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| Cameron Wilson |
The Sea and the Bells is a work I wrote in the winter and spring of 2003-04. It was commissioned by the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra and premiered in February 2004 with the orchestra and soprano Rosalind Beale Dala. It is dedicated to the memory of my friend and colleague Wallace Leung who tragically passed away in early 2002. The piece is based on poems by Pablo Neruda and is scored for soprano soloist and orchestra.
Neruda was Wallace’s favourite poet and these poems are among the last Neruda ever wrote. They deal with his longing to retreat from life’s noisy busyness and include the final love song to his wife. They are deeply personal poems, expansive and universal.
To accompany these majestic words I wrote music in the style of the various genres that Wallace loved; everything from spaghetti westerns to musical theatre.
This is only the second ever performance of this work It is an honor for me to have the VPO perform it again many years later with Evelyn Thatcher, Wallace’s fiancé at the time of his passing, singing the soprano solo.
Cameron Wilson
There is something about Vancouver, which some people consider to be a cultural backwater, that features a group like the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra (started in the 60s) and the Turning Point Ensemble now celebrating its 20th anniversary.
My introduction to the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra began a little before Wilson’s The Sea and the Bells. Somehow I met up with the orchestra’s Spanish conductor Juan Castelao who had taken the direction of the orchestra after Wallace Leung’s death.
Castelao had unusual ideas. One of them involved having the orchestra play the first symphonies of well-known composers. In my memory was Bruckner’s first. In a recent communication with Castelao, who now lives in Valencia and is a musicologist, he wrote that it was Bruckner’s Zero Symphony!
In that premiere (which I attended) of Wilson’s composition the soprano, Rosalind Beal Dala I now know is Leslie Dala’s wife.
Dala and Wilson have something in common. I believe that
when they arrive home (not usual as they have busy schedules) their family
forgets who they are and what they look like! They are peripatetic (look it up).
For me the idea that Leung would consider Pablo Neruda his favourite poet makes me smile as Neruda was an avowed communist just like Cuban Nicolás Guillén.
Chilean's know this: Pablo Neruda's original name was Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (Parral 12 July 1904 - 23 September 1973) It is now believed that he was poisoned to death by the authorities. Here is the introduction to Pablo Neruda’s book The Sea and the Bells
Inicial
Hora por hora no es el día,
es dolor por dolor:
el tiempo no se arruga,
no se gasta:
mar, dice el mar,
sin tregua,
tierra, dice la tierra:
el hombre espera.
Y solo
su campana
allí está entre las otras
guardando en su vacío
un silencio implacable
que se repartirá cuando levante
su lengua de metal ola tras ola.
De tantas cosas que tuve,
andando de rodillas por el mundo,
aquí, desnudo,
no tengo más que el duro mediodía
del mar, y una campana.
Me dan ellos su voz para sufrir
y su advertencia para detenerme.
Esto sucede para todo el mundo:
continúa el espacio.
Y vive el mar.
Existen las campanas.
