Bell Recordings Needed for Orchestra's Armistice Project

Tuesday September 12 2017

Churches across Scotland are being urged to submit recordings of their bells for inclusion in a new piece of music marking the centenary of the end of the First World War.

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Associate Composer Martin Suckling are looking to ‘engage people throughout Scotland in the composition and performance of a new work exploring themes of celebration, loss, community identity and the legacy of war’.

Meditation (after Donne), is a new piece of music for chamber orchestra and electronics with community-sourced recordings of local church bells. The recordings will also be made available for public use, as a historical sound archive and also as a musical resource.

The project website explains: “The poetic background is provided by John Donne’s famous ‘Meditation XVII’, his 1624 exhortation to recognise our shared humanity which is utterly contemporary in a world where self-interest and insularity threaten to smother alternative discourses.

“Donne’s reflections are triggered by the tolling of a distant bell, the sound of which will be the focus of our project. Rung out across the country when Armistice was declared, church bells are potent markers of both joy and despair, public sounds with personal resonances, their complex web of associations making them an ideal symbol around which to develop a rich musical experience.”

For more information and instructions on how to submit recordings of your church bells, visit www.armisticebells.com

Post Tags: bells, armistice

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