Bell (instrument)

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Parts of a typical bell: 1. yoke, 2. crown, 3. head, 4. shoulder, 5. waist, 6. sound ring, 7. lip, 8. mouth, 9. clapper, 10. bead line
Parts of a typical bell: 1. yoke, 2. crown, 3. head, 4. shoulder, 5. waist, 6. sound ring, 7. lip, 8. mouth, 9. clapper, 10. bead line

A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually an open-ended hollow drum which resonates upon being struck. The striking implement can be a tongue suspended within the bell, known as a clapper, a small, free sphere enclosed within the body of the bell, or a separate mallet.

Bells are usually made of cast metal, but small bells can also be made from ceramic or glass. Bells can be of all sizes: from tiny dress accessories to church bells weighing many tons.


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[edit] Church and temple bells

Church with Belltower
Church with Belltower
La Piagnona, Florence, Italy
La Piagnona, Florence, Italy

In the Western world, its most classical form is a church bell or town bell, which is hung within a tower and sounded by having the entire bell swung by ropes, whereupon an internal hinged clapper strikes the body of the bell (called a free-swinging bell). A set of bells, hung in a circle for change ringing, is known as a ring of bells.

In the Eastern world, the traditional forms of bells are temple and palace bells, small ones being rung by a sharp rap with a stick, and very large ones rung by a blow from the outside by a large swinging beam. This last technique is employed world-wide for some of the largest tower-borne bells, because swinging the bell itself could damage the tower.

In the Roman Catholic Church and among some High Lutherans and Anglicans, small hand-held bells, called Sanctus or sacring bells, are often rung by a server at Mass when the priest holds high up first the host, and then the chalice immediately after he has said the words of consecration over them (the moment known as the Elevation). This serves to indicate to the congregation that the bread and wine have just been transformed into the body and blood of Christ (see transubstantiation), or, in the alternative Reformation teaching, that Christ is now bodily present in the elements, and that what the priest is holding up for them to look at is Christ himself (see consubstantiation).

[edit] Japanese religious bells

Japanese Shintoist and Buddhist bells are used in religious ceremonies. Suzu, a homophone meaning both "cool and refreshing," are spherical bells which contain metal pellets that produce sound from the inside. The hemispherical bell is the Kane bell, which is struck on the outside. See also Kane (musical instrument), ja:鈴, ja:梵鐘.

[edit] Buddhist bells

Buddhist bells are used in religious ceremonies. See also Tibetan tingsha bells.

[edit] Farm bells

Whereas the church and temple bells called to mass or religious service, bells were used on farms for more secular signaling. The greater farms in Scandinavia usually had a small bell-tower resting on the top of the barn. The bell was used to call the workers from the field at the end of the day's work.

In folk tradition, it is recorded that each church and possibly several farms had their specific rhymes connected to the sound of the specific bells. An example is the Pete Seeger song The Bells of Rhymney.

[edit] Bells as musical instruments

Some bells are used as musical instruments, such as carillons, (clock) chimes, or ensembles of bell-players, called bell choirs, using hand-held bells of varying tones. A "ring of bells" is a set of 4 to twelve bells or more used in change ringing, a particular method of ringing bells in patterns. A peal in changing ringing may have bells playing for several hours, playing 5,000 or more patterns without a break or repetition..

[edit] Ancient Chinese bells

The ancient Chinese had bronze bells called bianzhong or zhong (鐘) which were used as musical instruments. Some of these bells were dated from 2000 to 3600 years old. These bells can each produce two tones. These bells usually have inscriptions on them from which scholars used as references for studying ancient Chinese writings (also known as Bronzeware script). Another related ancient Chinese musical instrument is called qing (磬 pinyin qing4) but it was made of stone instead of metal.

This copper bell was made by pre-Columbian North American natives.
This copper bell was made by pre-Columbian North American natives.

[edit] Bellmaking

The process of casting bells is called bellmaking or bellfounding, and in Europe dates to the 4th or 5th century.[1] The traditional metal for these bells is a bronze of about 23% tin. Known as bell metal, this alloy is also the traditional alloy for the finest Turkish and Chinese cymbals. Other materials sometimes used for large bells include brass and iron. Bells are always cast mouth down.

Bells are made to exact formulas, so that given the diameter it is possible to calculate every dimension, and its musical note, or tone. The frequency of a bell's note in Hz varies with the square of its thickness, and inversely with its diameter. Much experimentation has been devoted to determining the exact shape that will give the best tone. The thickness of a church bell at its thickest part, called the 'sound bow' is usually one thirteenth its diameter. If the bell is mounted as cast, it is called a "maiden bell" while "tuned bells" are worked after casting to produce a precise note.

