, but wow is this stunningly beautiful!! The highlight of a really fine orchestral suite by this lovable (by me, anyway) composer.