Dame Evelyn Glennie
Chelys Consort of Viols – Ibi Aziz, Jenny Bullock, Kate Conway, Alison Kinder & Sam Stadlen
Emily Atkinson  soprano
David Gould  countertenor
Steven Harrold  tenor
Robert Rice  baritone

Opening bell strikes and chants   Jill Jarman
Awakening part 1 and 2  Jill Jarman
Prelude C.F.   Abel (1723-1787)
Percussion feature (improvised)
Magnificat   Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)
Suite of Dances   Anthony Holborne (1545-1602)
1) Pavana ‘Amoretta’; 2) Galliard; 3) Almain ‘The Fruit of Love’
Quick, Quick, Away!   Michael East (1580-1648)
Alarm   Jill Jarman
A Little Prayer   Evelyn Glennie
In Celebration of Peace   Jill Jarman
Close of day bell strikes/ chants   Jill Jarman

A World Premiere from composer Jill Jarman, internationally renowned percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and the Chelys Consort of Viols. Exploring the sounds of bells in renaissance and contemporary music.

The ringing of bells has meant many things to people for centuries: the call to worship, a marking of time, an alarm for danger, the joy of marriage, the sorrow of death. The Language of Bells, written in five sections, frames a programme that mixes the sounds of old and new, life and death, celebration and mourning, and examines the call of bells pealing across centuries of human experience.

The programme opens as the day begins, and we feel we are inside the bell, the sound drawing us into a day that starts calmly, with glimpses of monastic or church life drifting across the landscape. The day goes well and the bell witnesses dancing, a wedding, and joy. Until, suddenly, the peace is shattered by a panicked alarm. Now the bell’s job is to ring out a warning. As the chaos settles a period of calm and reflection follows, with the bell now bringing a feeling of sanctuary and peace. This builds to a cacophonous celebration and the day finally ends as it began, where Eastern and Western influences can be heard in a more meditative vein, drifting off, ready to start a new day with new adventures tomorrow.