The MoonChild Mass is a large work I composed, and with the help of a bunch of very talented people performed while at Ramona High School in Riverside California.
In this section are several pieces of music from a larger work titled "MoonChild Mass", which is very special to me. It is a large work I composed my junior/senior year of high school and was performed at Ramona High School, Riverside California on April 1st, 1977. The logo at the above and to the left was designed by Ed Fuentes
This page is for the wonderful people who lifted my music off the page and made it art. Looking back, we accomplished something incredible. That about 100 students, without any significant assistance from the faculty, organized, produced, and performed such a large and unusual show.
Note that while the school faculty and our parents were very supportive, this was something that we students did ourselves.
You will notice that the quality of these recording is relatively poor. So for those of you under, lets say 25 years old, you have to remember that back then, 1977, we did not have the high quality audio equipment available today. Back then we had to work with wood-burning tape recorders and microphones made from dixie cups - and that was state of the art! Instead of cables to connect the recording equipment, we had to use jungle vines, and we had to make all of the instruments by hand. You kids have it so easy today with your ipods and, well anything electric!
Some of the performers include; Janet Otteson, Paul Chatfield, Linda Swinnerton Noble Brown, Lori Pendergraft, Jeremy Anderson, Tonya Schuster (piano), David Poole (conductor), John Flaherty, Roslynn Pryor, Julie Otteson (Flute), and William Bellamy. For those of you I, regretfully, have left out, please email me at William[at]WilliamBellamy[dot]com and I will be sure to include you!
Please note, this page is a work in progress. Rather than wait until I have it all prepared, I will be updating this page over the coming months with more excerpts of our performance, pictures, and more. And if anyone want to contribute pictures or comments, just email them to me at William[at]WilliamBellamy[dot]com.
This is an experimental piece, specifically graphic notation. Rather than it being scored on paper, or extemporaneous, the instructions to the performer are to use a drawing provided in the score to suggest the mood of the music to be played. The picture is divided into four sections, each of a given duration during which that section is to suggest the mood to be played.
This piece was about the wide range of emotions, the tensions felt when living your convictions is about to become uncomfortable, inconvenient, and may even cost more than you could ever have imagined.
But convictions have to be seen all the way through - otherwise they were only simple ideas that never really had substance.
