Like a Bell
Commissioned by Kate Parker to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the King's Lynn Festival
James McConnel - Composer
James has composed a wide variety of music for over a hundred Theatre, TV & Film productions, ranging from Channel 4’s Emmy Award-winning Ten Days To D-Day to a West End stage show for Dame Edna Everage. His choral Cantata Olaf Schmid - written with the late Kit Hesketh-Harvey - was premiered in 2024. James also wrote and presented the Channel 4 documentaries Addict’s Orchestra and What Made Mozart Tic? He lives in Norfolk.
“I’ve always loved the sound of bells; both musically and for what they represent. Commissioned to write this piece to celebrate seventy-five years of the festival, I immediately thought of the chiming of a clock tower bell to represent the passing of time, the movement of history, of people passing through. ‘Like A Bell’ is in three distinct sections.
Part one: We hear the clock tower bell. We are in an empty performance space. All around is the evidence of past performances, of people. An audience gradually fills the space.
Part two is the performance itself. Fast, energetic, incorporating rhythmic clapping.
Part three is an anthem, the aftermath of the performance, a celebration of performance itself. The bells return. Celebrating not just the festival. But art. And life.”
Rachel Goodman - Libretto
Rachel is a poet living in North Norfolk. Formerly an actor and BBC Radio presenter, she is now widely published in poetry journals, and has won or been placed in several competitions, both here and abroad. She has an MA in Poetry from UEA and is currently the 2026 Etchells Fellow at Durham University. Her first book, Knee to Knee, a collaboration with poet Elvire Roberts, was published in 2024 by Dialect Press.
“Anyone who has been in the audience for a piece of music or theatre will recognise the thrill that continues to reverberate long after the performance is over. Like a bell. There is the initial clang that grabs your attention, sets the senses tingling, and then there is the memory, the echoing ring that continues for a while longer – and if the performance has done its work – is delicious.
‘Like a Bell’ celebrates that feeling, the brief moment of vibrant intoxication, and the ongoing ripple. It celebrates the performance, the audience, the event and the spaces that hold them.”