Opus number: Op. 77

Title: Dark Orange Concerto; a concerto for viola and winds

Instrumentation: Solo Viola, 2 Ob., 2 Bassoons, Eb Clarinet, 2 Bb Clarinets, Bb Bass Clarinet, 3 French Horns in F, and Double Bass.

Commissioned: Bill Drury for the Jordan Winds and violist Carol Rodland

Dedication: to Carol Rodland

Date written: October 2005

Length: ca. 20 minutes

Premiere performance: March 1, 2007, NEC’s Jordan Hall

Important subsequent performances:

Program notes: The title “Dark Orange Concerto” was borrowed from my teacher, Vincent Persichetti. His vivid and colorful description of the viola as having a “dark orange” sound became the central metaphor for my choice of instruments to play with (and against) the soloist in this concerto. The idea of writing a concerto for viola and wind ensemble was first suggested by Bill Drury. After hearing the wonderful violist Carol Rodland play an all twentieth-century program, I thought she would be the ideal soloist.

In order to have the soloist on a more equal footing with the ensemble, the decision was made early on to limit the number of players. Here the “wind orchestra” is made up of  2 oboes, 2 bassoons, an Eb clarinet, 2 Bb clarinets, a Bb bass clarinet, 3 French Horns in F, and a non-wind instrument, a double bass. Every effort was made to use wind instruments that would match the characteristic sound of the viola.

The work has a traditional three-movement design. The first movement’s opening and closing is an accompanied cadenza. These cadenzas enclose a sonata design that is mostly resolute in character. The second movement is lyrical, similar to an aria without words, and concludes with an unaccompanied solo for the viola. The third movement is upbeat and humorous with a prevailing and somewhat lopsided tango rhythm.

Reviews: (performances) (recordings)

Excerpt: Dark Orange Concerto(Coming soon!)

Opus number: op. 70

Title: The Triumph of Lightness, a concerto for cello and chamber orchestra

1. Fanfare
2. Scherzo
3. Elegy
4. Finale

Instrumentation: Solo cello, 2-2-2-2, 2-2-0-0, 1 perc. hp., strings

Commissioned: Fay Chandler

Dedication: Eric Bartlett

Date written: October 2004

Length: ca. 35 minutes

Premiere performance: November 11, 2012, Boston Civic Symphony, Konstantin Dobroykov, conductor; Sam Ou, cellist. Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory

Subsequent performances:

Program notes: The Triumph of Lightness: a concerto for cello and orchestra was commissioned by Fay Chandler and dedicated to my friend the cellist Eric Bartlett. The work took place over a long period of time, 2004—2011. Much of the music for this four-movement concerto was drawn and developed from two other pieces of mine: Liturgical Suite (2004) for organ and Elegy (2005) for piano. The piano score was completed by the end of 2005 and happily, maestro Max Hobart of the Boston Civic Symphony motivated me to orchestrate the work in 2011.

Each of the movements is based on the same melodic and harmonic material and has more of a formal similarity to the four-movement classical symphony rather than the more common three-movement classical concerto. The movements are: dramatic overture—scherzo and trio—elegiac slow movement—and a fast rondo finale. The climatic point of the last movement presents a return of the slow movement melody played in a very high register by the solo cello, all written in harmonics.

The character of the music attempts to express a lightness of being that triumphs over the dark times that life presents us. The solo cello part is extremely virtuosic and is played brilliantly by my good friend Sam Ou.

Opus number: 68

Title: Spirituals, a chamber symphony for ten players

Commissioned: Max Lifchitz

Dedication: to Max Lifchitz in celebration of 25 years of North/South Consonance

Instrumentation: String quintet, (2 vlns., Vla., cello, Db.) Woodwind quintet (fl., cl., ob., bassoon, and French horn)

Date written: May 2004

Length: ca. 20 minutes

Premiere performance: March 13, 2005 Christ and St. Stephen’s Church, New York, NY; The North/South Chamber Orchestra, Max Lifchitz, conductor.

