The Bill of Rights: Ten Amendments in Eight Motets

“As a longtime journalist, I’ve always embraced the First Amendment, but it wasn’t until I heard the words
sung that they seized me on an emotional level. They are seared into my soul now thanks to Neely Bruce.”

— Steve Collins, Maine State House reporter for the Sun Journal

The Bill of Rights set to music is composer Neely Bruce’s response to the changing political climate. Literally giving voice to the masses, Neely conducts local choirs, choral groups, and musicians in a work that creates an awe-inspiring awareness of the text written by our Founding Fathers.  A moderated post-concert discussion is available with your local Constitutional expert or with special guest lecturer Dr. Meg Mott, professor of political theory and host of The Putney Public Library’s popular series, Debating our Rights.

 In 2012, The Bill of Rights: Ten Amendments in Eight Motets for chorus, flute, oboe, string quartet, double bass and harpsichord premiered at the Newseum in Washington DC at the invitation of the Knight Foundation. In February 2020, Vermont legislators sang alongside their constituents in The Bill of Rights in Concert at the Vermont State House in Montpelier.

Listening to the evening news will never be the same as the relevancy of our nation’s vows become renewed after a profound and impactful community experience.  Neely Bruce’s The Bill of Rights inspires singers and listeners alike to connect to today’s news as history in the making.

 Neely Bruce is a composer, performer, and scholar of American music on faculty at Wesleyan University. American Record Guide writes, "Neely Bruce's importance in contemporary American music has never been sufficiently recognized. Bruce's art ranges from the most difficult and virtuosic contemporary writing to simple tonality and moves from one idiom to the other effortlessly and convincingly--something hardly anyone can do without sounding forced. Bruce seems equally at home in every style he uses."  A composer of over 800 works, his pop music-based version of Hansel and Gretel was commissioned by Connecticut Opera. Flora, an Opera, based on an 18th century ballad opera, was commissioned by Spoleto USA and praised by James Oestreich of The New York Times as a "highlight of the festival."