Making Joyful Music - The Handbell Choir

I remember when I first saw 7 people line up at a table, pick up two bells with each hand, and proceed to make music unlike anything I've heard before or since.  Not a single one of them played the melody. They created the melody and chords by coordinated movements and exquisite timing.  They played hymns, popular songs, you name it. And the sound of bells was magical and enchanting.

Imagine being in a choir without having to sing a single note. But you sure have to be able to concentrate, and read music.

Join me as we dive into the world of a handbell choir, how the bells work (more complicated than you'd think), and how with lots of practice they learn to play together.  You'll get to meet Matt Weed, a long-time handbell player who really knows his way around the bells. Like Matt, many of those in the Faith Lutheran Church Handbell Choir of Redmond, Washington, have been playing in the choir for 40-50 years. What is it that motivates these people to take time out at the end of their workdays to play bells? 

They say it's a lot of fun. And they invite anyone to experience handbell playing, including with digital bells online or on your phone. But it's more fun with a group of people!

Please see for links, videos, and photos at https://nordicontap.com/making-joyful-music-the-handbell-choir/.

 

 

 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Når er det tid for Nordisk på Trykk! (Now it's time for Nordic on Tap)

(00:02):
[Intro music plays]
Welcome to our podcast featuring

(00:23):
interviews, music, folk tales, and lots of hygge.
All with a Nordic flavor.
I'm your host, Eric Stavney.
[Intro music finishes playing]
[Sound of a small bell ringing] That's the sound of a

(00:45):
brass bell that I bought at a tiny metal foundry
near Hestenesøyra, Norway, along the Gloppen Fjord. It has a pretty
clear tone in pitch. You know, bells fascinate me because for one thing, they're very old.

They date back to Neolithic China. In 3000 BCE. In Europe, bells

(01:07):
were used as early as the 400's A.C.E. and were used to signal the community,
in churches for worship and celebration of Christmas, as a warning of danger, a call to action...

And if you're out in the fields and you knew that there was someone who was very sick down in the village

and you heard the church bell, play a single note. You'd know that person had passed.

(01:32):

Bells were used to symbolize and celebrate peace. They were definitely wrong by

several countries at the end of World War II. And don't forget those fantastic church bells

in Moscow that were playing at the saving of Russia in Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture (Overture of 1812).
Then there are small bells, some with handles.

(01:59):

That may be in the 1800s, 1900s, years and years ago in the United States. I know were

used by teachers in small schools. These are bells with a handle that were used to
signal the end of recess or the start of lunchtime. Those are hand bells,


(02:19):
but you can use cousins of the teacher bells, ones that play a very clear
pitch as their fundamental tone. You can use those to make music.

Now, how do you make music if you don't have all the keys in front of you in all your multiple hands?

You only have two hands, right? Well, you need a handbell choir. How does that work?

(02:44):

Well, I learned that one of my colleagues in my day job, Matthew weed, is by

day whatever he does it work. But by night, in our weekends, he is a handbell player

at Faith Lutheran Church. I thought he'd be a great person to help pull back the

curtain on this fascinating world of handbell playing in handbell choirs. Matt,

(03:10):

welcome to Nordic content. Oh, thanks, Eric. This is exciting. I thought we talked about handbells.

When we started with Euryanat and Bill Choir at Faith Lutheran Church, right? Yep, Faith Lutheran here in Redwood, Washington.
Redmond, Washington. When you say choir, I always think of voices. What was the
handbell choir that you are parting? In the U.S. they're usually referred to as a handbell choir, so it's the ensemble

(03:35):

or group of people that rings or we offer chorus of just handbell ringers. But a choir can be anywhere from
8 to 15 to more ringers who are responsible for a series

of bells each bell ringing one particular note. So when we play as a choir, I don't get

the play the melody or the harmony. I get to play see about middle c and d. I made the sharps

(04:00):

of flats and my neighbors are playing the bells above me in the bells below me on the musical
staff. Boy, it suggests me that takes a lot of concentration and timing. There are a lot
of chord nations because there isn't usually a late ringer because nobody's carrying the melody. So you have to be

able to keep the rhythm in your own head and ring regardless of what your neighbors are doing

(04:25):

and trust that they will come in on the next 16th note or eighth note or hold it in a timely manner. So there is

a lot of coordination and the volume with the bell, depending on how strongly you ring it. So you need
to be coordinated with the people around you. Bells can be run very softly. Bells

can be run very loudly and the worst thing you can do is have a choir that everybody's ringing at their own

(04:50):

volume. You will not hear the music. You will not hear the melody line, for example, because they
will get lost by people's choices. I know you've been doing this a while, how do you get started in?

