For Whom the Bell Tolls
Will White, Conductor
Rob Spady, Clarinet
Sarah Saviet, Violin
Dash Nesbitt, Viola
Kevin Künkel, Cello
David Hughes, Piano 1
Chappell Kingsland, Piano 2
For Whom the Bell Tolls was written in less than a month, so it could be considered one of my most quickly composed pieces, but from another perspective it is one of my most slowly composed. The melody at the climax of this piece is something that I have been thinking about for a long time – it originally appeared in a setting of a Seamus Heaney poem that I wrote for baritone and mixed chamber group but eventually abandoned. Part of the repeating figure in the pianos also appeared in that piece, but it was used in a different way.
This piece uses that theme and melody again, in perhaps the simplest way possible. The entire piece is a slow crescendo towards the climax. It opens placidly with the pianos and simple long tones in the strings, which eventually give way to fragments of the ultimate melody. The fragments begin to sound more frequently until all the instruments are playing at once, and the piece climaxes in a unison statement of the melody by the clarinet and strings across four octaves. At this moment, the pianos which had been playing in G for the entire piece land on C – so the piece is also one massive cadence from G to C.
The melody contains all twelve tones and is played over a collection of notes which is essentially C-major. After the clarinet and strings complete the melody, they too land on C-major and the pianos continue to push out even farther into the overtones of the harmony. The clarinetist finishes the piece with a simple ascent up C-major ending in the final chord.
For Whom the Bell Tolls was completed in early November of 2009.