There is something vital in the ordinary bell that dominates all of us. It is an important factor in our lives. The railway bell’s clamor reminds us that haste is needed to catch the departing train. The dinner bell tells that the meal is ready for our consumption. The church bell, the wedding chime, the fire bell, the tolling funeral bell, are all our faithful monitors and guardians, but the exquisite voice of the hand-bell is the sweet-lipped friend that wooes us in our hour of ease.

Hand-bell ringing is full of charm and interest, and it is astonishing of what changing harmonies these instruments are capable when manipulated by dexterous hands. Undertaken with perseverance and patience to overcome its rudimentary difficulties, this form of campanology may be achieved with great success.

The first thing to do is to go to a well-known firm to secure the necessary bells, which must be perfectly in tune. The beginner needs only a few, as for some time he must essay only the simplest tunes. The best hand-bells are somewhat expensive, but to buy cheap inferior instruments is false economy and most unsatisfactory, for sonorousness and sweetness of tone depend upon purity of metal and perfect balance.

Those known as the “four-in-hand” consist of four hand-bells attached by means of a leather handle to one base. This enables the player to manipulate eight bells at once. Of course, by making careful inquiries, or by advertising, good second-hand sets of bells can be bought quite cheaply.

It is advisable that the bells be tuned to old Philharmonic pitch, C—540, and they should be fitted with improved pegged clappers.

The first step undertaken by the novice at bell-ringing is to consider and study the construction of the bell. It is surmounted by a loop of leather, and the hinge of the clapper is so made that it can sound only when swayed towards the flat part of the handle. The part of the clapper that touches the bell is composed of felt and not of metal, but this alone is too light a material for the springs, which, it has been discovered, resist it.

To overcome this difficulty it is necessary that the felt should be weighted. This achievement needs skill and experience, for the springs and weight naturally vary according to the size of the bell, and are in exact proportion, small springs being necessary for the small bells and large springs for the large ones.

Bell-ringing Companies

Bell-ringing companies consist of five players, and these are generally composed of two ladies and three gentlemen; all should be physically strong and possessed of the sense of strict notation and music-reading ability. The ladies generally undertake the alto and tenor parts. The strongest player manages the bass bells, and the most reliable and cool-headed of the party the treble, which is divided into first and second, and is extremely important, needing no small amount of agility and nerve, especially in difficult and intricate passages.

There are many reasons why five players are advisable. Four could not manage the full harmonies of treble, alto, tenor, and bass, while more than five are apt to get in each other’s way, besides taking up too much space on a small platform in a drawing-room.

A long table, covered with some heavy material, such as thick baize or half-a-dozen pairs of good blankets, is essential. Blankets are the best. They should not be spread out or divided, but folded upon the surface, and then concealed by a cloth. This keeps the sound from vibrating through the wood of the table, as the bells are placed upon it, at the termination of each note.

The bells must be in easy reach of the ringer, and the company just formed will do well to chalk lines upon the cloth to divide their positions from that occupied by the neighbor’s bells.

Tenor and alto players should occupy the center of the table. Their work, compared with that of bass and treble, is light and subordinate, and this is why those parts may be undertaken by ladies. The second treble stands at the right end, next to the alto, and the first treble and bass occupy the head and bottom of the table, as shown in Fig. 1.

Immediately after the bell is used the player must be careful to replace it in its former position in the chalked space, or confusion and discord will be the result, as it is almost impossible to remember the position of the bells unless this plan is strictly adhered to. To pick up the wrong bell will lead to disaster.

Fig. 1.

Many plans have been tried in which to place the bells so that each player may identify the different bells to be used. Perhaps the simplest and most usually adopted is to arrange them in rows upon the table. Supposing the number of bells required to be fifteen, place them in three lines of five. For the first row employ the letters of the alphabet; for the second, even rows of figures; for the last, single odd figures, thus:—

Fig. 2.

