This musical journey will begin in China, where 20 years ago a very intriguing discovery was made while excavating for a new building. An ancient tomb was discovered and in it was a set of 63 cast bronze bells arranged on racks ready to play. This first video is about the discovery.
The duplicated sets have been used in concerts with other Chinese instruments. This next video shows one of these concerts. One duplicate set toured the US, giving a concert in Upper Darby, PA, when I lived there. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the entire concert, but the bits that I heard were fantastic!
One of the more unique presentations of bell ringing is English Change Ringing. In this type of ringing, a relatively small number of bells (4 - 12) are rung in patterns that continually change in one of a number of specific patterns that take up to 4 1/2 hours to perform. This video shows a bit of the ringing and explains a little bit about it.
The tower bells used in change ringing are very large and very heavy. This next video shows the belfry of Liverpool Cathedral which houses 13 bells, the largest of which weighs about 4 tons. The bells are hung in such a way that the ringers, who are several floors down, can pull on the ropes to ring the bells without undue force. This is actually a very dangerous pastime. Incautious ringers have gotten themselves hung up in the ropes and you never want to be in a bell chamber when the bells are being rung. The noise from the bells can cause deafness or something even more serious. But it is a magnificent sight!
Handbells were originally developed so that ringers could practice their changes in a nice, warm location (usually the pub) instead of a cold, drafty bell tower. The extra advantage was that they wouldn't drive the neighbors crazy with their practicing! This next video shows a change rung on 20 handbells (that's a lot for change ringing!) performed for a wedding in England. The ringers are using the English style of change ringing on handbells which is different from the way that Americans would do it.
Lastly, and certainly not least, I am giving you a video present. This is a clip from a concert given by Carolina Bronze, an auditioned community handbell choir centered in Greenville, at Daniel Chapel at Furman a couple of years ago. In the part where you can see the entire group, I'm 3rd from the right. Yea, I like ringing bass bells! Enjoy!
I think your first link was very educational THANKS
ReplyDeleteThe first vidoe was very educational. I really enjoyed it. I really like this kind of stuff.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the bell clips. Bell culture would be an interesting music sub-culture to study. Bell ringing in general seems to have developed at first not as music but as a means of signaling, especially of time, probably because the tintinnabulation is loud and carries well but would not be used to produce music done for pleasure. Church bells call the congregation to services, school bells used to mark the beginnings and ends of school sessions, and dinner bells announce that dinner is served. But in some contexts of bell-ringing, it developed into a music done for its own sake and even performed in concerts, as your last clip shows.
ReplyDeleteI loved the Chinese bells. It amazes me that we are still making discoveries like this, and that a scene like that could be left untouched for so long.
ReplyDelete