Bells!

[ardcarp]

A programme on Radio 4 yesterday.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001fwcz

....was about Taylor's of Loughborough, the only remaining bell-foundry in the UK. (The Whitechapel foundry foundered a little while ago, I think.) This programme was an overview of bells, their manufacture, tuning and manhandling, and I commend Radio 4 for scheduling it. The peculiarly British system of change-ringing and the way bells are hung and rung was not described in this programme...but that is a rather arcane subject, so was underrstandably left out. Worth a listen though as the programme ranges widely from St Paul's to pop-songs!

PS I last rang, as a teenager, a muffled quarter peal in memoriam Winston Churchill. Haven't tugged a sally since!

[Bryn]

A programme on Radio 4 yesterday.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001fwcz

....was about Taylor's of Loughborough, the only remaining bell-foundry in the UK. (The Whitechapel foundry foundered a little while ago, I think.) This programme was an overview of bells, their manufacture, tuning and manhandling, and I commend Radio 4 for scheduling it. The peculiarly British system of change-ringing and the way bells are hung and rung was not described in this programme...but that is a rather arcane subject, so was underrstandably left out. Worth a listen though as the programme ranges widely from St Paul's to pop-songs!

PS I last rang, as a teenager, a muffled quarter peal in memoriam Winston Churchill. Haven't tugged a sally since!

Thanks for that. Good call. I had quite overlooked it.

[Petrushka]

My late father was a bellringer at our parish church from 1938 until 2007 apart from a gap for his RAF war service and I can be sure that he would have loved this programme especially as the church bells came from Taylors of Loughborough.

[oddoneout]

Sad picture in yesterday's online Guardian of highly decorated (probably too much so for some) church bells lying in the rubble of yet another target of Russian belligerence.

[jayne lee wilson]

Among Malipiero's prolific (!) yet often fascinating oeuvre is the Symphony of the Bells, No.3 (1944-5), even more compelling once you know it is a wartime symphony of protest, inspired by Venice. On the 8 September 1943, the Bells of St. Mark's rang "not for peace but to announce new torments....as the Germans had invaded Italy..."
"Have you ever heard, from the lagoons, Venice all vibrating with bells? She becomes a huge musical instrument"...

An astonishing piece with dazzlingly varied bell-like orchestral sounds, and a very tumultuous ending! One of Malipiero's best among his bewilderingly varied symphonies, 11 numbered and several more with programmatic titles...


Symphonies (Volume 1)

Gian Francesco Malipiero

• Released on 01/01/1993 by Naxos

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks for drawing attention to Malipiero, jayne - much neglected in this country, like so many of that interwar generation of Italian composers (Respighi excepted!) and my favourite out of them all, Petrassi included. I hadn't heard of the "Bells" symphony - it didn't get any mention when Malipiero was COTW a few years back - but, as you remark, he was indeed prolific!

[gurnemanz]

Re Malipiero: I greatly enjoyed discovering his songs. Brilliantly done on Briliant

Re Bells: I got a very nice bike bell from Lion Bell Works (sound clip available)

[smittims]

Yes, I endorse thanks to Jayne, good to hear another Malipiero admirer.

Did anyone meet JC Waterhouse, Malipiero's 'onlie prophet' and protagonist, and the author of the notes to those Naxos CDs? A remarkable man, eloquent in the warmth of the enthusiasm he felt for his favourite music.