Carillon at Met | Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra

How Music Tells Stories

Improvisation on “100 Years at the Met” Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra

Melody for Kinyaa’áanii No. 1 Connor Chee, b. 1987

(Towering House, one of Chee’s ancestral Diné/Navajo clans)

Fugue in D minor, BWV 539 Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685-1750

arr. P. Ruiter-Feenstra

From Global Rings & Global Rings Improv

-Twelve-bar Blues Improvisation designed by Cedric McCoy

-Bulgarian Choir Courtney Greifenberger

-Veni Creator Spiritus Improvisation inspired by Messiaen

-Veni Creator Spiritus arr. Michael Katopodes

-Bells, from Sacred World: Onenh:sa Dawn Avery, b. 1961

From Healing Bells

-Agencia creciente Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, with Ana Ávila

-Metro asfixia Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, with Ana Ávila

Canciones Catalanas arr. Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra

-El Mestre

-La Nit de Nadal (El Desembre Congelat)

-La Filla del Marxant

-El Noi de la Mare

-El Testament d’Amelia

Carillon Georg Friedrich Handel, 1685-1759

arr. John R. Knox

NOTES

In celebration of the 100 th anniversary of the Met, this program demonstrates various ways that music can tell stories of joy, grief, exploration, commemoration, and healing. The opening improvisation heralds “100 Years at the Met” by coding that phrase in the music alphabet. The resulting tune naturally fits into four phrases. Phrase one–a stately, welcoming trumpet call–roots the tune on the Turtle Island of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Phrase two heightens and expands that call, affirming all. Phrase three–like life–wanders into unexpected territory, here–supported by the warmth of community. Phrase four reaffirms the Met’s stable foundation and commitment to inclusivity.

Connor Chee is a pianist and composer of Navajo (Diné) heritage. Chee composes works that connect with his Indigenous ancestry, including melodies that his grandfather would sing and wisdom that his grandmother spoke to him. In this melody, Chee connects the name of one of his ancestral clans–Kinyaa’áanii, which means towering house–to the carillon tower and bells. The sounds of organs and bells were sounds of trauma to many Indigenous people who as children (including Connor’s father) were subjected to the horrific deculturalization, dehumanization, and abuse in residential schools, often run by the Church. When I asked Connor how he felt about composing for the organ and carillon, he paused reflectively, and then said, “I think it’s time that we reclaim that sonic space to bring goodness and healing.” 

In addition to the Met centennial, in 2025, we celebrate the 340th birthdays of Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Frideric Handel. Bach first composed this poignant lament-filled fugue for solo violin, and later arranged it for organ. I am reading from the organ score and reducing the parts to make an arrangement for carillon.

At the University of Michigan, I mentored carillon students how to compose, arrange, and improvise music based on tunes and stories from around the world. In the Global Rings and Global Rings Improv set, the listener will hear a jazzy blues improvisation, a striking rhythmic imitation of close harmonies often sung by Bulgarian Choirs, two settings of the Gregorian Pentecost chant, “Veni Creator Spiritus.” 

The final piece entitled “Bells” is composed by composer Dawn Avery, who is of Mohawk heritage. This piece is one of 13 pieces in a collection that explores sacred traditions from around the world. As the Artistic Director of Healing Bells, I co-create music with storytellers whose stories have been silenced or censored. Telling difficult stories is an important step in prompting change for the common good, and is an essential step in healing and empowerment. 

In Agencia creciente, Mexican journalist Ana Ávila compares domestic violence to the unmooring rumbling of Mexico City earthquakes, and tells how she developed agency to leave a difficult situation to find peace. In Metro asfixia, the listener will hear sounds of the moving metro cars in Mexico City, followed by an organum-style chant of women standing up to men who routinely harassed women on the subway. The Canciones Catalanas are a gift to the people within the Catalan regions, who have had a constant struggle to be recognized and supported and to speak their own language. Handel explores a vibrant treatment of scales in perpetual motion in his composition entitled Carillon–a festive conclusion to the program, celebrating the Met’s carillon.

PERFORMER’S BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra is a GRAMMY-nominated international performer and improviser, award-winning composer, innovative researcher, prolific author, and transformative pedagogue. As Artistic Director of Healing Bells, she co-creates music, theatre, and dance events with survivors to tell their stories, break silencing, and open a healing pathway. She recently launched a Compose for Change: Healing Arts course at the University of Michigan, in which students learned to use their artistic voices to address social issues of our time. The Healing Bells team developed methods to transform trauma into healing empowerment through arts engagement. Recently, they performed a music, theatre, and dance production, “Ni une más” (Not one more) to stand up against sexual violence. Survivors chose to appear on stage to participate in telling their stories through the arts, and to claim their agency. Participants have called the Healing Bells collaboration “cathartic, life- changing, and healing.” Healing Bells has a dynamic international team that celebrates world cultures; fosters diversity, equity, and inclusion; and works as arts activists to address global issues including domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence; and forced migration. See https://healingbellsglobal.com.

Ruiter-Feenstra has composed more than 200 works, and mentors students to learn to compose, arrange, and improvise, most recently for the Global Rings and Global Rings Improv collections for carillon. She is the author of the acclaimed two-volume series, Bach and the Art of Improvisation. See https://pamelaruiterfeenstra.com. Ruiter-Feenstra recorded six CDs and numerous videos and audio recordings on the carillon, organ, piano, and harpsichord. See https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMoNdZolBPR0TcaxyWIL7WA. A nature lover, Ruiter-Feenstra enjoys hiking, biking, swimming, yoga, travel, and cherishes time with her two young adult children.

Heartfelt thanks to Dr. Elisa Tersigni for inviting me to experience the Met–which is my virtual church home–in person.