Important subsequent performance:

Program notes: Spirituals –a chamber smphony for ten players – was completd in the spring of 2004 and was commissioned by Max Lifchitz in celebration of the 25h anniversary of North/South Consonance. The form of the work is much like that of a chorale prelude. Its character remsembles my other music in its attempt to speak to a universal truth through the evocation of a specific time and place.

The first movement is based on I love to tell the Story; the second on Fairest Lord Jesus; and the third is based on There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy.

Each of these hymns is referred to in Romulus Linney’s play Holy Ghosts. The play, which takes place in rural North Carolina among a group of Pentecostals was as much an inspiration when I reread it last year as it was when I saw its premiere at East Carolina University in 1971.

Reviews: (performances) (recordings)

Excerpt: (Coming soon!)

Opus number: 59

Title: Hansel and Gretel

Instrumentation:  narrator and orchestra: 2-2-2-2, 4-2-3-1, 4 perc, hp, cel. strings

Date written: August 2001

Length:  ca. 30 minutes

Performances: November 3, 2002, NEC’s Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, Benjamin Zander, conductor, Ray Brown, narrator, Jordan Hall (premiere); April 19, 2003, NEC’s Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, Benjamin Zander, conductor, Ray Brown, narrator, Boston Symphony Hall; June 19–29, NEC’s Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, Benjamin Zander, conductor, Mexico City and Panama.

Program notes: Hansel and Gretel, a Fable for Narrator and Orchestra, op. 59, is based on the classic Grimm fairy tale. Unlike the familiar Humperdinck opera libretto, the children in the original fable do not lose their way in the forest, but, much more scarily, are deliberately abandoned by their starving stepmother and father. Both children–and especially Gretel–triumph as the heroes of their perilous adventure.

This piece was commissioned and designed to introduce the instruments of the orchestra to children under the age of twelve. As the narrator tells us, various instruments represent the characters in the story. The French horns play the father’s music, the step-mother is played on a muted trumpet, Gretel is represented by the violin and Hansel by the cello. Three friendly animals are heard in the woodwinds: with a tip of the hat to Prokofieff’s Peter and the Wolf, their cat is played by the clarinet, the bird is played by a flute, and the duck by the oboe. The wicked witch is heard on the xylophone.

In addition certain elements of the story are painted by music. For example, the jewels the children find shine in the orchestra.  The evil step-mother and the witch share the interval of a tritone, and both have similar motives drawn from a half diminished seventh chord. The father’s music centers around c minor, and the music for Hansel and Gretel is closely related to G major.

The challenge of writing a large work for narrator was lightened by the fact that I had previously set two narrator works: Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat for narrator, cello and piano (recorded on CD by Robert J. Lurtsema, cellist Eric Bartlett, and myself as pianist), and Lewis Thomas’s Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler’s Ninth Symphony for narrator, violin and piano.

Hansel and Gretel, finished in August in 2001, was commissioned by New England Conservatory Preparatory School, Mark Churchill, Dean. It was written with the instrumentation of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and with its conductor, Benjamin Zander, in mind.

Text: Grimm’s Fairy Tales, arranged by Andrea Olmstead

[Introduction–optional]

Many of you know the Grimm fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel. Today [tonight] we will hear this story with the help of our orchestra. Its instruments will represent the characters, as well as the action.

First we meet their good-hearted father: his music is played on the French horn. [musical example]

Next comes their evil step-mother, played on a trumpet that is muted. [musical example]

Gretel’s sad lament is represented by the violin [musical example] and Hansel by the happy-go-lucky cello [musical example].

Hansel and Gretel meet three animals: their cat is played by the clarinet [musical example]; the bird by a flute [musical example]; and finally a duck, played by the oboe [musical example].

Last and most important is the wicked witch, played by the xylophone [musical example]

Listen for these instruments as we travel with Hansel and Gretel into a deep and scary forest.

