The New York Times // Bells

To commence the [Lincoln Center Tully Scope] festival Mr. Davis wrote a contemplative piece scored for winds and percussion, especially bells and chimes, but also for audience members with cellphones. The ICE musicians played from various positions in the lobby, including the high platform that juts out from the balcony upstairs. All members of the audience (and the place was packed) were given instructions at the door to dial a number on their cellphones and enter different codes to call up different sounds. The written-out parts of the piece provided a calming aural backdrop of chimes, slowly rising melodic lines in flutes and clarinets, penetrating low rumbles on the gongs, metallic flickers on small cymbals. From the collective cellphones came a wash of vibrating tones, Morse-code-like ticks, intoned spoken numbers, patches of crackling static, cosmic shimmers and more. For an extended passage all the instruments dropped out and only cellphones were heard, including those wielded by the musicians, who wandered about the space... all a part of an alluring and pensive musical experience.
— Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
ReviewsBeth BeauchampBells