Bells of Beyond

Bells of Beyond is a piano trio, composed in 2013 by Graham Waterhouse.

Bells of Beyond
Piano trio by Graham Waterhouse
The composer in 2011
Year	2013 (2013)
Period	contemporary
Scoring	piano violin cello
www.arbc.de/Waterhouse/bellsofbeyond.htm

The work was composed in 2013. It is dedicated to the memory of the Welsh pianist and composer Dafydd Llywelyn who was a teacher of the composer and died in the spring of 2013 in Munich. [1]

The composition was inspired by bells. It is in three sections: slow – fast – slow. It opens with chords in the piano reminiscent of bells, a motif repeated throughout the piece. The first part is dominated by a chaconne on a theme of eight measures. The middle section is a virtuoso "argument" between the piano and the strings. The third section is introduced by a recalling the initial bells. It features a series of parallel chords, and ends with the bells.[1]

The trio was first performed at the Gasteig in Munich on 27 October 2013, played by the violinist Yury Revich, the pianist Valentina Babor, and the composer.[2] The work was played at the festival Beethovenfest in Bonn on 2 October 2016, along with Beethoven's Piano Trio, Op. 1/3 in C minor and Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 2 in the same key,[3] music by three composers who venerate Shakespeare.[4]

Bells of Beyond is part of a CD Skylla und Charybdis of the composer's works for piano and strings. It was released in 2020 by Farao Classics, and introduced by a concert at the Munich Gasteig on 6 March 2021.[5][6] A reviewer of Das Orchester noted that the work is derived from bell-like piano sounds, developing to soft and quiet pulses of the strings, and arriving in different music situations "verschiedene musikalische Situationen".[7]