Well, the summer before 7th grade, a family of our church donated, purchased a donated, a two-octave set

of bells. And so they were delivered during the summer. And I was part of the youth group. And so we got to unpack bells and go, "What are these?"

(05:16):

I think most of us have ever seen or heard of a handbell. And that was the beginning of our Handel
Choirs and Suds. Like 50 years ago, when I started, it's a 50 years plus for our Handel Choir
here. We've grown over the years from now how five octaves, as other donations, and then the Handel Choirs

raised their own funds to a purchase of October 2. One time we had five choirs

(05:40):

simultaneously, from kindergarten age up through adults. Could it fly the Handel Choirs? Five Handel Choirs,
all varying degrees of proficiency, and usually our senior Handel Choirs was huge of the most technically

strong. And most of them had grown up with the opposed the years went by. They are the ones that grew up playing Handel's.

And they'd go on tours to play Disney land, they played Yellowstone, Old Faithful for a Fourth of

(06:05):
July concert. We'd travel, I played once at Washington State University. We played for a class

for non-musicians, music class. Bells are actually a lot of fun for other people to pick up
and play and ring, because you need to make the correct sound. You are definitely a musician.

Definitely a musician. We understand music. I don't play any other musical instrument.

(06:30):

Our Handel music looks to well-spear like piano music, there's a full sheet of black notes on lots of lines,

with all the notations that go along with that. So we do need to learn how to read music.

So it's 50 years. Obviously, people have hobbies and they do stuff for one these three, four years.

And move on, but you have stayed in it. And so I'm always asked people,

(06:55):

what is it that attracts you? There I could be a number of things in the end of fellowship, camaraderie. Absolutely. So this is the trick
I grew up in. I know I know everybody, values over the years. So there's that sense of comic,

camaraderie fellowship and a sense of belonging. There's also just something about the music. So it's a beautiful sound
to hear handbells wrong. But the interesting thing was when you're in the choir, you don't hear the choir the same

(07:21):
way that somebody in an audience does because you're a little closer to the bells. I can always hear my bells better than anybody else.

But there's still something about it and it's a very cooperative effort. Again, since you're

playing designated notes, regardless of where it comes in the overall music, it's a highly coordinated
and sometimes physically choreographed. I've only got two hands, but I may be responsible

(07:47):

on a normal base, some responsible for four bells. It could be the flats and the sharps associated with the bells. I have but

at the bells don't rig too frequently. I pick up other bells also, and I can fortenate, and I can ring

two bells per hand. We also have techniques for suspending the bells, and it's called a bell tree,

and using a mallet, almost like a vertical xylophone, so I could play a dozen bells. So there's

(08:12):
just a lot of creativity. But when I love about it it's I don't have to be up being in tune. I don't have to have the light,

the correct lips, chair playing the flu, I don't ever have about tightening the strings on a guitar. The bell can get out of tune,

but it doesn't happen easily. They do need to be adjusted a few times a year just to make sure they're actually striking
correctly, but the effort is more than on the physical arm of movement, and the ear.

(08:37):

So you have robes, you know, to you have a uniform out of it. We have definitely varied over the years.

There was a decade where we all work, Tuxedo shirts, Comberbuns, and both times. Other decades when

we were a polo, matching polo shirts and dark pants. Today, our choir, we have just had one choir smell.
It's all adults. It's a small choir of eight, and we just decided we'll all be casual. So whatever works for being

(09:02):

a church is just fine. The only thing that's consistent throughout that, out all of that for us is door gloves.

You don't want your hands to be touching the bronz casing of the bells because they will pick

up fingerprints, which can etch over time. It can make them very difficult to keep clean and bright and shiny. So most hand-elpoirs

will wear gloves. Although there was a time when we were rebels and we decided we were going to wear gloves either. But we're back to gloves

(09:27):

again. There you should cotton gloves and you can get them in plight black, at least, and they also

have the little rubber docks on the edge of the finger tips. So you can turn the page of your music. There's about that.

