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Includes student timetables from the Royal College of Music; a music catalogue ‘Selected Works from the Catalogues of the Universal Edition’ (Summer 1954); typed and handwritten music exam papers with annotated comments from examiners; lecture notes; model answers to exam questions; Derek Bell’s MusB degree parchment from Trinity College Dublin (29 Jul 1959); two photographs from the Ninth International Conference of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) which took place in Moscow (14 July 1970); articles about various aspects of musical composition; and newspaper clippings of obituaries of fellow students from Campbell College, Belfast.

This collection was created by Derek Bell during his lifetime. The majority of the papers and audio visual collection date from the late 1960s to the late 1990s. There are some papers relating to Bell's early music education in London's Royal College of Music and Trinity College Dublin but the vast majority of materials date from his professional music career. The papers cover Bell's time with the City of Belfast Orchestra and the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra. His international career as a solo musician, recording artist, composer and his long career with the Irish music group The Chieftains are very well documented in this collection. Derek Bell's interest in Irish music, ethnic music from Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and South America and classical harp music are also evident in the collection. His interest in the relationship between music, mysticism and meditation is reflected both in his papers and his audio visual collection. The first series contains personal papers which include: music papers relating to education, teaching and musical instruments; financial documents; religious papers relating to the guru Gideon Fontalba and the spiritual organisation the Self Realization Fellowship; papers relating to family history; and papers gathered by his widow Stefanie Bell after his death in 2002. Correspondence with family, friends, music publishers, music librarians, musicians and business related correspondence can be found in the second series of this collection. The third series contains papers collected by Bell during his time as a working musician both as a solo and orchestral artist and with The Chieftains. Included in this series are invitations from individuals and organisations to Bell to perform as well as rehearsal schedules, performance related ephemera, reviews, articles, promotional material, tour schedules and awards and certificates. The final two series in this collection contain photographs of Bell and The Chieftains and audio visual material. This material includes Bell's solo recordings as well as The Chieftains many albums. Also included in the audio collection are ethnic music recordings from around the world.

This series contains music papers, financial documents, religious papers, family history material as well as material relating to Derek Bell’s death. The files within the series have been arranged chronologically. Within this series there are three files and two subseries. The first subseries, ‘Music Papers’, has been divided into four files. The first contains papers relating to his music education in the Royal College of Music, London, England and Trinity College Dublin, as well as material relating to teaching and the study of composition. The remaining three files contain papers about the musical instruments played by Bell during his solo, orchestral and ensemble career - the piano, the pedal and Irish harp, the oboe, cimbalom [dulcimer] and heckelphone. Receipts and financial documents relating to touring with The Chieftains and the purchase of musical instruments can also be found in this series. The second subseries contains religious papers mostly dating from the 1990s. This subseries is divided into three files, the first relates to the guru Gideon Fontalba and the second and third relate to Bell’s interactions with two spiritual organisations the Church of Self Realization and Arcane School, London, England. The two remaining files in this series contain papers relating to family history research into the Bell family and material acquired by Bell’s widow, Stefanie Bell, after his death in 2002.

This subseries contains exam papers, lecture notes, articles, newspaper clippings, concert programmes, music catalogues, photographs, drawings, serials, musical instrument catalogues and letters relating to music education, teaching, music research and musical instruments, most notably the piano, harp, oboe, cimbalom and heckelphone. Bell’s study of musical composition as well as his lifelong interest in ethnic music and musical instruments of other countries including Romania, Bulgaria and Peru is reflected in this subseries. His research into the hammered dulcimer which led to the recreation of the ancient Irish instrument known as the tiompán can also be seen in his papers in this subseries (DBE-239678/2/1/4).

Series comprises commercial and non-commercial audio material on vinyl, reel-to-reel tape, tape cassettes, DAT tapes. This audio material reflects Derek Bell’s music interests, his solo music career as well as his career with The Chieftains. Many of his published albums are in this series, along with pre-publication and demo copies of the same albums. There are recordings of interviews with Bell both on radio and television and video footage of various television appearances. There are also audio recordings of a number of Bell’s solo performances as well as performances with The Chieftains. Two documentaries made by Alan Tongue about Derek Bell in 1977 and 1988 are also in this series. Bell’s interest in mysticism and ethnic music is reflected throughout his audio collection.

