About this Piece

“The idea for this unique endeavor was born during the early moments of the pandemic, and the work consists of five distinct pieces, each written by composers I greatly admire,” Joshua Bell says of his recent project, The Elements. Inspired by Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and Holst’s The Planets, Bell sought to commission an epic suite for violin and orchestra that would not only shift the focus across the four elements but would shift the perspective, too, by enlisting a few of today’s most alluring, ambitious, and in-demand musical voices. Excited and overwhelmed by the list of composers he hoped to recruit, Bell added a fifth element: space. Once Kevin Puts (Earth), Edgar Meyer (Water), Jake Heggie (Fire), Jennifer Higdon (Air), and Jessie Montgomery (Space) were on board, the world-building began.

With soloist Bell’s tone in mind, the five composers were tasked with ascribing music to the universe. After careful deliberation—whether to compose a wave crashing or a water particle flowing?—and much collaboration—how to replicate the delicate balance of the elements?—the five composers united their pieces, with Puts’ Earth and Earth Reprise bookending the cosmic journey. The final result is galactic. Bell promises a microcosm and delivers a whole world instead. —Tess Carges 

Earth and Earth (Reprise and Finale) are my contributions to The Elements project. The piece begins on solid ground, with a repeating four-note ostinato over which the solo violin and the orchestral violins trade lyrical phrases. This opening idea was drawn from my Violin Concerto (2006) but takes a different journey here, eventually “taking flight” for a brief period. The Reprise and Finale flows seamlessly from the end of Jessie Montgomery’s Space, resuming the development of ideas begun at the suite’s opening and reaching grander heights here. Beyond the fundamental sense of stability and endurance the element earth suggested to me, I hope the music also conveys a more spiritual reverence for the planet Earth itself and, in some minute way, might inspire its protection. —Kevin Puts

Water. This movement deals with both a gentler side of water and a more forceful side. Music early in the movement is nonspecific and maybe evocative of a gentle rain. The music later in the movement comes from a specific vision. I thought of being a particle of water in a high South American waterfall, hurled in seconds down into the swirling silt and sludge at the bottom, and onward from there. I’m not sure if it’s what I would see if I heard this music for the first time, but it certainly is what I saw when I wrote it. —Edgar Meyer

My score for Fire begins with a spark. Something possibly beautiful and essential emerges, fascinating and elusive. We cannot hold fire, but it can consume us. It is essential for life but can also be the cause of immense destruction. And then, miraculously, for rebirth. We need it. We fear it. We try to tame and contain it, but it can quickly run out of control. I wanted to explore both physical and metaphysical fire: the passion, the flame that is essential to our spirits—to all spirituality. Where will that initial spark lead? We may never know. And that is part of a beautiful, inexplicable chaos. —Jake Heggie

Air, an element that is everywhere. It feeds our bodies (in our first breath as we enter the world) and the plants and the oceans; we feel it with every change of season. It is also the sigh that we make when listening to the beautiful tone of Joshua Bell. Knowing that this movement would likely be in the middle of all these other dramatic elements with high energy and swirling notes, this moment is a calm spot, a space for breathing and quiet reflection. —Jennifer Higdon

Space. I am so excited to present this new work for Joshua Bell as part of his Elements project. I was tasked with musically conveying the fifth element, space: one which encompasses all of the elements, all of the planets, and all the matter of the universe.

It’s no small feat to try to encapsulate such immense kinetic energy by portraying all of these elements together. In my composition, the solo violin takes on a melodic journey, pulling the listener both inward, into their own imagination of the universe, and outward, into the very depths of outer space. There are some subtle references to the other elements throughout the piece, particularly in its motivic language and its feeling, while being expansive in its transformative nature.

I’m grateful to be included in this exciting project with the other composers—gifted creators that I’ve admired throughout my career. Special gratitude is reserved for Joshua Bell, with my deep appreciation for premiering this work, and for inspiring this incredible journey. —Jessie Montgomery