It's a little hard to progress through a song that's more of the two pages long. If you can't turn the music, so you do have page turning
help. Are you laid out and rose, you laid out one row? Most choirs, I'm speaking from

(09:52):
most choirs, for my experience. We've either been in one row or two rows, but with eight players, we can do it in

one row. We're on padded tables in front of us. And now these tables are waist high
and have four inches of foam padding on them in addition to the table cloth. So you can lay
the belt down on the table and not have a roll off, and also you don't want to make any extraneous sounds. That's why it's padded.

(10:16):

Larger choirs may end up being in two rows so that you aren't spread too far wide,

but again we're playing, but it's just eight ringers we can always do in one row. That our tables are on wheels so we can

generally we'll try and put ourselves into a slight arc. So we have a chance of seeing our fellow bell ringers
at either end of the below row. And then the bells are laid out in sequence as it would just like piano keys. So if you're lowest

(10:41):

bells on the left your highest bells on the right, unless you're picking up an incidental bell in some bell that would bring this once

or twice, anybody in the choir could probably take care of that. But all I was be adjacent to the ringers who are playing the bells
that are adjacent to your bells. I'm picturing people have specific stations they stand at. It depends on the

choir. I'm currently, we all have our regular bells. We always know which bells will generally be responsible

(11:06):
for. Over the years, as I played some of the other prayers for the church, just to keep things interesting and lively,

we would move our cells around. If you normally play in the trouble-tap, you might grow up and down and play in the base. All of base cleft
bells can get fairly heavy, so if you aren't used to ringing the base cleft bells, that can be
a bit of a challenge. Several pounds, I'm sure, huh? Yeah, especially the lowest bells. We talked about two

(11:31):

things going on. First of all, you have to know which bell they go up or to ring in second, a timing,

and then you also need to know when it's not supposed to be playing. I guess you mute them sometimes.
So when you ring a bell, it will continue reverberating for quite a while, and depending on the piece of the music, the

composer and his or her desires. There may be a reason to dampen the bell,

(11:56):

so that if it only rings for one beat or for a full measure or let it ring, healthy,

let it vibrate. Is that a notation in? Elby, Elby is a notation in the bells, which means
do not dampen the bell. Let it ring until just an action. It sounds actually dies out. I will often dampen up against my chest
and just press a mid to my shirt for my vest. Obviously when you put it down on a table, it will end up dampening.

(12:21):

But when you're ringing bells, you want the bell to be upright if you think of the opening on the bell to be pointing up because the sound
goes out at 90 degrees to that. So you hold the bell out in front of you. You don't point it at your audience because then the

sound will go up and down. So instead you hold the bell upright and that will allow the sound to go towards your audience. So it's easy
to dampen or to get your own body and that if I need to switch bells, of course I need to put the bell down onto the table without

(12:47):

making a noise without having the bells hit each other. And then pick up another bell if I'm going to have the ready for another piece of music.

I heard one gal on YouTube, the bell girl also known as Porsche Berryman in Texas

of USA. She made a series of videos to say that holding a handbell

is like holding an ice cream cone and presenting it to somebody. My ring holding the ice cream

(13:13):
cone I love that analogy, hold the ice cream cone. I'm going to scoop it down a little bit as I push it out forward
of me. Scoop by lying down. Allowing the there's a clapper in the bell that needs to ring. But needs to strike forward.

That's what's going to make the sound. The handbells we have can be wrong backwards also.

There's a spring and a clapper inside the controls. But it can only be wrong forward in backwards.

(13:38):

It can't be wrong sideways. Otherwise you'd get lots of extraneous, accidental, ringing and sounds. But you've got to cut a little

bit of snappy at the end of that scoop in order to make that clapper hit just right. You it we were

talking about this previously about the challenge of playing a succession of notes. I are short.

I mean, 16 states. If it's made up of multiple people having bells, that's

(14:03):

really tricky. I took the exact click and write. Yep, and that's what I spent a lot of time in practice. Whether
it be a run, at least, it's visibly easier for us to figure out because you can see people ringing bells to your left. Coming close

to you, but then they're going the other way. But if it's not a clear run, but it's still very quick change in bells.