This plan should be learnt, and the position of the bells be as fixed and relative to each other as the notes of the keyboard of the pianoforte. At first the players stand with the left side turned slightly to the table, but frequently they will be obliged to change their positions, sometimes turning to the right and sometimes facing the table. The bell should never be placed with the flat side of its handle towards the manipulator, for in this position it cannot be struck, however much waved.

In holding the bell, the thumb must be pressed on the rivet, the fingers gripping the flat side of the handle. When lifting the bell, the handle should slope towards the body, thus forcing the weight of the clapper to swing to the side opposite to that upon which the strike sounds. The bell, being lifted in this position, is not struck, the hand changing its inclination from left to right. In so doing, the bell is turned to an opposite angle, the clapper falls, and the strike is achieved by a slight impetus of the arm or wrist.

The student should practice lifting and striking the bell with alternate hands, until it is as easy to manage it with the left hand as the right. When he has mastered this difficulty he may try the working of two bells—one in each hand, lifting one bell while the other is struck, taking care, however, always to place them in such a position that no turning or twisting of the handle is necessary before action, as this involves loss of time, and makes him liable to constant blunders when he takes part in a tune.

The length of the table varies according to the number of bells required and the style of music undertaken. Forty-four bells are sufficient for most simple melodies and exercises, and for them the space required is about 11 feet by 5 feet.

“Flourishing”

“Flourishing” the bells is impossible in quick music, and is only undertaken in slow passages, when the notes are to be sustained. In working the bells alternately, the dying vibration of one bell must never be allowed to mingle with the next, for this is even more discordant than when, in pianoforte playing, a pedal is kept down too long, and makes the vibration of one chord jar into the next.

To prevent this, the vibrating bell should be placed on the table immediately before the other is about to be struck, but not in such a manner as to rob the note of its proper value. In a staccato passage, on the contrary, the bells should be set quickly on the table as soon as they have sounded.

In practicing the ringing of alternate bells, make each vibration the value of a semibreve, then a minim, and lastly a crotchet, until perfect dexterity is achieved, thus:—

When the trebles are divided, the first treble plays the notes turned upwards, and the second treble the downward tailed—thus, in the scale of C:—

The notes should follow without any break as continuously and smoothly as though one player were ringing the scale.

Ringing two bells in each hand is difficult of accomplishment. In order to do this successfully, one bell is lifted and gripped in the right hand by the first and second fingers and struck downward. Then another bell is inserted between the thumb and first finger, the flat part of the handles at right angles. The first bell is again struck down, when it will be discovered that the second bell remains silent until it is slightly turned from left to right by a quick wrist movement, while in its turn the first bell gives no sound, simply because it needs a downward stroke, and the side stroke, which gives voice to the second bell, is in a contrary direction.

Extreme care and perseverance are necessary before these two bells can be properly manipulated, and a great number of exercises which the student can construct for himself should be practiced.

Chromatic notes present great difficulty, especially in more advanced music, and can only be mastered gradually. In simpler passages, when they occur, the student should place the chromatic bells in the back row in the order in which they are to be used. If his chromatics are arranged (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), and he has memorized their position beforehand, he will have no difficulty in finding them as they are required.

A company of bell-ringers should have a large rÉpertoire of music of as much variety as possible. Many of the pieces which are most suitable are somewhat hackneyed, and yet are cordially welcomed when musically treated, and other works can always be arranged for playing.

Tone, expression, and phrasing are all-important. The rhythm of sounds must not alter with the changing of the bells. It must continue in a sweet flow of music, just as if one hand were manipulating every bell. The jerk, the overlong pause, or the lack of tone in one player’s work, has power to mar the whole performance.

In large orchestras constant playing together is necessary for proper union and harmonizing of sounds, and this is equally essential in bell-ringing. It must ever be remembered that “practice makes perfect,” and the blending of the bells needs unending patience and persistence.

For beginners such pieces as “The Minstrel Boy,” “She Wore a Wreath of Roses,” “Home, Sweet Home,” “The Last Rose of Summer,” and the National Anthem prove stepping-stones to enterprises of a more complicated nature, and should be carefully studied, for “vaulting ambition” is quite out of the question in the art of hand-bell ringing.