[overture]

[*] By a great forest dwelt a poor wood-cutter with his wife and his two children, Hansel and Gretel. He had little to eat, and when a great famine came, he could no longer get bread. He groaned and said to his wife, “How are we to feed our poor children, when we no longer have anything even for ourselves?” [*] “I’ll tell you how,” answered the woman, “Early tomorrow morning we will take the children into the forest to where it is the thickest. There we will light a fire, and give each one more piece of bread, and then we will go to our work and leave them alone. They will not find the way home again, and we shall be rid of them.” “No, wife,” said the man, “I will not do that. How can I bear to leave my children alone in the forest?” “O you fool,” said she, “then we must all four die of hunger,” and she left him no peace until he consented. “But I feel very sorry for the poor children,” said the man. [*]

The two children heard what their step-mother had said. Gretel wept bitter tears, and said, “Now all is over with us.” Hansel said, “Do not distress yourself, Gretel, I will find a way to help us.” [*]

Early in the morning came the woman, and took the children from their beds. Their piece of bread was given to them. On the way into the forest Hansel crumbled his in his pocket, and often stood still and threw a morsel on the ground. “Hansel, why do you stop and look round?” said the father, “go on.” “I am looking back at my little white cat which is sitting on the roof, and wants to say good-bye to me,” answered Hansel. “Fool,” said the woman, “That is not your little cat, that is the morning sun shining on the chimney.” [*] Hansel, little by little, threw all the crumbs on the path. [*] The woman led the children still deeper into the forest, where they had never in their lives been before. Then a great fire was made, and the step-mother said, “We are going into the forest to cut wood, and in the evening when we are done, we will come and fetch you away.” [*] When it was noon, Gretel shared her piece of bread with Hansel, who had scattered his by the way. Then they fell asleep and evening passed, but no one came to take the poor children back. When they awoke it was dark, and Hansel comforted his little sister saying, “Just wait until the moon rises, and then we shall see the crumbs of bread I have strewn about. They will show us our way home.” [*] When the moon came they set out, but they found no crumbs, for the many thousands of birds that fly about in the woods had picked them all up. [*] They walked the whole night and all the next day too, but they did not get out of the forest, and were very hungry. When their legs would carry them no longer, they lay down beneath a tree and fell asleep. [*]

It was now three mornings since they had left their father’s house. They began to walk again, and at mid-day they saw a beautiful snow-white bird sitting on a bough, which sang so delightfully that they stood still and listened to it. [*] And when its song was over, it spread its wings and flew away, and they followed it until they reached a little house, on the roof of which it alighted. They saw that the little house was built of gingerbread and covered with cakes, and that the windows were of clear sugar. [*] Hansel reached up and broke off a little of the roof to try how it tasted, and Gretel leant against the window and nibbled at the panes. [*] Then a soft voice cried from the parlor-

“nibble, nibble, gnaw

who is nibbling at my little house?”

The children answered –

“the wind, the wind,

the heaven-born wind,”

and went on eating. Suddenly the door opened, and a woman as old as the hills came creeping out. Hansel and Gretel were so terribly frightened they let fall what they had in their hands. The old woman nodded her head, and said, “Oh, you dear children, do come in, and stay with me. No harm shall happen to you.” She took them both by the hand, and led them into her little house. Good food was set before them, milk and pancakes, with sugar, apples, and nuts. Afterwards two pretty little beds were covered with clean white linen, and Hansel and Gretel lay down in them, and thought they were in heaven. [*]

The old woman had only pretended to be so kind. She was in reality a wicked witch, who lay in wait for children, and had only build the little house of bread in order to entice them there. When a child fell into her power, she killed it, cooked, and ate it. [*]

She seized Hansel with her shriveled hand, carried him into a little stable, and locked him behind a grated door. Then she went to Gretel, and cried, “Get up, lazy thing, fetch some water, and cook something good for your brother. He is to be made fat. When he is fat, I will eat him.” Gretel began to weep bitterly, but she was forced to do what the wicked witch commanded. [*]

The witch crept to the little stable, and cried, “Hansel, stretch out your finger that I may feel if you will soon be fat.” Hansel, however, stretched out a little bone to her. The old woman, who had dim eyes, could not see it, and thought it was Hansel’s finger; she was astonished that there was no way of fattening him. After four weeks, she would not wait any longer. “Let Hansel be fat or lean, tomorrow I will kill him, and cook him.” Ah, how the poor little sister did lament. [*]