Again, you've got to know what the tempo is. So you don't play just sick or music, you pay. What are other things, for

(14:28):

example? Right now, our choir is focused mostly on church performances. So we do play mostly that. Over the years,

it's played music from the Lion King and the fan of the opera and the Buppet Show theme song. All

the patriotic songs, you know, America, the beautiful center. We have the concerts

where we'll have a mix of sacred and non-sacred music. Obviously

(14:52):

church, Sunday morning, church performances are along him and religious pieces.

Probably not just anybody makes handbells, right? No, the basketball majority of handbells
in the United States are made by two companies, both out of Pennsylvania, Schulmerick and Mallmark
and our bells are Schulmerick. I think they've been business about 50 years, and there are other manufacturers

(15:19):

in the world, but by far in the U.S., some of the two big players in their bells will roughly simmer. They have

a slightly different, generally don't mix your Mallmark and your Schulmerick bells together, they want quite match up,
but we play Schulmerick and those bells for both those companies, they're kind of the standard of handbell

brawls, it's about 80% copper and 20% tin, and it makes the beautiful,

(15:44):
clear sound that the style of bell is no more. Actually I imagine that the biggest
bells, because of the weight question, sometimes you're made of some bells, you're not present. True, you get

down to the absolute lowest bells available, and the largest handbell choir spreads about nine octos,
with that lower octave of bells, some of those bells maybe actually made out of aluminum, because you just wouldn't be able

(16:09):

to pick them up and you'll just swing them. It's certainly going to be able to one hand swing on like you do with most bells. And the
very few choirs would have those with their very expensive them. You wouldn't even use them at most at
the time. So typical choirs are two to three octons is basically a starting choir, and then I would say most choirs
have been around for a while, probably in the five octave range. We have five octaves of handbells, and then

(16:33):

we have three octaves of hand chimes, which is a different instrument but along

the same lines. Ours are square, tubular aluminum with
a clapper on them, and it makes a much softer sound than a handbell. And so

we have music, Robert, use both. It makes me think about the evolution

(16:58):
of handbells and how they came to be. The handbell for people who've seen handbells, and the United States were printed

to as English handbells, not because they came from England, but at the style. But the handbells,
the tuned handbells, have only been an existence since the 17th century. Bells

have around obviously 1,000,000 years, but the idea of having a set of bells that are tuned to each

(17:24):

other. And they really were created to provide tower bell ringers, so I think of a bell tower
that's got bells suspended. Well, well, above the town, most towns would not appreciate having the bell ringers

practicing all day. So hand bells were created to allow those ringers to have something

to practice. And in England, bell towers play what are called changes. And the changes

(17:49):

is just a mathematical sequence of ringing the bell doesn't normally play tools, but you
need the bells to write notes in order to play this mathematical scale back before. And so those
bells will be playing for hours and hours. And these are people standing like in a circle pulling big
brimps. They are pulling down on the ropes. Wow. You imagine the images of the mugs flying up into the rafters,

(18:13):

well, I don't think they normally fly, but they are physically pulling down on a rope in order to ring that bell.

It's a very physically demanding. I watched a choir from, or a
five men, rang bells. They were from North of the years ago. They were on tour. They rang
their bells by flipping them. So the bell was on a table with the opening facing

(18:37):
down and they were lifted up the handle and flipped their wrist in order to read it. But I remember reading about

one of the players, he rang four tons of bells in a single performance. So you're going to imagine the arms drink for that style
of drink. Now that's not style to use, but still we can have slower arms at the end of the day. Carolons, they bell

tower that has a set up two bells, and you could actually play it, it actually has a keyboard. I've

(19:02):

only seen one once. I've got a chance to go in and the carolong player. Let us see it. But
these keyboards don't push down with your finger like a piano. You're hitting it, slam it with your fist in order to get enough force
to make those bells up in the carolong ring. So the Dutch carolongs would actually play recognizable

(19:22):
tunes, most English bell towers, simply or playing a appeal, or a series

of bells in sequence. But that's where the handle were created for, to give a more a neighborhood friendly means of practicing

the bell. Anything else you can think of relative to the history of and bells? I only heard it more

recently, but it was just surprised that handles worked around much longer. The first handle choir that was created

(19:48):
in the United States was only in the early 1900s. And there was a set of bells that were gifted from the

English manufacturer. It was sent over. But a PT bar number brought the first bell choir to the United States.
They were from England. We brought him in as a novelty act. But he decided to

dress them up as if they were Swiss. Because apparently the English wouldn't be as appealing in his appetizing.

