DEBG Music Distributors

Fantasy on an Old Bell Inscription has within it many aspects of the history of the beginnings of the Klokken Ringers and the Campanola Ringers of the New Hackensack Reformed Church in Wappingers Fall, New York. The bells were donated by Walter S McCormick, Jr. in loving memory of his mother. This piece was written in honor of Walter S McCormick, Jr. who died of a massive heart attack while ringing bass bells with the Campanola Ringers during a performance of Materna in church one Sunday morning in the mid 1970s. The Bell Inscription on which this piece is based is of unknown origin. In the early 1970's this inscription was read at each concert given by the Klokken Ringers. "I call the Living, Mourn the Dead, ... I tell when Days and Years are fled, For Grief and Joy, For Prayer and Praise To Heaven my Tuneful Voice I raise".   Each phrase of the inscription is represented within the piece itself. The piece makes use of the church tower bell, orchestral chimes, and narration.