Early the next morning, the old woman said, “We will bake first. I have already kneaded the dough.” She pushed poor Gretel to the oven, from which flames were darting. “Creep in,” said the witch, “and see if the oven is properly heated, so that we can put the bread in.” Once Gretel was inside, she intended to shut the oven and let her bake in it, and then she would eat her, too. [*] But Gretel saw what she had in mind. “I do not know how to get in?” “Silly goose,” said the old woman, “the door is big enough. Just look, I can get in myself,” and she  thrust her head into the oven. Then Gretel gave her a push that drove her far into it, and shut the iron door, and fastened the bolt. [*]  Oh. Then the godless witch began to howl quite horribly, and she was miserably burnt to death. Gretel ran like lightening to Hansel, opened his little stable, and cried, “Hansel, we are saved. The old witch is dead.” Then Hansel sprang like a bird from its cage when the door is opened. How they did rejoice and embrace each other. They looked in the witch’s house, and in every corner stood chests full of pearls and jewels. Hansel thrust into his pockets whatever he could, and Gretel said, “I, too, will take something home with me,” and filled her pinafore full. “But now,” said Hansel, “we must get out of the witch’s forest.” [*]

When they had walked for two hours, they came to a great stretch of water. “We cannot cross,” said Hansel, “I see no foot-plank, and no bridge.” Gretel answered, “but a white duck is swimming there.” Then she cried –

“Little duck, little duck, do you see,

Hansel and Gretel are waiting for thee.

There’s no plank, or bridge in sight,

take us across on your back so white.”

The duck came to them, and Hansel seated himself on its back, and told his sister to sit by him. “No,” replied Gretel, “that will be too heavy for the little duck. She shall take us across, one at a time.” The good little duck did so. When they were safely across and had walked for a short time, the forest seemed to be more and more familiar to them, and at length they saw from afar their father’s house. [*] Then they began to run, rushed into the parlor, and threw themselves round their father’s neck. The man had not known one happy hour since he had left the children in the forest. The step-mother, however, was dead. Hansel and Gretel emptied their pockets until the pearls and precious stones ran about the room. Then all anxiety was at an end, and they lived together in perfect happiness. [*]

Opus number: 55

Title: Songs of Innocence and Experience

Instrumentation: children’s chorus (SSA) and orchestra; 2-2-2-2, 1-1-0-0, 1 perc., harp, 8-8-4-4-2

Date written:  August 2000

Length: twenty-four minutes

Commissioners: Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the New England Cosnervatory Preparatory Division Chorus

Publisher: Ione Press, a Division of ECS Publishing

Premiere: Boston, Jordan Hall, January 20, 2001, Boston Modern Orchestra Project and New England Conservatory Preparatory Division Children’s Chorus, Gil Rose, conductor; Jean Meltaus, choral conductor.

Important Subsequent Performances: January 20, 2001; Chorus Pro Musica, Jean Meltaus, choral conductor, Fannueil Hall, Boston; April 26, 2002, Juilliard Pre-College Chorus, Rebecca Scot, conductor, Paul Hall, The Juilliard School; November 3, 2002, Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, Benjamin Zander, conductor, Jordan Hall; November 9 and 10, 2002, Symphony Pro Musica, Mark Churchill, conductor, NEC Preparatory Division’s Children’s Chorus, Jean Meltaus, conductor, Bolton and Westborough, MA.

Texts: See Opus 53 texts

Recording: Albany Records (CD741) New England Conservatory Youth Philharmonic and Children’s Chorus; Benjamin Zander, conductor

Program notes:  “Songs of Innocence and Experience was written (or more accurately improvised) in three evenings in April of this year. The word improvised is important because the music was not written down while the work was being composed and I thought the best was to express the emotional directness of Blake’s poetry was through improvisation.

“William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience is a famous example of an adult’s perspective of the child. The child in these poems is rebellious, joyful, persistently playful, Christ-like, and always natural. The adults are, on the contrary, narrow, confining, rule-laden, Catholic, and superficial.