(20:12):
So they were labeled as the Swiss ringers and they would travel with a PT bar number

show and people would definitely the first time they'd ever seen. Can you show me the circus past?
Absolutely. But then it was decades later before an actual choir was created in the United States. And today the Handel

Musicians of America is kind of the organizer organizing entity behind the American

(20:37):
Handel Fires. The coordinates, conferences, and Bell ringing will have a conference

that might have a hundred choirs, a sudden tendency of ringing. So we'll learn about my costume

and ring synchronized, ringing with the other choirs as well as having solo shows

being able to show off. And then you'd have guest conductors come in. Each of us would have been practicing

(21:02):
for months, most likely, getting ready to come to this three or four day event. But they're all over the United States.

Wow, I mean, the most I've been in a choir and we may be sang
with one or two other choirs at the same time. And you're saying this is way bigger. Well,
one, we go see some bells. Sure. So you brought me over to the Alcov in the sanctuary where the congregation

(21:27):

sits from the congregations you point rough to the left side of our sanctuary and
this has a hardwood floor. So like a found bounces correctly

and a curved wall behind us. Nice. So the sound is pushed out into the

sanctuary. But the handbells come to us and are normally stored

(21:51):

in cases. They can hold anywhere from the small bells. Now 18 small bells up to
maybe only four or six of the larger bells. But that makes them portable. And so for many people and organizations

so need to put their bells back into the case and then put the case into their locked cabinet or cover group music room.


(22:12):
We're fortunate that we have several carpenters in our congregation a few years back and built us on a beautiful

oak wall cabinetry. So we can put all where bells upright on padded shelves right behind our
tables where we play. We're staying now next to these tables on wheels at that foam is pretty

thick isn't it? Yeah, generally four inches. I think we've got a bigger one. It's just kind of like

(22:37):

a felted piece of it. And it's this thick perhaps because that big bells need. Yeah,
because if you've set a bell down, it's going to sink a little bit into the table. If you need to use the padded to help you dampen the bell,

you need a little bit more space. But it really does minimize the amount of them clinking and clanking that can go along with the choir.
And you definitely don't want the bells to hit each other, so you don't want them to roll round, because they can get dinged, chipped,

(23:02):

and that will change the tone of the bell. But the bells can develop cracks, very fine cracks, so we don't even see, but you can
hear it and realize that doesn't sound right. So all of our bells have been refurbished over the years. They're in sequence

R highest bells, known as the C-8, so we'll go up to 8, and then we go down to a C-4, and that's

for a five-ocked choir. Well, I see you've pulled down some bells. Yep, I pulled out all of

(23:28):
our C- bells from our C-3, and we were C-8. And it looks like, so they all have handles
on the top, so you don't shake 'em, you hold the handle, right? Correct. Yep, and the handles all

have marks on the front to indicate a front and a back, so you know which way the clapper is aligned.
So there's a right side and a potentially wrong side, so you're going to want all your

(23:54):
bells oriented the same way and make sure that you've got all the bells tuned to each other. Can you demo making
it sound and then turn it so that it's a part of this? So this is the C-5, that's kind

of the middle of our four bell ranges. C-5.
So that's up right. It's kind of like holding an ice cream cone so the sound is going

(24:19):
out at a 90 degree angle so it's going towards me in a way for me. It's not sending any music up. Yes. But if I ring it and then

reorient the bell itself, tip it forward to the back. See if you can pick up the notes. Yes.
Yeah. Yeah.

(24:43):

You can hear that note and so staying for part of our hour. Yes. Yes. So some of the
bell techniques that will have you intentionally waver the bell or would like to say that tower swing. So it's out and then it's
all way down pointing to the ground next to my leg in the back up.


