КОЛОКОЛA The Bells Glocken by Rachmaninoff part one:tenor Franco Tenelli

The Bells (Russian: Колокола, Kolokola), Op. 35, is a choral symphony by Sergei Rachmaninoff, written in 1913. The words are from the poem The Bells by Edgar Allan Poe, very freely translated into Russian by the symbolist poet Konstantin Balmont. The traditional Gregorian melody Dies Irae is used frequently throughout the work. It was one of Rachmaninoff's two favorite compositions, along with his All-Night Vigil. and is considered by some to be his secular choral masterpiece. Rachmaninoff called the work both a choral symphony and his Third Symphony shortly after writing it; however, he would later write a purely instrumental Third Symphony during his years in exile.




Composition Rachmaninoff wrote to his friend Morozoff in December 1906, asking whether he could think of a suitable subject for a choral piece to follow his cantata Spring. Nothing came of this request. However, while on a holiday in Rome, Italy early in 1907, Rachmaninoff received an anonymous letter containing a copy of Balmont's translation of The Bells. The sender asked him to read the verses, suggesting they were suitable for musical setting and would especially appeal to him. This suggestion was both extremely sensitive and opportune.[4] It was only after the composer's death that the identity of the sender was found to have been Mariya Danilova, who was then a young cello student at the Moscow Conservatory.[
Nor was Rachmaninoff the only composer to whom Poe's writing would appeal. The English composer Joseph Holbrooke set The Bells in their original language for chorus and orchestra. His piece had been performed in Birmingham under conductor Hans Richter in 1906.[6] Earlier, in Russia, Ostroglazoff had composed a one-act opera based on "The Masque of the Red Death" in 1896. Nikolai Tcherepnin would write a ballet on the same subject in 1922. Nikolai Myaskovsky composed his symphonic poem Nevermore, based on "The Raven," in 1909. At the same time Rachmaninoff composed The Bells, his compatriot Mikhail Gnesin was writing The Conqueror Worm for tenor and orchestra, based on Balmont's translation of "Ligeia."

InstrumentationThe Bells is scored for soprano, tenor, and baritone soloists, mixed choir, and an orchestra of piccolo, 3 flutes (3rd flute also doubling on piccolo), 3 oboes, cor anglais, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 6 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, 4 campana, glockenspiel, triangle, tambourine, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, tamtam, pianino, celesta, harp, organ (ad lib), and the standard strings of I & II violins, violas, cellos, and double basses.

Parallels to TchaikovskyCircumstantially and compositionally, The Bells draws parallels between its composer and his former mentor, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Rachmaninoff wrote the symphony in Rome, Italy at the same desk Tchaikovsky had used to compose.[8] Compositionally, the four-movement mirroring of life from birth to death meant the finale would be a slow movement. In this and other ways, it is a counterpart to Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony. As well as to Gustav Mahler's 4th Symphony (starting with the comparison of the beguinings of both symphonies). Also some see the link between "The Bells" and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde The fourth movement, with its image of the demonic bell-ringer, hearkens to the bedroom scene in The Queen of Spades.[ The four movements are marked: 1) Allegro ma non tanto, 2) Lento, 3) Presto 4) Lento lugubre.

Trivia In the Foreword to "Verses and Versions" by Vladimir Nabokov, the author seems to suggest that Rachmaninoff had, many years after composing the work, asked him to translate the Russian text into English. If true, this makes possible the quite unexpected implication that Rachmaninoff was unaware that the poem, which was originally translated from English into Russian by Balmont, was written by Poe.

Category:

Music

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• edgar
• allan
• poe
• balmont
• opus
• 35
• part
• one
• russian
• КОЛОКОЛA
• classical

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