The history of bell use around the world and their relevance today
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 … 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 … Continue reading The Drama of Bell Founding in Andrei Rublev
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 … Continue reading Bell Ringing Methods in the Leaning Tower of Niles
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. That is a real, honest-to-goodness one-ton bronze bell hanging … 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 … Continue reading The Long Resonance of Bronze