(25:08):
What keeps the clapper from hitting the back? Right back. Yeah. They all have adjustable

springs inside. And it's interesting because otherwise you can imagine just picking up a bell that it could sound. There's
wiser control it. Because it's stationary clapper system on the inside of the bell, you do need to ring it at
the right angle away from your body. Because if I ring it, you know, if I'm looking forward and ring it, clap

(25:33):
your swing swing forward. But if I even shift it, I like 10 degrees in my hand and I
try to ring it forward. I might get a sound. Okay. If I shift it a little more, I'm

going to get nothing. Get nothing. It is warm. Because I'm not, I'm not in alignment with the clapper. So again, when you pick

up a bell, you've got to make sure you pick it up correctly. Our handles make it much easier because they're

(25:58):
not rounded handles. So there's a flat feel. So you can, you can tell when you pick up a bell if you
have an oriented correctly. And the clapper looks like it's metal with a plastic rubber bumper
on it. Most of these are quick, quick change clapper adjustments so we can actually turn it, click it to the
left of the right, press soft, medium or a hard sound. So, most of the time I'm going to have

(26:22):

my bells on medium and I'll adjust the volume by how hard I ring it. You
see here? Because I want the bass

came scoop to still be upright when I'm dampening it. Otherwise you're going to create a wow wow effect. If you tip the bell and
try and do anything else with it, except that some music is asked you to table dampen so you'd ring it and you're

(26:47):

going to be tipping your bell forward and pushing it into the table. Like it's a slightly different
sound. Now is that considered a marked allow or mark for short? No, a marked allow

would be ringing it into the table. I see. Very progressive. That's me ringing it from maybe like four inches
above the table into the table. I get to a thumb block. So bell is

(27:12):
resting on the table. It's not suspended at all and I'm just using my fingers to make them clap or ring
it. So it's similar sound to a lotter. Depends on which bell is like

the bigger bell is there. It's hard to swing. So we're more like into a thumb damp. But the small bell is much easier to

ring into the table. Yes, I imagine. Yeah, the big bell is.

(27:36):

And the thumb damp simply is you have your thumb on it when
you're ringing it. This is again the C5, the one I've been ringing with my thumb

resting against the bell. The tone is not as sustained. And if
I move my thumb up, go get even less of it. And the bigger the bell,

(28:01):

so this is this, we'll see three, which I'm going to use my right arm. It's my left arm.
I don't normally ring this low anymore. I tend to ring the C6, so this is the C3.
If you really wanted that to keep going,

(28:21):

you get it with a mall and go around

the outside. Then I could do the singing bell. The tossing of a slightly different
sound, but I'll skip the tone. Could you ring your A-sale, so that was a C, and
just visually, if everybody's looking at the bell, so it'll look like each bell's about half the size of it, as you go

(28:46):

up. Okay. Now, that one, what do we say? This is biggest, it's the bad soccer ball. So, it's the biggest,
my toaster at one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. What do that say? That's pretty loud. So, just let's see, three. See
four.

(29:08):
That was
a six.

This was seven. And this is a C-8.

(29:29):

And that was that C-8. It just dies away. Yeah. With it. With

it a B-2. So, throwing it in the C-8, I'm not too worried about dampening aggressively because it's going to die off pretty quick. I think
you would tell me that it's not just a hold-out scare. You can be chromat, you can do sharks and fly

away. Oh yeah. Yeah. Just like the key's on the piano. So, the sharks and flats, so we'll have 60 plus bells

(29:54):
in our five octaves. And again, my standard position, I'll be putting the C in the D and I'll probably
pick up the sharks and I'll have the sharks and flats associated with it. Sometimes I'll double and that means I'm going to play my

C-6. And depending on how the music written, we belce me the
C7 ringing at the same time. So I may be responsible for ringing both of them. See if I can

(30:19):
ring them both. Including them both. Wow. But I do a little bit of a flick of the wrist in order to

get both of them ringing simultaneously. Because otherwise, if you do a standard ice
cream cone presentation, you'll only get one. I tend to get only the, yeah, probably sending up a one. Because the other

bell is sticking out at 90 degrees. So I got to think about how I'm going to physically bring. Now we do have one of our

(30:43):
ringers who regularly rings what's called foreign handle. That's two per hand. And so she'll ring
an A and a C and one hand and the B and the D and the other hand or a combination. And she'll have
the bells at 90 degrees to each other. And we'll have to ring kind of to the left or kind of to the

right with her swing. So she's not doing the straight out in front of you. Swing the muscles are doing. I think she referred