LPs include Medley es flog ein kleins waldvogelein (1956); Harpe Indienne du Paraguay (1956); Mo cheol thú (1956); Benno Moiseiwitsch (1957); Spring tide (1957); Les Chants Et Danses Des Républiques Soviétiques (1958); Tance Slaskie: Kapella ludowa Rozglosni Slaskiej (1959); Tarybų Lietuva = Советская Литва (1959); Songs of my heart (1960); Newfoundland fiddler (1960); Liam O'Flaherty reads The ecstasy of Angus (1961); [Non-commercial LP] (1961); Reisebüro atla s (record 2) (1961); The week before Easter (1961); The playboy of the western world (1962) [two copies]; The world of so(koto) (1962); The Chieftains 1 (1962); Gypsy romance (1963); Folksongs and dances of Armenia and the Caucasus (1963); Centro Qosqo del Arte Nativo, volumen 2 (1963); A harpa e a cristandade (1963); Music folklorique du monde: Hongrie (1964); Folk music of Rumania (1964); Salzburger tanzmusick (1965); Ann's harp (1965); Rasa (1965); A bit of Ireland (1966); Hungarian folk songs (1966); The Chieftains 8 (1967); Slovenské l'udové piesne (1967); Ansamblul "perinita" (1968); Boil the breakfast early : The Chieftains 9 (1968); The drones and the chanters : Irish pipering (1968); Music of Bolivia (1968); The Budapest gipsies (1968); Hungarian folk songs (1968); Bucharest by night (1968); Sonatas / Francis Poulenc (1968); The Chieftains. 2 (1969); Music for meditation, volume 2 (1969); Hungarian folk songs (1969); Irish folk songs 2 (1969); The legacy of Michael Coleman (1969); Paraguayan harp (1969); Songs and music of Tibet (1970); The Chieftains 4 (1970); Live for Ireland [Disk 1] (1970); Ballad of the Irish horse / The Chieftains (1970); Legendary music of the Andes (1970); The forty minute raga (1970); Spring in the air (1970); Na ceirníní 45 (1970); Cymbalo solos (1971); The Chieftains 7 (1971); A musical anthology of the Orient Viet-nam 1 (1971); Mooncoin (1971); Conversa-Phone's Round-The-World Hungarian Language Record Course (1971); Music of India (1971); Tin whistles (1971); Sounds from Rumania (1971); Azerbaijanian folk melodies (1972); Music from Hungary (1972); Voice of the Xtabay (1972); Rumanian folk songs and dances (1972); 8 - Les Copains D'Abord (1972); An appointment with W.B. Yeats (1972); Bretagne (1973); A primasok primasa / Sandor Lakatos (1973); Ó Riada (1973); Heyrðu - Lög Með Vísnavinum (1973); Janos Nemeth Cymbalo (1973); Songs of the Isles (1973); Plkeloiden Parhaat (1974); Chorus and Orchestra of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble (1974); Reisebüro atlas (record 1) (1974); Bravo dingo! (1974); Muzică Populară Din Oltenia Și Muntenia (1974); The world of Christmas music (1974); Flutes, harpes et guitares Indiennes (1974); Kantele of Finland (1974); The Chieftains 5 (1975); Carolan's receipt (1975) [two copies]; Gusty's frolicks / Seán Keane (1975); Songs of my heart (1975); Chants and prayers (1975); [unidentified Japanese script] (1975); Black & White Piano Ragtime (1975); Rumanian wedding (1975); Brabantse volksmuzie (1975); Panpipes of Rumania (1975); Matt Molloy (1976); Bretagne (1976); Het Brabants Volksorkest – Volksmuziek Uit Brabant en de Kempen - Musique popuaire du Brabant et de la campine (1976); Three Swedish fiddlers (1976); Muzica populara Transilvaneana (1976); The star-spangled Molly (1976); Symphonic music of Rumania (1976); Music from the soundtrack of Barry Lyndon (1976); Cymbalo recital (1976); The Chieftains 7 (1977); Little criminals / Randy Newman (1977); Colm Gallagher plays "The dove" (1977); Seán Keane (1977); The gypsy princess (1977); Gypsy caravan (1977); Bonaparte's retreat / The Chieftains (1977); George Brassens sings of the birds & the bees… (1977); More path rent (1977); The tailor of Gloucester (1978); Cymbalo solos (1978); God first (1978); К ыргыздын Элдик Ырлары Жана Күүлөрү = Kirghiz folk songs and melodies (1978); Music for meditation, volume 1 (1978); Irish rhythms (1978); James Galway and The Chieftains in Ireland (1978); Raga Desi (1978); Virtuoso cymbalo and clarinet solos (1978); The Chieftains. 2 (1979); The Chieftains live (1979); The Chieftains 4 (1979); National (1979); Matt Molloy (1980); Virtuosi of the cymbalo (1980); The Chieftains 10 : cotton-eyed Joe (1980); Sean Keane (1981); Barere - complete edition (1981); Gheorghe Zamfir (1981); Fănică Luca (1981); Traditional Norwegian fiddle music (1981); Bootleg (1981); Na ca'l fuau (1981); L'alouette (1981); Medley es flog ein kleins waldvogelein (1981); North India instrumental music : Vina, Vichitra Vina, Sarod, Shahnai (1981); Sail away / Randy Newman (1981); The year of the French / The Chieftains (1982); Medley es flog ein kleins waldvogelein (1982); [unidentified Arabic script] (1982); Songs of Korea (1982); Javanese court gamelan from the Pura Paku Alaman, Jogyakarta (1982); Romanian folk dan ces (1982); From sinding to swing (1983) [two copies]; Alfredo Rolando Ortiz in concert. Vol. 3 (1983); Hei-Fara! (1983); Claddagh's choice (1984); The music of India (1984); Gheorghe Zamfir (1984); Cymbalo recital / Aladár Rácz (1985); Flautovy recital (1985); The Chieftains 10 (1985); Derek Bell's musical Ireland (1986); Chants and prayers (1987); Folk music of Bulgaria (1987); Arpa del Ande (1988); U-vox (1988); Live for Ireland [Disk 2] (1999); Conversa-Phone's round-the-world Swedish language record course (1962?); The tailor of Gloucester (1988?); Ansamblul "perinita" (n.d.); Janos Nemeth with folk orchestra (n.d.); Colm Gallagher plays "The dove" (n.d.); Chants and prayers (n.d.); Janos Nemeth with folk orchestra (n.d.); Ciocirlia: the famous Romanian folklore ensemble (n.d.); Slow airs and set dances / Eugene O'Donnell (n.d.); Cymbalo recital Aladár Rácz (n.d.); Old Hungarian songs / Régi Nóták (n.d.); Classic recordings of Scottish fiddling (n.d.); Kashmir : traditional songs and dances (n.d.); Music of India - Rāgas and Tālas / Ravi Shankar with Alla Rakha (n.d.); Wedding at Ecser / Ecseri Lakodalmas (n.d.); Folk music of Hungar y (n.d.); Os grandes sucessos da harpa paraguaia (n.d.); Gyps y (n.d.); Toni Lordache (n.d.); Hippy hangover and Thinking about the sun (n.d.); Mná na hÉireann and the morning dew (n.d.); Valiha de la cote est (n.d.); Alan Stivell reflects (n.d.); Orthodox Slavonic liturgy (n.d.); Folksongs and dances of Rumania (n.d.); Selected folk songs and dances (n.d.); Magic music from south India with Balachander (n.d.); Play, gypsy (n.d.); From Ireland, Scotland and Wales (n.d.); Golden rain (n.d.); Gamelan Semar Pegulingan (n.d.); Sahlstroms-Stanman i vendel (n.d.); Tabula rasa (n.d.); Les instruments folkloriques Roumains (n.d.); Muzica populara Moldoveneasca (n.d.); Douce amère = Bitter sweet (n.d.); Rapsodia Romina (n.d.); The harp key = Crann nan teud (n.d.); Varteikn (n.d.); Féidhlim Tonn Rí's castle (n.d.); És Zenekara Játszik / Lakatos Sándor (n.d.); L'Eblouissant virtuose du cymbalum (n.d.); Sarod (n.d.); Ustad ali akbar khan (n.d.); Music for solo harpsichord (n.d.).

