Partita No. 2
November 11, 2010, Paul Cienniwa, The Music of First Church Boston.
May 19, 2011, Brown Hall at New England Conservatory, Paul Cienniwa
My second partita was written in the spring of 2010. The work is dedicated to Paul Cienniwa, who gave its premiere performance November 11, 2010, at First Church in Boston. In this work I wanted to try types of figuration and explore a level of counterpoint different from my Partita No. 1, also premiered by Paul Cienniwa.
The order of movements is as follows: Overture and Fugue, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Minuets 1 & 2, and Gigue. The dramatic pacing and general design of the music owes much to the keyboard partitas of Bach, while the harmonic language is much closer to popular song of the late twentieth century.
[performance] “Bell’s Partita, six dances in all, is characterized by contrast and harmonic sense. Color pervades all, both in terms of registration and judicious use of chords. Bell has a tendency to go to the upper regions of the keyboard at the ends of several movements. Particularly beautiful was the dotted rhythms of the Allemande and the two minuets, the one humorous and the other languorous.” –Larry Phillips, The Boston Musical Intelligencer
More Solo Instruments Works
Prelude and Fugue in a minor for organ solo, Opus 195 1
Prelude and Fugue in F major for organ solo, Opus 188 2
Prelude and Fugue in C major for organ solo, Opus 187 3
Prelude and Fugue in F major for organ solo, Opus 186 4
Prelude and Fugue in b minor for organ solo, Opus 185 5
Prelude and Fugue in A major for organ solo, Opus 184 6
Prelude and Fugue in Eb major for organ solo, Opus 182 7
Prelude and Fugue in E major for organ solo, Opus 180 8
Prelude and Fugue in c minor for organ solo, Opus 178 9
Prelude and Fugue in D major for organ solo , Opus 177 10
Chorale Fantasy and Fugue in e minor for organ solo, Opus 175 11
Prelude and Fugue in F Minor for Organ, Opus 148 12
Trois Préludes non Mesurés avec Fugues, Opus 118 14