Derek Bell (musician)
Derek Bell | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | George Derek Fleetwood Bell |
| Born | 21 October 1935 Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Died | 17 October 2002 (aged 66) Phoenix, Arizona |
| Genres | Celtic music, rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter |
| Instrument(s) | Harp, piano, oboe, synthesizer |
| Years active | 1947–2002 |
George Derek Fleetwood Bell,
As classical composer and virtuoso
Bell was born in
As manager of the Belfast Symphony Orchestra, Bell was responsible for maintaining the instruments and keeping them in tune. Out of curiosity, he asked Sheila Larchet-Cuthbert to teach him how to play the harp. Over time he had many other harp teachers including Gwendolen Mason.[3] In 1965 he became an oboist and harpist with the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra.[4] He had been known to be able to skilfully play the pedal harp, neo-Celtic harp, and wire-strung Irish-Bardic harp. Bell served as a professor of harp at the Academy of Music in Belfast.[5]
Bell was briefly featured in a 1986 BBC documentary, The Celts, in which he discussed the role and evolution of the harp in Celtic Irish and Welsh society. Derek Bell also appeared with Van Morrison at the Riverside Theatre at the University of Ulster in April 1988. An hour-long BBC special was broadcast in which Derek Bell talks extensively as well as accompanying Morrison on several songs including "On Raglan Road". The video is available on YouTube in full "VAN MORRISON - In Conversation and Music 1988". Apart from this, video of him only exists in minor interviews and performances with The Chieftains.
As dulcimer player
The hammered dulcimer is documented as having been played in Ireland in the 18th century and is mentioned by James Joyce as an instrument he heard being played in the street. Bell introduced a small cimbalom (a hammered dulcimer from central and eastern Europe), which he called tiompan after the medieval Irish instrument.
Bell was an admirer of the music of Nikolai Karlovich Medtner and was the co-founder, with the bass-baritone Hugh Sheehan, of the first British Medtner Society which gave a series of successful concerts of Medtner's music in the 1970s long before Medtner's music was recognised as it is today.
The Chieftains
On
Eccentricity
Bell was the only member of the band to wear a
Eastern religions
From the early 1960s, Bell was a friend of
Death
Bell died of cardiac arrest in Phoenix, Arizona on 17 October 2002, just four days shy of his 67th birthday.[4] He is remembered at Cambridge House Grammar School, Ballymena, as House Patron of Bell House.
Solo discography
- Carolan's Receipt (1975)
- Carolan's Favourite (1980)
- Derek Bell Plays With Himself (1981)
- Musical Ireland (1982)
- From Sinding To Swing (1983)
- Ancient Music for the Irish Harp (1989)
- Mystic Harp (1996)
- A Celtic Evening with Derek Bell (1997)
- Mystic Harp (Volume II) (1999)
References
- ^ Hickey, Thom (15 March 2016). "Derek Bell (The Chieftains) and Samuel Beckett – As good as it gets!". Theimmortaljukebox.com. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
- ^ "The Bell Tolls too soon for Derek. A tribute to Derek Bell (1935-2002) of The Chieftains, by Jennifer Paull". Mvdaily.com. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
- ^ Obituary, The Times, 21 October, 2002
- ^ ISBN 978-0-9724202-0-4.
- ^ "Derek Bell". Music & Vision. 19 October 2002. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-306-80922-4.
External links
- Derek Bell at IMDb
- Free scores by Derek Bell at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- Biography from the Amoris International publishing house
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