(31:07):
to the so if she had the two right ankles to each other whatever the regular

ring. And then she called it knocking which I think is
rotating your hand. Actually my rotate her hand but the ice can grip but now if you turn

your ice can come down degrees of course the ice can fall out of the cone but these are ice streams anymore so. Matt

(31:32):
brought me to a choir rehearsal where I talked to Renee about playing two bells with one hand. So you plan that

are they like right angle? Yes they're right angles. So this when a bell rings it
has to hit right here. So what do you do? It's a knock. This is called a knock. And then
this when you turn your wrist. You turn your wrist to do the top one. Right and the same

(31:56):

with this. This one and this is the knock. This is the bottom one I'm always knocking.
So sometimes you have to play, but this is the, yeah the A and the C.

A and the C. So it's in third on the scale. Yes right. Right. So this is the third

and then you do those. There are other people who do it differently. So it sounds like knocking is a particular

(32:23):
move versus. It is, you hold it differently and you turn your wrist. So
which one is knocking? It's the line. It's the C and the A, the G and the C.

In case you'd like to visualize this, the two in hand, I'll place a description as a link or footnote on this episode's

website. Sometimes the last move that we did was a marked. That's the

(32:47):

last note. The last note is a marked. So we have a lot of different moves. We have, um,

this is called a gyro. Well going around in a circle. Yeah. And it's, it sustains a long time.
Yes, it does. This is a problem with these bells. The tiny ones is they don't stay very long. But you

(33:09):

can do this. You can always also do this. There's different ways of shaking. Shaking is another move.
Oh yeah, we have these, why don't we have any, but we have these wooden thing that you go, it's like a colored
stir stick and it, it's, it's, it's a different sound altogether. So as we were

talking, Howard came over holding a big C6 bell and he was rubbing a mallet

(33:35):

around and around around the outside rim. Can you hear that in the background? And you're using actually a, like a dowel,

it's a big fat dowel. It is a big fat dowel. And when you release it, it still goes.

That's a long, so, that's the same thing. Singing belt and we, it really is wonderful

on the larger bells. Because these still even with that dowel will not suspend that most. So you're

(34:00):

rubbing a dowel around the, the outside, the very edge, round and round and round. Have
seen that in Tibet and bells. It's like that. It is like that. For meditation or whatever. Exactly.
Yeah. Yeah. So. And you can change the volume sound slightly. It's fast.

It's not necessarily more pressure. It's just faster. No, you don't use it. It's not about pressure. And staying.

(34:26):

Yeah. So there's a lot of different things too. That's neat. It's fun. I can tell. We love
doing it. I've been doing it for 40 years.

Obviously, these folks really enjoy ringing. I'll play you now, a Christmas piece that

they were rehearsing that night. One that I learned myself singing in a choir, the French caro Ilene

(34:52):

ledivino font, or he was born the divine child. Listen for

the thumb, dampen bells, thumb damped bells in the second verse. A sound kind of

clipped or muffled. And at the very end, all the bells are damped with a Marta Lotto. As they

were pressed down into the the felt tables on the last note, a one, two, ready? Yeah.

(35:18):


(37:48):
Wasn't that neat, especially that maridolato at the end. Hey, we touched on the shines. Oh, yeah,
I brought out the shines. And again, our shines are squared aluminum

tubes. The clapper on the outside.

(38:09):
And you bring it generally the same way as you do the handbell. You know, do the scoop and it doesn't look like a hand. It doesn't look like an ice cream cup.

So that's the C5 and a charm. Here's the C5 and a bronze bell.

Yeah. And you can hear much more

(38:30):
of a wow effect with the charm. Sure enough. It feels much more direct. I think
it around. Yeah. It looks almost like a sort of a tuning fork. It's split. Yeah,

the top. Yes, it does have a split in the parts where a tubular in order to... It looks
like it's really clear how... Well, I mean, yeah, how to hold it, because you've got all

(38:55):
the... Yeah, as much as you're to hold, there's less doubt about whether you have it held at the right, orientation,

or if you have it up or down, which is why it's again easier for particularly kids, but younger, who acquires to rent. So this is
a C6. So we'll often pass out
the chimes, to members of the congregation, have them play along with us. Oh, yeah,

(39:20):
because it's so much... You know, it's likely to make a mistake with it, or get no sound out of it. So

if we're trying to involve people, you know, more... a lighter service. So both of you and I
are getting on towards retirement, our day jobs and stuff. Do you

think you'll continue, Belly? I expect I'll be ringing for a while. Yeah, I really

(39:45):
do enjoy them. You know, gives me a purpose on Wednesday night, and on those Sundays when performing, it
is fun to ring with my fellow ringers. I've only ever run, well, I've, I've, I've run with
our choir's here at the church for these going on 50 years. Thank you, Matt. For spending time with us.

