Derek Bell (musician)

Derek Bell, MBE (October 21, 1935 – October 17, 2002) was an Irish harpist and composer.

As classical composer

Bell was born George Derek Fleetwood Bell in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Because he had been misdiagnosed at an early age as having a disease that would lead to blindness, his parents gave him a musical upbringing. Bell was something of a child prodigy, composing his first concerto at the age of 12. He graduated from the Royal College of Music in 1957. While studying there, he became friends with flautist James Galway. Between 1958 and 1990 he composed several classical works, including three piano sonatas, two symphonies and Three Images of Ireland in Druid Times (in 1993) for harp, strings and timpani. Bell was a master of several instruments, including the oboe, cor anglais, harpsichord, cimbalom, and piano.

Bell as dulcimer player

The hammered dulcimer is well documented as having been played in Ireland in the eighteenth century and is even mentioned by James Joyce as an instrument he heard being played in the street. Derek Bell introduced a small cimbalom (a hammered dulcimer from Central and Eastern Europe), which he christened tiompan after the medieval Irish instrument. As manager of the Belfast Symphony Orchestra he was responsible for maintaining the instruments and keeping them in tune. Out of curiosity, Bell asked Sheila Larchet-Cuthbert to teach him how to play the harp. As time went on, he had many harp teachers. In 1965 he became an oboist and harpist with the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra.

The Chieftains

On St Patrick's Day in 1972 Bell gave a performance on radio of the music of Turlough O'Carolan, an 18th century blind Irish harpist. At that time Carolan's music was virtually unknown, though today almost every album of harp music contains one of his compositions. Working with Derek on the project were several members of The Chieftains. Bell became friends with the leader of the Chieftains, Paddy Moloney. For two precarious years he recorded both with the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra and with The Chieftains, until finally becoming a full-time member of the Chieftains in 1975.

Eccentricity

Bell was the only member of the band to wear a tie at every public performance. He wore a red jumper in almost every publicity photograph and at every concert. He favoured socks with novelty designs, such as images of Looney Tunes characters. He wore scruffy suits, often with trousers that were too short. He was eccentric and told obscene jokes. The title of his 1981 solo album Derek Bells Plays With Himself has a conscious double-entendre. While touring in Moscow he grabbed his alarm clock and put it in his pocket while rushing to catch a plane. He was then stopped by the Soviet police on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon. Paddy Moloney affectionately called him "Ding Dong" Bell. He relished the eclectic collaborations, such as those with Van Morrison, Sting and the Chinese Orchestra. In 1991 he recorded with his old friend James Galway. He was awarded an MBE in the 2000 Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to traditional music.

Hinduism

From the early 1960s Bell was a friend of Swami Kriyananda, also known as J. Donald Walters (Walters is also an avid composer of music for the Irish harp). Bell and some associates visited Kriyananda at his spiritual centre in Ananda village in Nevada City, California. Bell wrote a preface to an edition of Kriyananda's book Art As a Hidden Message. He writes, "After reading it, I decided to get in touch with him... I also visited Ananda several times, the beautiful village Kriyananda himself founded in 1968... I offered to record some of Kriyananda's music". This explains why Bell's final album, Mystic Harp vol II, is so very different from everything else he recorded. It was poorly received by both folk and classical music devotees. It is a collection of compositions by Kriyananda/Walters in a very meandering, new age style, for solo harp. In August 2002, only weeks before his death, Bell visited Kriyananda.

Death

Bell died of cardiac arrest in Phoenix, Arizona on October 17, 2002. He is remembered as Cambridge House Grammar School, Ballymena, as House Patron of Bell House.

Discography (not including his work with The Chieftains)

• Carolan's Receipt (1975)
• Carolan's Favourite (1980)
• Plays With himself (1981)
• Musical Ireland (1982)
• Ancient Music For The Irish Harp (1989)
• Mystic Harp (1996)
• A Celtic Evening with Derek Bell (1997)
• Mystic Harp vol II (1999)