Program Notes

Commissioned by percussionist David Samuels and Brooklyn College, "Again the Distant Bells" was premiered on May 5, 1992 in Brooklyn, NY with the Brooklyn College Percussion Ensemble and Dave Samuels soloist under the direction of Morris Lang. In brief, the piece explores color and timbre through mostly glass and metal percussion instruments, highlighting the solo instruments of the vibraphone and marimba. There is a "home chord" heard at the opening which serves as a jumping-off point for development. As with other works of this time, McKinley wrote a non-narrative poem simultaneously with the music, weaving its way through the piece with different affections, moods, and colors lensed through pillars of imaginary bellscapes. The work is a transition piece, straddling the composer's earlier, highly charged, intense, "American moderinst" style and with what would emerge as a new, simpler, "romantic" approach by the mid-1980s. The work also features a small section allowing for improvisation by the soloist with a series of chord changes marked out, written specifically with Mr. Samuels in mind (who was also a prolific jazz player and having performed in the jazz-fusion band Spyro Gyra in the 1980s).