“An interesting balance also exists between the poems of innocence and those of experience. The Lamb is opposite the Tyger, the Nurse’s Song is transformed in The Garden of Love, and Infant Joy is answered by The Sick Rose. The piper referred to in the beginning bears a striking resemblance to the bard at the end.

“Very few of these songs begin and end in the same key. In fact, some songs will find their tonal conclusion in the next song giving the music a sense of continuity and connectedness typical of a cycle.

“If Blake’s Songs of Innocence simply represented the child and the Songs of Experience the adult, this black-and-white distinction would hold little interest to the reader and would have less to recommend it for a musical setting. Precisely because of the interdependence of these points of view, I think, the poems sustain repeated readings. Ultimately, the adult poet is resurrected by the regenerative power of wonder and play that seems to spring so naturally from children.

“Songs of Innocence and Experience is written for children’s chorus (SSA) and orchestra. The work is a joint commission from the New England Conservatory Preparatory School and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and is dedicated to the memory of Frances Lanier.” –Note by the composer

Reviews: “Writing music for children’s chorus and orchestra usually dictates much about said work’s style and approach. Not surprisingly, Larry Bell’s Songs of Innocence and Expereince (which sets a bushel basket’s work to William Blake’s poetry) is dead-on triadic, perfumed with hints of Brahms, Britten, and folksy Mahler, though exhibiting some surprisingly imaginative harmonic progressions at times. The piece is charming, sweet, and sentimental in nature, well composed for its young singers. If it sounds a bit old-fashioned and foursquare, that’s more likely a by-product of writing for this kind of ensemble rather than anything Bell injected into the work’s fabric.” –David Cleary, 21st-Century Music

“The evening ended with another world premiere, Larry Bell’s “Songs of Innocence and Experience,” for orchestra and children’s chorus. Well prepared by director Jean Meltaus, the NEC Children’s Chorus sang in tune and with earnest conviction.” –Keith Powers, Boston Herald (January 22, 2001)

“Larry Bell’s settings of the Blake songs possess several virtues: The treble chorus sounds exceptionally pretty and never has to strain beyond its capabilities. The poems expose the children to first-rate laterature. And the opportunity for the youngsters to sing with orchestra in a work composerd specifically for them must have been very gratifying.” ­Ellen Pfeifer, The Boston Globe (January 23, 2001)

Opus number: op. 87

Title: Unchanging Love, a hymn based on a text by Romulus Linney

Instrumentation: SATB choir

Text: Romulus Linney

Text: click here

Jesus defend us, O sweet mercy send us,

O angels attend us with unchanging love,

Jesus defend us and sweet mercy send us,

And angels attend us from heaven above.

Angels attend us Sweet mercy send us,

Angels attend us Sweet mercy send us,

Jesus defend us, O sweet mercy send us,

O angels attend us with unchanging love,

Angels attend us Sweet mercy send us

Angels attend us Sweet mercy send us,

Unchanging love.

Date written: 2006

Length: two minutes

Premiere performance: September 15, 2009, Berklee Performance Center. (See op. 90, Holy Ghosts)

Program Notes: Unchanging Love, Op. 87, is a hymn written in an SATB format for congregational singing. Not only is it the basis for the beginning and end of the opera Holy Ghosts, but it also provides most of the material for “Unchanging Love” for brass quintet and organ. The text comes from the conclusion of Romulus Linney’s play, Holy Ghosts: “Jesus, defend us, oh mercy send us, and angels attend us from heaven above. Jesus defend us, oh mercy send us, and angels attend us with unchanging love.”

