Music Video – ONEIRA – I Care if You Listen
Official music video for “Oneira” Here is a link to the article and the exclusive premiere of the video: https://icareifyoulisten.com/…/video-premiere-clocks…/
Thank you, I Care if You Listen, for helping us share this video with the world! This science fiction short showcases the very special collaboration I had with the brilliant animator Christine Banna.
From Christine: “The concept for “Oneira” originated as a direct response to the music. I took in Jen’s composition and studied it before I started the process of conceptualizing the animation. I let my response to the music develop organically. From the start, the percussion felt like it had a crystalline sound, so I knew crystals would be an essential aspect of the narrative and visuals…From there, I started to develop a character who was thrown on a journey to mirror the flow and change in the composition itself. Science fiction felt like a genre that would give me a lot of freedom aesthetically and narratively, and with those initial seeds, I began to explore, research, and plan.”
Album ONEIRA drops today!
My new album with Clocks in Motion Percussion drops today! ONEIRA is now available for streaming and the links provided take you to Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube, etc.
“It turns out that Ms. Bellor came through with music that is not rote-ly repetitively Minimalist or New in an expected sense. Rather you might experience this music as I did, as a kind of New Classical Ethnic-Folk hybrid of pentatonic and diatonic musics of infectious rhythm and brightly chiming and syncopating excitement, like perhaps in essence Balinese Gamelan, only wholly original and local to the US like the legacy of percussion group music classics from here, only evolved and inventive in its own ways. Each work unfolds in nicely built structures of expression, in ways that those who love melodic percussion groups will doubtless find as charming and continually invigorating as I did. Happily recommended!” – Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review
This new album features all of the music I wrote for Clocks over the last four years as their resident Clock Shop composer. It was a very special collaboration and I’m thrilled to be able to share this album with everyone!
Click HERE for links to Bandcamp, Apple Music, YouTube, Amazon Music, etc.
Coming up:
The album release concert will be in Chicago on August 28th at Constellation. Livestream tickets are also available. For more information, click HERE.
Stay tuned for more news about the music animation video that will be released very soon!
ONEIRA – Album will be released August 19th!
Coming soon: Oneira by Clocks in Motion
Oneira (2022) will be released on August 19, 2022 by Aerocade Music featuring all of the percussion quartet music I composed for Clocks in Motion percussion over the last four years as their resident Clock Shop composer.
Oneira is a variation of the word “oneiric” meaning dreams or dreaming.
From the label, Aerocade Music:
“Our 2022 release is Oneira by Clocks in Motion. We know you’ll love this album of percussion quartets written by Jennifer Bellor.
We think Oneira sounds like it could be a collaboration between Dave Brubeck, Enya, and Steve Reich. If they were in an alternate universe… inside a video game… on a different planet? ???
What it really says is that Jennifer Bellor’s music is too big for one square genre! We’d love to hear your thoughts on the album when it comes out!!”
TRACKS
- Of Maker and Movement, I. Pendulum Surround
- Of Maker and Movement, II. Quartz Revolution
- Of Maker and Movement, III. Dance of Hands
- Oneira
- This We Have Now
Oneira track featured on Classical Discoveries
Check out Marvin Rosen’s show Classical Discoveries aired on July 13, 2002. My composition Oneira is featured in the program at 1:31:44. It was written for and recorded by Clocks in Motion percussion ensemble. The album, also titled “Oneira,” will be released by Aerocade Music on August 19, 2022. This track will also be paired with an animation produced by Christine Banna and will be released early August (date TBD).
New music – spring 2022 – chamber music and orchestra
Looking for some new music? Here is a list of new compositions I completed for spring 2022 deadlines:
Light, Awaken (2022) for alto saxophone, flute, violin, piano, and vibraphone/suspended cymbal
Oneira (2022) for percussion quartet (MalletKAT, vibraphone, 2 marimbas)
Reviravoltas Sonoras (2022) for violin, vibraphone, and double bass
Ballad of a Wanderer (2022) for orchestra
898 Hildegard (2022) for orchestra
Ballad of a Wanderer (2022) for horn choir
New music! Reviravoltas Sonoras for violin, vibraphone, and double bass
Reviravoltas Sonoras was commissioned by bassist Molly Redfield and premiered May 5, 2022 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with Lucas Martins (violin) and Grabriela Ordoñez-Villalobos (vibraphone). The trio came up with the title of the piece after their first rehearsal. A note from the violinist: “The title is from Portuguese and aptly describes the playful soundscape full of twists and turns, creating the juxtapositon of percussive sounds and soaring melodies. The etymological root of the word “Reviravolta” comes from the junction of “revira” and “volta,” which both express some sort of turning, twisting, or dancing. “Sonora” is an adjective that can be translated to express resonance, reverberance, or singing.” – Lucas H.T. Martins (violin)
Recording will be available fall 2020.
Click HERE for more information about the piece.
898 Hildegard – Performance by University of Rochester Symphony Orchestra
The University of Rochester Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of conductor Rachel Waddell, performed the orchestral version of my composition 898 Hildegard Thursday, April 21st in Strong Auditorium. Originally written for SATB choir and orchestra, this version features fragments of Hildegard’s chants performed by various members of the symphony orchestra. The performance was also paired with beautiful imagery of the asteroid 898 Hildegard.
For more information about the piece, click HERE
Light, Awaken – video of premiere
Light Awaken was premiered at the UNLV Nextet new music series concert on March 23, 2
Light Awaken was premiered at the UNLV Nextet new music series concert on March 23, 2022 featuring Shawna Pennock (alto sax), Lauren Zwonik-Stutz (flute), Weiwei Le (violin), Jennifer Bellor (piano), and Gabriela Ordoñez Villalobos (percussion). The premiere also featured a robotic arm playing mini cymbals.
While composing Light Awaken, I was inspired by the motion and sound the robotic arm makes. I imagined a beautiful, melodic composition that includes the sweeping motion and sound of the robotic arm paired with saxophone multiphonics, flute wind tones, and violin harmonics. Phil Joy built the robotic arm that inspired this composition, and we call it, “Theo.”
New music alert! Light Awaken – premiere with robotic arm
My new composition LIGHT AWAKEN for alto sax, flute, violin, piano, percussion and robotic arm was premiered on March 23rd at the UNLV Nextet concert.
Shawna Pennock (alto sax); Lauren Zwonik-Stutz (flute); Weiwei Le (violin); Jennifer Bellor (piano); Gabriela Ordoñez-Villalobos (vibraphone/suspended cymbal); “Theo” the robotic arm (cymbals); Phil Joy (mechatronics engineer); Tim Warren (conductor)
While composing Light Awaken, I was inspired by the motion and sound the robotic arm
makes. I imagined a beautiful, melodic composition that includes the sweeping motion and sound of the robotic arm paired with saxophone multiphonics, flute wind tones, and violin harmonics. Phil Joy built the robotic arm that inspired this entire composition, and we call it, “Theo.”
The piece was written to include a robotic arm(s) on stage to perform alongside the live performers. However, the piece can still be performed without a robotic arm.