The ringing of bells has meant many things to people for centuries: the call to worship, a marking of time, an alarm for danger, the joy of marriage, the sorrow of death. Jill Jarman’s new piece for internationally renowned percussionist Evelyn Glennie with viols and voices mixes the sounds of old and new, life and death, celebration and mourning, and examines the call of bells pealing across centuries of human experience.

Whether your music is old or new, whether your instruments are of the most modern invention or of the oldest design, music, song, rhythm, and melody have been a part of human expression since the world began. Making music is, and always has been, part of what it is to be alive! The Language of Bells frames a concert programme that explores the connections between old and new music, with the bell as the starting point of the journey.