During a play last night, one of the sound effects was a church bell announcing the hour. I immediately recognized it from my childhood. It was the same song that my local church played. It had four bells and went like this:
(High to low: H h l L)
H l h L…L h H l…H l h L…then one chime per number of the hour.
I may be mistaken, and the two middle bells, h and l, are actually the same bell. So, two questions:
What’s the song? Does it have a name?
Is it common for all (presumably Catholic) churches, at least the ones with bells?
It’s the Westminster Chimes.
I think it’s probably the most common quarter-hourly bell sequence for most Christian churches, not just Catholic ones. And a lot of “secular” clocks as well.
It’s the progression that is played on the Big Ben clock tower in London. I don’t know if it was common before the tower was built, but it’s become the standard bell tune.
I always wonder why these types of threads sit around for 15 minutes, and then get 3 responses in the same minute. Such a weird phenomenon. I mean, where were you guys at 14 minutes? 13?
You can find a description of (English) bell ringing in one of Dorothy Sayers Peter Whimsey novels. It seems to be more of a search into mathematical precision than a musical feat. I’ve never listened to this particular “art” but have often wondered if other cultures did the same and where it all came from. One understands quite well the need for bell codes to alert the poulation, whether for hourly chimes, burials, fire, etc. Are the bells so difficult to play as to eliminate musical expression? I do have the impression that some churches play some sort of melodies, but have never been able to verify the fact.
I’ve also heard a variation on Westminster at a cathedral in Cobh, Ireland. The first and third bars were the same, but the second and fourth were more ornate.
That would be Wimsey, and the novel is The Nine Tailors.
You are referring, I think, to change ringing, that is traditionally done in English churches. I had a close friend who used to do it. It is, is you say, more a sort of exercise in creating mathematically determined patterns rather than in producing an aesthetically pleasing melody. At my friend’s behest, I actually once wrote a computer program that could play these patterns from an input of the notation that change ringers use. Because of the mathematical nature of the “methods” it is possible to specify quite a lengthy “tune” from a very brief notation.
Since the first question has been answered, I’ll take a stab at the second: No, it’s not common for all Catholic churches. It may be common for Catholic churches in the U.S., with our Anglo influences (though it would seem more appropriate for Episcopalian churches), although I don’t think even in the US that the Westminster chimes are universally played at Catholic churches with belltowers.
Outside of the U.S., I don’t think you’ll hear those chimes commonly played at Catholic churches. From what I’ve observed in Italy, the belltowers would typically just play one tone, repeated for the number of hours, to mark the time, except for the beginning of the day (usually around 8:00 am) and on Sundays, when the whole range of bells would be utilized in what I can only describe as a cascade of tones, repeated over and over. Maybe it’s a variation on change ringing, but it sounds more chaotic (that is, the tones don’t seem to be following a scale of any sort). Maybe there’s a term for that?
Not really. My friend’s group of ringers had a “home” church, as it were, but they also used to travel around to other churches to do the bells there. Different churches have different numbers of bells, and thus allow different “methods” (mathematical patterns) to be played. It is a bit like a sport. It does not have any particular religious significance.
I think change ringing is a specifically British thing, but I do not know if it is confined to Anglican churches. Perhaps some Catholic churches in the UK indulge too.
In the UK, if you listen to BBC radio 4 late on Sundays, they always play a round of bells from a church and tell you a bit about the pattern of ringing and the bells used - when they were cast, their weight, etc.
It’s called Bells on Sunday, surprisingly enough!
It could also be “The Joy of Bells”:
Din don don don
Don don din don
Din don don don
Don don don don don don Din Don Merrily on high
In Heaven the bells are ringing
Din don verily the sky
Is riven with angels singing…
