Ray's 2nd BELL Page
Continuing the WebPage version of a slide and sound
presentation I gave in September of 2002.
The City & County of Denver always has a
grand display of lighting at their City Hall each
Christmas season. Here is a picture of that City
Hall.
The City and County Building, Denver's city
hall, illuminated for the holidays.
Credit: 2000 Stan Obert/Denver Metro
Convention & Visitors Bureau
Christmas Carols are played each year on the 10
bell Chime. However, just before the 2001 Christmas
season, the "D" bell striker fell off and the City
did not get it fixed until after the season. This
caused the carilloneur to have to transpose every
song that needed the "D" bell, as with the
following music.
Missing "D" City and County of Denver
- Recorded by Ray Adams, December 2002 from a
TV station
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So you see, bells may sound musical if every bell
is present and in tune. We'll talk about bell tuning in
just a little bit.
Churches are probably the most often encountered
locations for bells. Here is a picture of our nation's
National Cathedral.
The tower at the left rear of the picture contains
the 10 "peal" bells. These peal bells are rung by a
corps of "ringers" who must practice for hours, in
order to ring the mathematical combinations of a peal.
Each Sunday at the close of the 11am service in the
Cathedral, the peal bells are rung.
In the picture above, on the left, is shown how the
ringers are arranged in a circle with the bell ropes
hanging down. On the right is shown a representation of
what is above their heads and how the bell rope rotates
the bell to make it sound.
Change Ringing - National Cathedral - Washington DC
- The sound of the National Cathedral Carillon and
the Change ringers is on the CD-MS-920338 Order it at:
https://commerce.cathedral.org/exec/ms/DisplayCategory?DCategory=Music
Change ringers must control their bell (the largest
of which may weigh a ton or more) in an accurately timed,
changing sequence. The term Change Ringing comes from
the math sequences used - sequences may last hours.
Because change ringers must practise for hours, a
set of bells called handbells, was invented to spare
the populace of a town from having to listen
interminably to the ringers practices. These handbells,
which originally were tuned only to the 6, 8 or 10
notes of the large bells in a tower, evolved into sets
that included all of the notes in a musical scale
Handbell choirs may be found all over the world.
Some of these choirs are really expert and their music
is especially exciting. The Raleigh Ringers shown
above, are such a group.
Handbells - Linus & Lucy - Raleigh Ringers
- Used by permission of The Raleigh Ringers.
Downloaded from their Website http://www.rr.org.
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