Includes personal and business related correspondence. The majority of correspondence pertains to music in some way with many references to Derek Bell’s performances, concerts, musical appointments, recordings, radio and television appearances, tours, awards as well as his work with The Chieftains. Some letters are personal in nature, for example those from his parents, sister, Deirdre Bell, and wife, Stefanie Bell and various nieces and nephews. The letters are organised by date, undated letter are placed at the end of each file.

Original typed and handwritten letters from various music publishers, music sellers, instrument makers and music librarians to Derek Bell. Two addresses listed for Bell are CEMA [the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts, Northern Ireland], Tyrone House, Ormeau Avenue, Belfast (29 Oct 1957) and BBC Orchestra, Ormeau Ave, Belfast (28 Jan 1972) as well as various private addresses. Letters refer to the supply of sheet music, music books, musical instruments and reeds. Includes letters from Harry Baker, The Oboists’ Music Lending Library, Kent, England; Anthony Wright, Mills Music Publishers, London, England; B. A. Hiscoke, Schott Music Publishers; Síle O’Tierney, Music Librarian, Trinity College Library, Dublin; John Dowd, Musica Obscura, Chicago Illinois, United States of America; Adrian WIlliam, London, England; Edwin A. Moon, London, England; Richard Schauer, Music Publishers & Exporters, London, England; Mikki Henry, International Music Service, New York; William Ring, Howarth of London, England; Severo M. Ornstein, California; The Sorabji Archive, Bath, England; Claire Brown, Kevin Mayhew Publishers, Suffolk, England; Harvey Taylor, Edgar Backus, Leicester, England; Ken Freeman, Harpcraft, Surrey, England; Lark in the Morning, California, United States of America; Lewis Foreman, Hertfordshire, England.