Montage # 131 - The Bells/Les Cloches

As of December 13, 2013, this montage will no longer be available on Pod-O-Matic. It can be heard or downloaded from the Internet Archive at the following address / A compter du 13 décembre 2013, ce montage ne sera plus disponible en baladodiffusion Pod-O-Matic. Il peut être téléchargé ou entendu au site Internet Archive à l'adresse suivante:

https://archive.org/details/Pcast131


pcast131- Playlist

===================================================================== English Commentary – le commentaire français suit

Today’s podcast features a pair of 20^th century works that have something in common – Bells.

Let’s begin by the second selection in the podcast – The Bells by Sergei Rachmaninov. Composed after Rachmaninov’s great Third Piano Concerto, The Bells can be thought of as his Third Symphony (in the same way Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde could be his Ninth…). It distinguishes itself from the other symphonies by the use of choir and vocal soloists, but it is built as a symphony (in fact, I have seen it referred to as a “Choral Symphony for STB, Chorus and Orchestra”.

The Bells is a direct reference (and uses a Russian translation by the symbolist poet Konstantin Balmont) of the Edgar Allan Poe poen The Bells. The four movements are marked: 'The Silver Sleigh Bells', 'The Mellow Wedding Bells', 'The Loud Alarum Bells' and 'The Mournful Iron Bells'.

Circumstantially and compositionally, The Bells draws parallels between its composer and Tchaikovsky. Rachmaninov wrote the symphony in Rome, Italy at the same desk Tchaikovsky had used to compose. 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 beginnings of both symphonies). Also some see the link between "The Bells" and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde.

Rachmaninov dedicated The Bells to Dutch conductor Willem Mengelberg and the Concertgebouw Orchestra. The included performance of The Bells was taken from Evgeni Svetlanov’s last concert at the Barbican Centre in London, 19 April 2002 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra - he died one month later.

The work that opens the montage is the iconic Mike Oldfield opus, Tubular Bells. Oldfield's working title for the project was Opus One it was the way in which Vivian Stanshall had said "plus...tubular bells" in the finale of Part One that gave Oldfield the idea for the final title.

According to the credits on the 30^th anniversary edition of the album, Tubular Bells are presented in two parts, each of which is further divided into sub-sections:

Part one: "Introduction", "Fast Guitars", "Basses", "Latin", "A Minor Tune", "Blues", "Thrash", "Jazz", "Ghost Bells", "Russian", "Finale" (where Vivian Stanshall reads off the list of instruments)

Part Two: “Harmonics", "Peace", "Bagpipe Guitars", "Caveman", "Ambient Guitars", "The Sailor's Hornpipe"

The opening theme, which was eventually chosen to be used in the 1973 film The Exorcist, gained the original album release considerable publicity and introduced the work to a broader audience. The theme has been sampled by many other artists, such as Janet Jackson on her song "The Velvet Rope". The opening theme has also gained cultural significance as a 'haunting theme', partly due to the association with The Exorcist.

Mike Oldfield himself plays most of the instruments, recording them one at a time and layering the recordings to create the finished work. Though fairly common in the music industry now, at the time of the production of Tubular Bells not many musicians did it, preferring multi-musician "session" recordings.

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Commentaire français

Le montage d'aujourd'hui dispose d'une paire d'œuvres du 20e siècle qui ont quelque chose en commun - des cloches.

Commençons par la deuxième sélection - Kokolo (les clochhes) de Sergei Rachmaninov. Composé après som grand Troisième Concerto pour piano, Les Cloches peuvent être considérées comme sa Troisième Symphonie (de la même façon que Das Lied von der Erde de Mahler pourrait être sa neuvième ...). Il se distingue des autres symphonies par l'utilisation d'un choeur et sde olistes vocaux, mais il est construit comme une symphonie (en fait, j'ai vu qu'il désignait comme une «symphonie chorale pour STB, choeurs et orchestre".

Je crois de bon aloi d'associer cette symphonie avec ce vieux succès de Gilles Girard et de ses Classels:



Rachmaninov dédie Les Cloches au chef néerlandais Willem Mengelberg. La performance d'aujourd;hui des cloches est du dernier concert public d'Evgeni Svetlanov au Barbican de Londres, le 19 Avril 2002 avec l'Orchestre symphonique de la BBC - il est mort un mois plus tard.

En lever de rideau, le grand succès de Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells (trad. lit. Cloches à tuyaux). Le titre preliminaire du projet était Opus One, mais un incident lors de l'enregistrement (Oldfield utilise un marteau de fer pour frapper les cloches plutot que le maillet de l'instrument avec le résultat inévitable) et le ton original choisi par l'annonceur a la fin du prenier acte inspirent Oldfield avec le titre final.

Oldfield y joue tous les instruments (avec une poignée de complices). Si la technologie de studio (numérique) a beaucoup évolué, il n'en reste pas moins que lle projet a pris plus d'un an à compléter, ajoutant couche par couche chaque trame instrumentale.

Bonne écoute!