Opus number: 47

Title: Short Symphony for Band

Instrumentation: picc., 2 fl, 2 ob, cln in Eb, cln 1,2,3, b.cl, alto cl, 2 bssn., alto sax.1,2, tenor sax, baritone sax, 3 cornets in Bb, 2 trpts in Bb, Euphonium, 2 ten tbs, 1 bass tb, tuba, 3 perc

Date written: 1999, Boston

Length: twelve minutes

Commissioner and dedicatee: Jordan Winds, William Drury, conductor

Publisher:  Ione Press, a Division of ECS Publishing

Premiere performance: November 22, 1999, William Drury, conducting The Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble

Recordings: North.South Recordings CD (1031) The Sentimental Muse. William Drury, conductor, Jordan Winds at New England Conservatory

Program notes: The composer writes, “Short Symphony for Band was completed in the winter of 1999 and was written for William Drury and the Jordan Winds. The title is derived from two pieces that I have long admired: Short Symphony, by Aaron Copland and Symphony for Band by my teacher Vincent Persichetti.

“As in my first two symphonies this work was developed from my own vocal music. ‘A Cry Against the Twilight’ eight madrigals (SSATB) written in 1996 furnishes the primary thematic material for this four-movement work.

“The form of the ‘Short Symphony for Band’ resembles a classical symphony in its movement order: sonata, scherzo, slow movement, and rondo. In addition, the second theme group of the first movement foreshadows the third movement. The trio of the scherzo returns just before the climax of the finale.

“The use of one player per part gives this symphony a sonority much like chamber music, a quality somewhat different from what one usually associates with music for band.”

Reviews: Short Symphony for Band, recording

The Short Symphony for Band was written in 1999 for the Jordan Winds, who perform it here. They do a handsome job on a piece that deserves a wide audience. It is by turns dark and mysterious, then bright and lively. (Bell’s) music is tonal, tuneful, and enjoyable. The sound in all four works is very good, never distracting one from the music. The presentation is attractive, notes (by the composer and his wife) are excellent.

-Thomas McClain-The American Record Guide

Opus number: 45

Title: The Sentimental Muse, a Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra

Instrumentation: 2-2-2-2;1-1-0-0; 1 perc, hp; strings; Piano reduction published by Bassoon Heritage Editions

Date written: 1997, Boston

Length: seventeen minutes

Commissioner and dedicatee: Kathryn Sleeper

Premiere performance: Kathryn Sleeper, bassoonist, Thomas Sleeper, conductor, University of Miami Orchestra, Miami, Florida, April 19, 1998

Recordings:  North/South Recordings CD (1031) The Sentimental Muse, CD recording with Kathryn Sleeper, bassoonist, the Moravian Philharmonic, Joel Suben conducting. Live performance recording at the University of Miami, CD recording with Kathryn Sleeper, bassoonist, the University of Miami Philharmonic, Thomas Sleeper conducting.

Program notes: “The Sentimental Muse” was composed during the last three weeks of July 1997 and is dedicated to its commissioner, Kathryn Sleeper.

The music is based on two different melodies. One of these melodies was used in my set of preludes and fugues calledReminiscences and Reflections. The other melody is a little sentimental tune that was for me like a muse who followed me around until I could no longer resist her compelling song. Therefore the piece is about the relationship between these two melodies.

The First movement is in sonata form. Its contrasting sections are interrupted by lyrical cadenzas from the solo bassoon. The second movement is in the form of an arch: the central sentimental tune is flanked by fast, syncopated dance sections that are in turn framed by a plaintive song. The last movement transforms the opening movement’s character, e.g., the resolute rhythms of the first movement are brought back in the last movement as vivacious, lilting rhythms. After the climax the music makes one more wistful backward glance to the sentimental tune of the second movement.

The opening forte A’s are a reference point in each of the three movements. In the first the note A is imperfectly the cadence note in d minor. In the second movement the A is the cadence note in the original “song” in F major as well as in the f#-minor  that occurs midway. The bassoon has the last word with its contra A affirming the dotted rhythm of the borrowed song.

A piano reduction is published by Bassoon Heritage Editions in Florida.

Movement titles:

Risoluto

Espressivo

Vivace

Reviews: The Sentimental Muse, recording

This composer’s music [i]s the direct heir of Copland and, as such, presents a sort of present-day Americana. . . .
he is a composer who wants to communicate in direct terms, regardless of any current trends and fashions. Though
fairly traditional, his music approaches the American symphonic tradition in a most refreshing way, which is to my mind his most endearing quality.

-Hubert Culot–www.musicweb-international.com