Handbells - MusicHandbells - MusicThe "Mighty Handful" were five especially gifted Russian composers in the nineteenth century.You probably know two of them: Modest Mussorgsky (Pictures at an Exhibition and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (The Flight of the Bumblebee). The others were Cesar Cui, Alexander Borodin, and Mila Balakirev - and while their music hasn't languished, it isn't exactly the stuff of dinner table conversation either.
Balakirev was the senior member of the group, and did quite a lot to mentor the other four. Alas, he was rather insistent on using his approach to composition, and eventually the others migrated away into other areas of expression, notably opera.
Balakirev's piano music is wonderful stuff, though generally pretty challenging, and perhaps his most durable legacy is his Islamey, regarded by quite a few knowledgable people as the most difficult playable piano solo in existence... and, yes, even when Liszt's Transcendental Etudes are included in the consideration. I think the experts probably are right, but that's purely subjective based on the observation that after eighteen months of pounding away, I can play Islamey rather sloppily at somewhat better than half speed. If you've messed around with the piano score, you probably know that this bit of self-deprecation actually represents a fairly significant achievement for most of us mortals. For your listening pleasure, I recommend Boris Berezovsky's recording of the work, which is not at all sloppy and which is played at pretty close to terminal velocity.
The thought crossed my mind: How about arranging Islamey for handbells (and chimes)? Truth be told, the handbell repertoire isn't exactly rife with bravura-style pieces - so maybe it's time we had some!
I had a lot of fun arranging this, and I'm pretty sure it's playable, but if you attempt it, you should notice the following:
You will need a full five octaves of bells and a full five octaves of chimes... 60 of the former and 38 of the latter, to be precise. I'm thinking that thirteen to sixteen ringers would be about right.
There are many repeated notes (it's a characteristic of the islamey, the dance for which the piece is named). They usually are screaming by at about 500-600 notes per minute, so you'll have to accomplish the repetitions by controlled backrings.
Bass chimes are played with their corresponding bass bells to reinforce the low end, especially in the slower middle section (chimes provide more fundamental pitch than bells, thereby intensifying the impression of "bass-ness"). This may necessitate some interesting bell/chime assignments.
The piece has zillions of chromatic sequences, including some pretty nasty accidentals (mostly double flats, with a sprinkling of double sharps, among all the more "normal" accidentals). These are taken directly from the urtext edition of the score, so you can thank Mr. Balakirev for writing in C-flat minor.
This is an arrangement is thirty-six (36) pages in length - so page turns will play a significant role in your rehearsal and performance (unless, of course, you memorize it...).
I have a feeling that this arrangement may well be one of the most difficult in the repertoire, so if your bell ensemble performs it successfully (correctly, clearly, cleanly, and with a performance time of 8:00 or less), send a recording attesting to the fact and you'll be listed here!
(No one yet...)