Ukraine's national anthem on carillon and trumpet in Gdansk, Poland, in support of Ukrainians during Russia's brutal aggression. Notice all the people stopping and listening? That's the power and reach of bells, plus brass. May the world powers devise a solution soon to end the war. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns5J0fUeNEA
My personal highlights from this bell's journey: The soft heart of Jeannene Shanks for the bell, saving it from a fate as a dumbbellReviving the tradition of ringing for the Fourth of July, one garage at a time!The enterprising research of the Shank family to find the bell's originsBells symbolize our shared history and country!The … Continue reading The Continental Odyssey of a Paul Revere Bell
Semantron, holy wooden boards, have long been used by Eastern Christian churches to signal to their faithful, a tradition that grew out of the early Christian practice of knocking on monks’ doors to call them to worship.* Like bells for Western Christians, the beating of the semantron then and now calls its members to the … Continue reading Russian Bell Chiming
The seminal film Andrei Rublev directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and co-written with Andrei Konchalovsky is regarded as one of the best films of all time. That’s nice and all, but what I’m interested in is the extended, dramatized section on bell founding. The final section shows in over 30 minutes the entire casting process of … Continue reading The Drama of Bell Founding in Andrei Rublev
https://videopress.com/v/pxEKj9j4?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata Watching this video, you probably guessed that a computer communicates the programmed melodies to the external bell clappers, and that it keeps the bell performances on a schedule. And you are correct! And you are also correct that the Clock-O-Matic’s Apollo III bell controller can be accessed and manipulated via an onsite controller, remote, … Continue reading Bell Ringing Methods in the Leaning Tower of Niles
On Labor Day weekend 2020, the seven bells of the Leaning Tower of Niles began ringing again, after decades of silence. With seven notes of a major scale, absent the sixth scale degree, we had to do some digging to find suitable tunes that would be recognizable, pleasant, and multi-cultural. In the end, we programmed … Continue reading Niles’ Bell Tunes
In honor of the invasion of spooks and ghouls tomorrow on Halloween, I thought we’d focus on bells representing the profane. I give you . . . "Hell’s Bells" by AC/DC. https://videopress.com/v/CfpBlzJv?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata That is a real, honest-to-goodness one-ton bronze bell hanging above the stage. Michael Milsom, former bellmaster at Taylor foundry in Loughborough, England, gives … Continue reading Hell’s Bells
Christians once ascribed powerful properties to bells—the power to drive away demons, for example, and still today some Christians believe they embody the voice of God. Before Christians, the members of ancient civilizations ascribed magico-sacral properties to bells too. Why were bells thought to hold so much sacred power? I never thought about this too … Continue reading The Long Resonance of Bronze
Today’s Youth Climate Change Strike has captured the attention of the world, as well it should! My support goes out to them for real transformation at the national and global level to mitigate the environmental catastrophe awaiting us. And I’m pleased that faith communities from Cape Cod in Massachusetts will ring out their support of … Continue reading Ringing for Climate Change Action
The fourth main value of bells I perceive is their connection to histories. The first history I mean is the particular history of Western Europe. Today we are familiar with one main use of tower bells that dates to the middle ages—to signal to faithful Christians. For example, tower bells would signal when to pray … Continue reading Value of Bells: Connection to Histories
With Bells On 