The history and meaning of the church bell
As we approach a church we hear, even from afar, the sounds of the bells flowing into one another. The sound of the great bell floats across the surroundings, as if filling the air, and against this background the other bells ring out and answer one another. They announce to us that the hour of the service is approaching. But bells are not merely a “gong” calling people to prayer; they are real music carried outside the church, into the street. Complex musical works can be played on bells. In the old days churches and monasteries had their own “style” of ringing.
The sound of the bells spreads grace over the surroundings of the church and sets a special seal on the landscape. The ringing of the bell lets the peasant working in the field or the traveller on the road be in the church in thought and mind. It stands guard over a person, as it were, and does not let him be soiled by everyday life and vanity. It calls to conscience the one who has forgotten his duty or is ready to go the wrong way. Not for nothing did Goethe write that the sound of the Easter bells made Faust throw away the cup of poison. The bell is the voice of the Church, waking sleeping mankind.
Bell-ringing is a truly “good-tidings-bearing” musical sermon, a service of worship that has gone out of doors.
The bell has been a constant companion of the life of our people — and not of our people alone. The bell is a symbol of the people's joy, sorrow and festivity. The ringing of bells called people together on special occasions, for example to public assemblies or when there was an alarm; the sound of the bell showed the way to a traveller who had lost his road; the ringing of the bell announced some danger or misfortune. People were told of an enemy invasion by the bell, and called to defend their homeland by the sound of the bell.
The sound of the bells spreads grace over the surroundings of the church and sets a special seal on the landscape. The ringing of the bell lets the peasant working in the field or the traveller on the road be in the church in thought and mind. It stands guard over a person, as it were, and does not let him be soiled by everyday life and vanity. It calls to conscience the one who has forgotten his duty or is ready to go the wrong way. Not for nothing did Goethe write that the sound of the Easter bells made Faust throw away the cup full of poison. The bell is the voice of the Church, waking sleeping mankind.
Bell-ringing is a truly “good-tidings-bearing” musical sermon, a service of worship that has gone out of doors.
A church bell is usually hung in a special tower, called the belfry, which is built at the entrance to the church or near it.
Christians, as is well known, did not begin to use church bells as soon as Christianity appeared. In the Old Testament Church, in Jerusalem, the faithful were called to worship not by the ringing of bells but by the sound of trumpets.
In the first centuries of Christianity, when Christians were persecuted, they had no way of calling the faithful to worship openly and had to summon them secretly; this was usually done through the deacon or special messengers.
In the 4th century, after the persecution of Christians had ended, the faithful were called to worship in various ways. The most widespread way of summoning the faithful in this period was the sound made by striking a metal beater on wooden boards.
The first church bells, as is well known, appeared in Western Europe. There is a tradition according to which the making of the first bell is ascribed to Paulinus, bishop of the city of Nola in the Italian province of Campania — roughly at the end of the 4th or the beginning of the 5th century.
According to tradition, the bishop saw in a dream the wild flower called the bellflower, which has the shape of today's little bell. The bellflower gave out a pleasant sound. After the dream the bishop wished to cast a metal instrument in the shape of the bellflower, and ordered a local craftsman to cast something similar in bronze. However, it seems that the bishop did not then bring bells into the practice of church services.
Only at the beginning of the 7th century did Pope Sabinian of Rome give bells a Christian meaning, and from that time in Western Europe the sound of bells gradually became an inseparable part of worship for Christians. In the East, in the Greek Church, bells began to be used in the second half of the 9th century.
The blagovest: blagovest is the name for the sound made by measured strokes on one large bell. With this ringing the faithful are called to church and told that the service is beginning. The blagovest is rung like this: first three long, drawn-out strokes (until the sound of the bell dies away by itself), followed by measured strokes.
Today there are three kinds of church bell-ringing:
Orthodox ringing: at its heart lies rhythm, with its characteristic dynamics and blending of timbres. In Orthodox bells harmoniousness and richness of timbre are valued above all. In the Orthodox world there are 4 canonical kinds of church ringing.
Catholic ringing: at its heart lie single or double rhythmic strokes. Traditionally the bells are chosen or intended for a certain key, with a limited number of overtones. So the sound of a bell by itself is poor, and the effect depends on the number of bells.
Protestant ringing: here the bell-ringer, using a set of bells, plays a melody tuned to notes. The ringing is usually done with a keyboard device (like an organ keyboard) that moves the clapper of the bell or (a special hammer.
At present the largest bell in the world is the “Tsar Bell,” which now lies on a stone slab at the foot of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower. The bell is unequalled not only in size and weight but in the art of its casting. The “Tsar Bell” was cast by the Russian masters (father and son) Ivan and Mikhail Motorin in 1733–1735. The total weight of the “Tsar Bell” is 200 tonnes, and its diameter is 6 metres 60 centimetres.
