News
Ding Dong Bell - Premiere 3 February - The Space, London
16/01/08
In a couple of weeks the premiere will take place of Ding Dong Bell,a ten minute piece for Bass Clarinet and Piano which I wrote last year for the Bass Clarinettist Sarah Watts. I thought the piece was quite challenging techincally, but Sarah seemed to have no problems with it - even on the first read through! I am really looking forward to hearing it in performance. The idea for Ding Dong Bell came after reading about the serious and often rather disturbing backgrounds behind children’s nursery rhymes. The first movement is based on the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons and the second on Mary, Mary quite contrary. The final movement alludes to the poem Full Fathom Five from Shakespeare’s The Tempest although the starting point was the nursery rhyme ‘Ding Dong bell, Pussy’s in the well’.
The piece veers between the superficial and the sinister, and bells in various guises feature throughout.
Visit http://www.space.org.uk/home.php for more information