[edit] Bell towers

Bells are also associated with clocks, indicating the hour by ringing. Indeed, the word clock comes from the Latin word cloca, meaning bell. Clock towers or bell towers can be heard over long distances which was especially important in the time when clocks were too expensive for widespread use.

In the case of clock towers and grandfather clocks, a particular sequence of tones may be played to represent the hour. One common pattern is called the "Westminster Quarters," a sixteen-note pattern named after the Palace of Westminster which popularized it as the measure used by Big Ben.

Wonderful Famous bells

The bell within the Clock Tower colloquially known as Big Ben

Mingun Bell weighs 55,555 viss, or 90 tonnes.

Philadelphia's Liberty Bell

Tsar Bell, by the Motorins.

The Zygmunt (Sigismund) Bell in Kraków, Poland.

The World Peace Bell in Kentucky.

St. Petersglocke (with person for scale)

Chinese bells from the ancient Warring States, Hubei Provincial Museum, Wuhan, China.

[edit] Notable bells

  • The Great Bell of Dhammazedi (1484) may have been the largest bell ever made. It was lost in a river in Myanmar after being removed from a temple by the Portuguese in 1608. It is reported to have been about 300 tonnes in weight.
  • The Tsar bell by the Motorin Bellfounders is the largest bell still in existence. It weighs 160 tonnes, but it was never rung and broke in 1737. It is on display in Moscow, Russia, inside the Kremlin.
  • The Great Mingun Bell is the largest functioning bell. It is located in Mingun, Myanmar, and weighs 90 tonnes (200,000 lb).
  • The Gotenba Bell is the largest functioning swinging bell, weighing 79,900 lb. It is located in a tourist resort in Gotenba, Japan. Hung in a freestanding frame, and rung by hand. Cast by Eijsbouts in 2006.
  • The World Peace Bell was the largest functioning swinging bell until 2006. It is located in Newport, Kentucky, United States, cast by Paccard of France. The bell itself weighs 66,000 lb while with clapper and supports the total weight which swings when the bell is tolled is 89,390 lb.
  • The Bell of King Seongdeok is the largest extant bell in Korea. The full Korean name means "Sacred Bell of King Seongdeok the Great." It was also known as the Bell of Bongdeoksa Temple, where it was first housed. The bell weighs about 25 tons and was originally cast in 771 CE. It is now stored in the National Museum of Gyeongju.
  • Pummerin in Vienna's Stephansdom is the most famous bell in Austria and the fifth largest in the world.
  • The St. Petersglocke, in the local dialect of Cologne also called "Decke Pitter" (fat Peter), is a bell in Germany's Cologne Cathedral. It weighs 24 tons and was cast in 1922. It is the largest functioning free-swinging bell in the world that swings around the top. (The Gotenba Bell and the World Peace Bell swing around the center of gravity, which is more like turning than swinging. So, depending on the point of view, the St. Petersglocke may be up to now the largest free-swinging bell in the world.)
  • Maria Dolens, the bell for the Fallen in Rovereto (TN - Italy) weighs 22.6 tons.
  • Big Ben is the hour bell of the Great Clock in the Clock Tower at the Palace of Westminster, the home of the Houses of Parliament in the United Kingdom.
  • The South West tower of St Paul's Cathedral in London, England, houses Great Paul, the largest bell in the British Isles. It weighs 16½ tons and is larger than Big Ben. One can hear Great Paul booming out over Ludgate Hill at 1300 every day.
  • Great Tom is the bell that hangs in Tom Tower (designed by Christopher Wren) of Christ Church, Oxford. It was cast in 1680, and weighs over six tons. Great Tom is still rung 101 times at 21:05 every night to signify the 101 original scholars of the college.
  • The Liberty Bell is an American bell of great historic significance, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It previously hung in Independence Hall and was rung on July 4, 1776 to mark American independence.
  • Little John, named after the character from the legends of Robin Hood is the bell within the Clock Tower of Nottingham Council House. It is the deepest bell in the United Kingdom and its chimes are said to be heard over the greatest distance of any in the UK.[citation needed]
  • Sigismund is a bell in the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, Poland, cast in 1520. It is rung only on very significant national occasions.
  • The Maria Gloriosa in Erfurt, cast by Gerhard van Wou, is considered to be one of Germany's, and also Europe's, most beautiful medieval bells, serving as a model for many other bells.[citation needed]

[edit] Chimes

A variant on the bell is the tubular bell. Several of these metal tubes which are struck manually with hammers, form an instrument named tubular bells or chimes. In the case of wind or aeolian chimes, the tubes are blown against one another by the wind.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Milham, Willis I. (1945). Time and Timekeepers. New York: MacMillan. ISBN 0780800087.  p.313-318

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[edit] External links

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