Opus number: op. 118

Title: Trois Préludes non Mesurés avec Fugues

Instrumentation: Harpsichord

Written for: Paul Cienniwa

Date written: 2012

Length: eight minutes

Premiere performance: Not yet performed

Program notes: Trois Preludes non Measurés avec Fugues were written in 2012 for my friend the harpsichordist Paul Cienniwa. The preludes were written in somewhat the same manner as the early Baroque composer Louis Couperin. In other words, it has neither meters nor rhythmic values. The accompanying fugues were transposed into D and drawn from the Twelve Lyric Preludes.

Opus number: op. 102

Title: Partita no. 2 (2010)

Instrumentation: Harpsichord solo

Written for: Paul Cienniwa

Date written: 2010

Length: eleven minutes

Premiere performance: November 11, 2010, Paul Cienniwa, The Music of First Church Boston.

Subsequent performances: May 19, 2011, Brown Hall at New England Conservatory, Paul Cienniwa

Program notes: My second partita was written in the spring of 2010. The work is dedicated to Paul Cienniwa, who gave its premiere performance November 11, 2010, at First Church in Boston. In this work I wanted to try types of figuration and explore a level of counterpoint different from my Partita No. 1, also premiered by Paul Cienniwa.

The order of movements is as follows: Overture and Fugue, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Minuets 1 & 2, and Gigue. The dramatic pacing and general design of the music owes much to the keyboard partitas of Bach, while the harmonic language is much closer to popular song of the late twentieth century.

Reviews: (performance) “Bell’s Partita, six dances in all, is characterized by contrast and harmonic sense. Color pervades all, both in terms of registration and judicious use of chords. Bell has a tendency to go to the upper regions of the keyboard at the ends of several movements. Particularly beautiful was the dotted rhythms of the Allemande and the two minuets, the one humorous and the other languorous.”  –Larry Phillips, The Boston Musical Intelligencer

Recording: Paul Cienniwa, Larry Bell: In a Garden of Dreamers, Albany Records (1308/1309)

Opus number: op. 97

Title: Partita No. 1 for Harpsichord

Instrumentation: Harpsichord 

Dedication: Paul Cienniwa

Date written: 2009

Length:  eleven minutes

Premiere performance:  February 27, 2010, Paul Cienniwa, Newport Baroque, Newport, Rhode Island

Subsequent performances: March 28, 2010, The Music of First Church Boston. May 19, 2010, Brown Hall at New England Conservatory. January 16, 2012, First Church Boston. Paul Cienniwa, harpsichordist

Program Notes: Partita No. 1 is dedicated to Paul Cienniwa, who gave its world premiere on the Newport Baroque concerts in January 2010. This work shows a kinship with 18^th-century keyboard music, especially the works of Domenico Scarlatti. Each movement presents a different expressive “take” on the same material: Overture–dry wit; Courante–restrained charm; Air–majestic song; Sarabande–introspection; and Toccata–slapstick bravado.

Reviews: (performance) Boston Musical Intelligencer, March 31, 2010. (recording)

“A Sarabande by Larry Thomas Bell, bridges Rameau and Sweelinck by crystallizing their music in modern, angular terms, and then making slight adjustments. It’s music that Bach would have listened to carefully.”– Laurence Vittes, Huffington Post

Recording: Larry Bell: In A Garden of Dreamers, Paul Cienniwa, harpsichordist, Albany Records (Troy 1308/09)  Sarabande recorded by Paul Cienniwa, Harpsichord Music for A Thin Place. Whaling City Sound CD (WCS 059)