Unrung by Steven Snowden

for 3 desk bells, 3 bell plates

Performance with XTRO percussion
Percussionists from left to right:

Gabriele Segantini
Antonio Bove
Miguel Varela

Video recording: Vasilina Yfanti

"I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of writing music for percussion in which the instrumentation is extremely limited. Not only does it make for a more portable/practical piece for the players, but it also forces me to explore every sonic possibility of the given instrument(s). In this case, I wanted to take a very familiar object (the desk bell) and construct a piece around the idea of sonic discovery. I imagined myself as someone who had never seen this object before, but knew that it was designed to produce sound in some manner. Is it meant to be scraped? struck? thrown against the wall?
Additionally, I wanted to use the desk bell as a metaphor for the moment of apprehension just before making a decision that can’t be taken back. Ringing that bell is a declaration that you need help from someone you don’t personally know and a form of publicly admitting some degree of personal limitation or vulnerability. Despite its small scale, this decision can still stir up a tiny bit of anxiety for some largely due to the fact that it can’t be taken back. In short, that bell can’t be unrung."
Steven Snowden

In Bloom Series
Live in Korzo Theater