Photograph by Scott Ordway (Sweden, 2018)
In the Kingdom of Bells (2018)
2.2.2.2, 4.3.3.1, timp. + 3, hp. cel., str. / 13 minutes
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PREMIERE
Commissioned by the Tucson Symphony Orchestra
Premiere: 30 November 2018 at Tucson Music Hall (Tucson, AZ)
Tucson Symphony Orchestra; Josep Caballé-Domench, conductor
MEDIA
NOTE
In the Kingdom of Bells is a meditation on a simple, but fantastical idea: I imagine the sound of all the world’s bells ringing at once.
There is no technological reason that this couldn’t happen. But what a profound force of human will and cooperation it would require! What an occasion of such overwhelming and universal joy that we, the community of humanity, had to organize a global festival of bells as the only commensurate response.
There are so many ordinary actions—like ringing a bell—that become unusual when practiced at a group scale, improbable at a city scale, extraordinary at a national scale, and miraculous at a global scale.
Like so many of the challenges that face our local, national, and global communities, the deficit in this thought experiment is one of willpower, cooperation, and organization rather than technology or resources. What would it feel like if, one day, we gradually became aware that all of the world’s bells were ringing at once? What would it feel like to learn that we addressed the climate crisis? If we learned that our societies had been transformed to become more equitable, more just, and more joyous places to live and grow?
With this piece, I invite audiences to consider the small and large issues facing our communities which are unsolvable except through cooperation and dialogue. The music, which begins from nothing and builds gradually to an ecstatic climax, reflects the gradual awakening of our will to act together. I am aware that this is utopian thinking but, for me, to build an idea in sound is a precursor to building that idea in the world.