Larry Bell writes intuitive, inspired, and occasionally improvisational-sounding scores that encompass everything from white-note consonance to the harshest of dissonance, but usually aiming for somewhere in the middle.
Bell is also a pianist, and his piano technique informs what he writes. On North/South Consonance's
Larry Bell: Reminiscences and Reflections -- 12 Preludes and Fugues,
Bell leaves the interpreting up to another fine pair of hands, that of pianist
Jonathan Bass.
Where most formalized musical systems limit the composer's choices to permutations from a pitch class set or row,
Bell opens the window and lets it all in. There are no barriers to where this music can go, nor filters to strain out references to musical ideas that inspires
Bell, take for example the sidelong gesture to
Vince Guaraldi in the Prelude No. 7 in F sharp, "Backward Glances." Nevertheless, etude-like virtuosity and rigorous counterpoint is the order of the day in these preludes and fugues, and that translates to a certain toughness of idiom. While there are many strikingly beautiful passages in these works that easily fall upon the ear, overall it's an exhausting cycle to take on all at once and is not given to easy memorability; reasonably small strides in ingesting this work are recommended, and several listens may well be required to bring all of its virtues to the fore. It is clear, though, that
Reminiscences and Reflections is built to stand the test of time, even as it is formally freewheeling and, at times, discursive. For that matter, so is
Charles Ives' First Piano Sonata. Whether or not it may lead to a revolt in the academies,
Bell's
Reminiscences and Reflections should appeal to a remarkably wide swath of the audience ranging from enterprising casual listeners to experienced, intrepid souls looking for a way out of the serial ghetto.