Duration: 4′
- Fanfare, trumpet, horn
- Brass Wind Publications
- Commissioned by Fibonacci Sequence
- First performance 11 September 2000 – Paul Archibald (tpt) | Stephen Stirling (hn) – Minterne Summer Festival
The clangourous sound of a peal of bells always fills me with a sense of great joy. The skill of bell-ringing seems to require such a fine balance between physical strength and perfect timing and yet when the sounds do collide with each other these imperfections seem just as endearing.
I wrote Bells in the Air, a fanfare for trumpet and horn duo, thinking of that characteristically uneven fall of sound and how each pitch can set rich overtones a-jangling.
The musical direction bells in the air or bells up is an exhortation to the brass player to bring the sound forward by raising the bell of the instrument. But in this fanfare there is also a suggestion that bells of a different kind may be heard, peals of bells, both near and far.
The UK premiere performance was given by Paul Archibald and Stephen Stirling on 11 September, 1999 at the Summer Music Society of Dorset, Minterne.
Link to score: https://www.brasswindpublications.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000007.pl