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Campanology is the study of bells and the methods of casting, tuning and sounding them, of the creation and perfection of musical instruments consisting of one or more racks of bells and the composing for and playing on these.
The origin of the word campanology is from the latin campana meaning bell and logia meaning to study.
- Pealing the bell: sounding a bell by pulling a rope that causes the bell to move back and forth to strike the clapper. At a church it is common to peal the bell for most regular worship services.
- Tolling the bell: sounding a bell by pulling a rope that is tied to the clapper, causing the clapper to strike the bell. At a church it is common to toll the bell for funerals.
Carillons
The carillon is a complex instrument that has been studied and minutely improved for highest musical quality. It draws both tourists and locals to the concerts and recitals. Professional campanologists like Jef Denyn had, and still have world fame.
The instrument is played sitting on a bench by hitting the top keyboard that allows expression through variation of touch, with the underside of the half-clenched fists, and the bottom keyboard with the feet, since the lower notes in particular require more physical strength than an organ, the latter not attaining the tonal range of the better carillons: for some of these, their bell producing the lowest tone, the 'bourdon', may weigh well over 8 tonnes; other fine ones settle for 5 to 6 tonnes. A carillon renders at least two octaves for which it needs 23 bells, though the finest have 47 to 56 bells or extravagantly even more, arranged in chromatic sequence, so tuned as to produce concordant harmony when many bells are sounded together.
The oldest are found in church towers in continental northern Europe, especially in cathedral towers in northern France and Belgium, where some (like the St. Rumbolds Tower in Mechelen, the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp) became UNESCO World Heritage Sites – classified, rather misleadingly, with the Belfry of Bruges and its municipal Carillon under 'Belfries of Belgium and France'.
The carillon of Kirk in the Hills, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, United States, has the highest number of bells in the world: 77.
Modern large carillon edifices have been erected as stand-alone instruments across the world, for instance the Netherlands Carillon at Arlington National Cemetery.
Chimes
A carillon-like instrument with less than 23 bells, is called a chime. American chimes usually have one to one and a half diatonic octaves. Many chimes play an automated piece of music. Chime bells generally used to lack dynamic variation and inner tuning, or the mathematical balance of a bell's complex sound, to permit use of harmony. Since the 20th century, in Belgium and The Netherlands, clock chime bells have inner tuning and produce complex fully harmonized music.Bell Facts – Bell Chimes
The here described chimes, often singular chime, should not be confounded with another musical instrument called chimes or tubular bells.
Russian Orthodox bells
The bells in Russian tradition are rung exclusively by tolling and never by pealing. A special system of ropes is developed individually for every belltower. All the ropes are gathered in one place, where the bell-ringer stands. The ropes (usually - all ropes) are not pulled, but rather pressed with hands or legs. Since one end of every rope is fixed, and the ropes are kept in tension, a press or even a punch on a rope makes a clapper move.
The Great Dormition Bell
The heaviest Russian bell that effectively made its sound, weighed 160 tonnes. It took twenty years before it was installed in a specially constructed tower. For 45 years, with advance notice to the residents against vibrations as of a small earthquake, this Tsar-Bell in honor of the Dormition Cathedral was rung only on special occasions – till in 1701 it cracked by a fall resulting from a fire in the Kremlin.British bells
Unlike continental European bells, the British bells are held upside-down and swing almost 360 degrees with each rope pull, stopping in the inverted position. The next pull swings it back till it attains the initial inverted position. Each of the usually 5 or 6 of these "full circle" bells, has its own bell-ringer at the rope. The lightest bell in the ringing chamber is the 'one' (or 'treble'), the next bell to the right is the 'two', and so on till the heaviest ('tenor').
Bell-ringing
Bell ringing of church bells had become a popular hobby in the English Restoration period, in the late 1600s. The first publication on the subject was "Tintinnalogia - or the Arte of Change Ringing" in 1668 by Fabian Stedman (1640–1730), who is commemorated on a plaque in the St. Andrew Undershaft church porch, Leadenhall Street, London.The most common type is still change ringing, at which the order of the bells' strikes changes sequence after sequence without repeating any previous order. Each of the many different ways this can be done, is known as a "method". A very simple example is that of the plain hunt method, here shown for 5, 4 and 3 bells: 12345 1234 123 21435 2143 213 24153 2413 231 42513 4231 321 45231 4321 312 54321 3412 132 53412 3142 (123) 35142 1342 31524 (1234) 13254 (12345) A complete set of sequences or 'peal', for 4 bells needs nearly half a minute for its 4! (4x3x2x1=24) 'changes' of four strikes, for twelve bells the 12! changes of twelve strikes would last half a lifetime. A seven bell peal is not so uncommon and takes about three hours. In the above table, the three bells sample is a peal: 3! (3x2x1=6) changes of 3 strikes, each of the others is just a 'touch' or incomplete set of permutations.
The hobby spread to a few other countries as well, as shown by the Australian and New Zealand Association of Bellringers (ANZAB) – About Bellringing.
External links
- General
- The Carillon as a Musical Instrument, on the Web site of The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (GCNA)
- Chimes
- List of chimes in North America
- Russian Orthodox bells
- A collection of mp3 recordings of Russian Orthodox bells
- British bells
- A collection of mp3 recordings of Russian Orthodox bells
- The Central Council of Church Bell Ringers, UK
- Change Ringing Resources by Roger Bailey
- The Ringing World magazine
- Bells in the Belfry Burgh le Marsh Church, Lincolnshire, England – incl. video
- Bells around Liverpool, England – incl. video
References
"Campanology"