Well, my pleasure. Happy to tell the story of the bells. I am indebted to these wonderful musicians who let me record

(40:10):
their rehearsal, starting with the high bells to the lows, Renee, Carla with

a C, Matt, Carla with a K, Dorothy, Jodie, Howard, and their

director, Dr. William Bryant. Thank you. Matt reminded me
that there are also community hand-bale choirs that are not associated with churches,

(40:34):

such as in the Greater Seattle area, the Emerald Ringers in Bellevue, and the Bells of the Sound.

At Faith Lutheran Church, I'm told that they practice every Wednesday
night, and they play in one church service, Prima. According to various websites,

there is at least one hand-bale choir in almost every state of the United States, and almost

(40:59):

every province of Canada. If you go to handbells.eu,

you can see that there are choirs in various European countries in the Nordics,

Norway, and Sweden, and Iceland, all have at least one hand-bale choir.


(41:19):
I know of one in Norway in Toronto. Not sure about Denmark. England and Scotland
definitely have hand-bale choirs, and in Finland, they have six. Maybe there's

one near you. Now look, you can even download a mobile phone app that rings

like a hand-bale. When you shake it, form your own choir with real or digital hand

(41:45):

bells. I hope to have a future podcast on community choruses. That's the
vocal variety. You see, folks, there's lots of ways to get involved with music and great people.

I'll put the links to the various videos and recordings we touched on on the episode website,

(42:05):

such as Porsche Berryman's Bellgirl videos, one on forehand ringing, carol on her

tower bells, change ringing, and this business of overtones in bells, which
we didn't even mention. We mentioned the word "overtones" in the natural skill back

when we talked about the lore in one of our podcasts. What's unusual about bells is that they vibrate

(42:30):
differently from string instruments and air instruments. And as a result
sometimes they definitely sound different. I'll also put a recording of the Faith Lutheran

Handbill choir rehearsing the Christmas carol silent night. Listen for the second
verse, where chimes instead of handbells play the melody. I commend your ears

(42:54):

to Seattle's Scandinavian-hour radio show, streaming on Saturdays and Sundays at 6 a.m.
Pacific Time, and then on Saturday at 9 a.m. Pacific. These are repeats of the same weekly show. Remember

that, listening to radio streaming requires that you're present online at the proper time. Maybe

you go to Scandinavian-hour.org or to the KKNW Seattle Radio

(43:20):

channel online too. There's a rumor that they may convert

to podcasts format. If they do, you'll hear it first here. Then you can hear your

favorite Scandinavian tunes that they play, that they play folk marching bands, courses,

vocals, occasionally interviews with interesting people and community events.

(43:45):

Our introductory music is "English Waltz" as written by Alfred Morton Hoytrup, and performed together
with Ruthy Dornfeld. See Alfred Morton.com for more great music.

Our outgoing music is written and performed by Darrell Jackson at DarrellJacksonmusic.com.

(44:06):

Based on your responses to our survey, indeed, your opinion counts. We're

making podcasts about sunk to Lucy a day about the Swedish inventor John
Erickson, the Norwegian scientist, Christian Birkeland. I pay attention


(44:27):
to survey results, and if there's one topic that everyone wants to hear about, it's history. Your
feedback is very welcome at [e-mail]. And
I want to give a huge shout out to Paula to Paula of the Danish sisterhood of America

for your support out of Illinois United States. And a heartbreaking

(44:53):

goodbye and fond one to retiring editor of the Norwegian American News Lori

and Ryan Hall. Your moral support has helped carry this show. And so I wish
you a great beginning to 2025. I am Eric Stavney. We'll see you next time.
We say us on Nordic on Tap.