Dorian Kristmanson is a student at Campbell Collegiate. She is an intermediate tower bell apprentice and plays piano and saxophone. Dorian has been studying the music of Larry Peterson for three years. Carol Benesh is a mother of two and a computer analyst. She is an intermediate tower bell apprentice and collaborates with Wayne Tunison. Wayne Tunison has been a bell ringer for more than three decades. As a patriotic promoter of the Regina Arts scene, he enjoys discovering the creative gems which this prairie city often produces. Special thanks to: ISM Wascana Centre Authority Knox-Metropolitan United Church Regina Arts Commission Anniversaries Secretariat of Saskatchewan Website: http://www.reg.trlabs.ca/bells/index.htm For Tower Bell Tours or Apprenticeship Information Contact the Knox-Metropolitan at 525-9128
An Artist’s Statement Re: Larry Peterson Larry Peterson is one of those cultural jewels of our city if not of our nation. I first met Larry in the 1960’s when he could be described as Bob Dylan’s ‘Napoleon in Rags’ with the stature of a revolutionary statesman and the persona of a street bum. Larry would amuse his colleagues with eloquent poetry describing the dark side of humanity. Larry would weave in and out of my life for many years interjecting tales of adventure and sharing intellectual discoveries of artists with so much soul that their works reeked of spirituality. I assume I was lucky enough to have repeated exposures to Larry because of our mutual dedication to the Darke Memorial Chimes. While I stayed in Regina attempting to build a life around the Bell Tower, Larry traveled the globe seeking inspiration from such varied environments as the former Soviet Union, the international bustle and separatist zeal of Montreal and the wilderness seclusion of a northern Indian reserve. As a performer, I am entering the twilight of my career since the demands of bell ringing are now exceeding what my body can physically produce. Similarly, Larry seems to have left the physical challenges of revolution and adventure to begin documenting and expressing what a full life can be. I believe there has never been a composer in history to write so much music for clocked English Bells. As I was preparing for this concert I had to make several decisions that would allow me to survey Larry’s life work and still present a concert that I could physically play and that the audience could reasonably endure. My first constraint was not to include any of the work penned by Larry’s	alter egos or under his pseudonyms. I then further restricted my selection to fit into a structure that grouped Larry’s works into four categories, which would allow me and my assistants to have intermissions within the concert. Like those of many nineteenth-century romanticists, Larry’s works are programmatic (based on some event, place, time or character). The listener is able to conjure up images without even knowing the poetry associated with the works. The first section surveys Larry’s dark surrealist view of life in Regina. The multiple references to pain and death are jaded by whimsical titles and hum-able melodies. The second section includes the religious works of Larry Peterson excluding the cycle of hymns dedicated to the saints. Larry shows the polarity of his art by either adhering to the traditional structures of the form or blatantly defying any reference to common past practice. The third section is perhaps the most personal of Larry’s artistic output because the songs are all tributes to women. Larry is always the envy of men for his ability to strike up deep friendships and steamy love affairs with some of the most beautiful and interesting women of our time. I cannot help but picture some of these marvelous ladies whom I have known and to whom Larry has given himself and paid tribute. I close the program with a mystical section which takes the surrealistic parts of the first section and blends them with the progressive religious parts of the second part to present music that is in itself lyrical and often different every time it is performed. These works are often the best loved or most hated of the bell apprentices. It is music that transcends analytic contemplation and pierces the inner psyche, which as a Christian I label my soul.
The Mysticism of Peterson Larry’s spirituality seems to start with an apocalyptic vision out of Revelations, heavily spiced with nuclear disaster and evolves into an abstract existence riddled with the endless permutation of numbers representing mortals, leprechauns and mystical couplings of snakes and flowers. The modernist influences of Xenakis, John Cage, and Frank Zappa have allowed Larry to extend the peyote visions of Carlos Castaneda into lyrical melodies somewhat trapped in the tradition of English change ringing. 1. Ground Zero Morning 2. X-rays (Homage to John Cage) 3. Daydream #2 4. The March of the Dead 5. Dog Ribs 6. Darkest Before The Dawn 7. Every Good Boys Does Time 8. Questions For The Sphinx 9. Sweet Nothings #5 10. Some Old Roses Dying in a Vase 11. Snake Ends 12. A Canine Tableau In Three Parts Part One: A Boy and His Dog Part Two: A Dog and His Breakfast Part Three: Doggie Duo Tocatta (Incidentally, #4 is a melodization of a poem by that name by R. W. Service, whose poetry strongly influenced Larry in his late teens.)	A Local Reality It should be noted that Larry Peterson assumes several personas. One of his favorites is Mr. Blister, who cruises the Inner City of Regina taking note of the wonders found in our prairie oasis. Larry Peterson has developed severe allergies to cats and is a heavy smoker. This does not stop him from taking note of news worthy events in the style of Gericault’s The Raft of the “Medusa”, or Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and expressing his deep feelings about our time. 1. Miss Pretty Stalks the Neighbor’s Cat 2. My DNA Keeps Changing 3. Mr. Blister Takes a Peek and Interlude 4. Brains for Mad Cow 5. Black Cats and Night Crawlers 6. Dwarf On a Hot Summer Night 7. Free Trade Lament and Interlude 8. I Love a Little Pussy 9. Cracked and Yellow Toe-nails 10. Mr. Blister Mystery Trilogy and Surprise Ending Part One: Boy Meets Girl (The Mr. Blister Twist) Part Two: Boy Loses Girl (Where Can She Be?) Part Three: Boy Finds Girl (Between The Cushions) Surprise Ending – The Mr. Blister Wedding March 11. Cats Can Do It
Religious In 1970 Larry Peterson taught an experimental Sunday school in a charismatic manner under an assumed name. The senior clergy of today may remember the interpretive dance, choral recitation and role-playing exercises the young teenagers engaged in as they developed their relationship with Jesus Christ under the mentorship of the young romantic revolutionary. 1. Venite #1 2. Hymn Tune #99 3. Hymn Tune #64 4. Magnificat #2 5. Jubilate Deo #1 6. Hymn Tune #27 7. Hallelujah 8. Hymn Tune #29 9. Deus Misereatur #5 10. Benedictus #2 11. Yet Another Two Little Amens	A Tribute to the Ladies Larry has an uncanny ability to infiltrate any subculture or ethnic group and exist as their token revolutionary or outsider-artist. Over the years he has been seen among the Latin American, religious, First Nations, extreme left and Bohemian artist communities. In each of these communities have been sisterly, motherly, daughterly and even loverly (as Henry Higgins would say) relationships. One could become jealous seeing Larry pampered with fine food, surrounded by the alluring hair flowing off of some maiden’s head, or just in rapture from the inspiration these ladies bestow upon him. From simple peasant to lawyer, from fair blonde to exotic African, these ladies have given and now receive their artist tribute. 1. Lana 2. Tammy 3. Kathleen 4. Georgia 5. Anita 6. Phyllis 7. Ursula 8. Titine 9. Roberta

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Revised: August 27, 2011