BOWLING BELLS is an excuse to listen carefully to a few everyday sounds, and to celebrate their extraordinary beauty. Central to the piece are two stainless steel bowls which have served hundreds of pounds of salad to our many guests over the years. I have always marveled at the rich sonority that each produces with the slightest encouragement. They are nearly perfectly tuned a minor third apart (though with everyday use that perfection does vary from dent to dent,) and they signal major points of arrival in the piece.
The four channel playback is of digital retunings of the metal bowls, yielding 15 equally spaced pitches within the minor third. The 16 glass bowls used in the premiere have served hundreds of gallons of soup to many guests over the years, and have a range or nearly a minor third also, with many pitches in between. Performers sound the bowls with various implements found in most homes: toothbushes, marbles, combs, trickling water, and fingers.
BOWLING BELLES: Brianna Balke, Mary Buchner, Liz Carnathan, Megan Dick, Cynthia Fogg, Paula Goldsmid, Jereen Kwong, Kathy Lawrence, Rebecca Lent, Kelly Park, Genevieve Peaslee, Jordan Pedraza, Lucy Shelton, Sayuri Soejima, Leah Wald
BOWLING BEAUS: William Chen, Anders Crabo, John Cvitkovic, Josh Durgin, Tom Flaherty, Colin Flynn, Chris Gomes, Christian Heath, Nick Humphrey, Scott Jespersen, Yoon-Chan Kim, Samuel Lewis, Luke Lindemann, Brendon Randall-Myers, Wayne Steinmetz, Tim Stutz, Zeben Kopchak
VIDEO PRODUCED by Barry Werger
I wrote "Remembrance of Things Present" to fill a spot on a program of new chamber music in 2006. It seemed to me there was a need for something light on a concert that otherwise featured music weighty in tone or conception. A dance, perhaps, or a lullaby. Somehow the unceasing daily news of violence and its aftermath kept interrupting my thoughts, and wove its way into the music. There are still fragments of song and dance, but they are often framed or interrupted by responses to grittier reality.
-Tom Flaherty
Trio for Cello and Digital Processor from Tom Flaherty on Vimeo.
Trio for Cello and Digital Processor plays with rhythmic hockets and explores the sonorous possibilities of the cello.
The digital processor is not intended to actually alter the cello sound in any significant way; rather, it sends the cello sound to the left and right speakers a half second and a full second later than the original acoustic sound. The resulting piece is in effect a cello trio, although it would be virtually impossible to accurately coordinate three live players to the degree required in the piece.
The piece's harmonic palette is wide; at various points references to music as diverse as Varese's Poeme Electronique and Bach's chorale Es ist genug are incorporated into the texture.
A Cellist's Variations on "Home on the Range" is just what it sounds like: "Home on the Range" appears throughout, while favorites from cello concerto, sonata, and chamber music parts emphatically compete for attention. I will leave it to the listener which is the winner.
Influences
Elliott Carter, Steve Reich, Balkan folk music, Messiaen, Debussy, Webern,
"Gleeful Variants" (excerpt above), "Riverwing," and "Nightstars," performed by Genevieve Lee, on her Albany CD, "Elements." Also music by Philippe Bodin. Available from
Albany, Amazon, etc.
Thanks for the friendship, dear Tom. I think your compositions very interesting. They make me hungry to hear more. I find particularly nice "How like a winter," it gives me "goosebumps"... I wish you all the best! Greetings from Germany, Ina.
Hi there, Thank you for the kind comments. I've actually just re recorded the Bach Prelude and Gigue from the Cello suite so please check it out and let me know what you think. I am always open to suggestions. Kind regards,
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