The Bells in Full Score Author:Serge Rachmaninoff Rachmaninoff's choral symphony The Bells was composed in 1913 and was one of the composer's personal favorites among all his works. Written for large orchestra, solo vocalists, and chorus, the work is loosely based on Poe's brilliant poem, but adds material from the Russian translation that permits Rachmaninoff to develop the themes in a ... more »more intense, dark idiom.« less