Why Composers Love Bells
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
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In this video I talk about Bells (a lot) and the influence Bells and Bell music have had on Composers. Why do we love them?
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Research
Two great posts by Ethan Iverson : Red's Bells ethaniverson.c...
Mccoy Tyner's revolution ethaniverson.c...
The Sound of Bells research by Bill Hibberts www.hibberts.co... including a full PhD on how partials affect perception of pitch.
Videos
Great video on the mathematics of Bell Ringing • Mathematical Impressio...
Jason Aryeh Research Project. Kpanlogo dance from the Ga tribe in Ghana
• Jason Aryeh Research P...
Nigerian musicians • ogene udu 1
Slovenian Bell Ringing • Pritrkavanje za nedelj...
Cambridge Bell Ringers • Bell Ringers´ Room, Ch...
Jonathan Harvey Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco
• Mortuos Plango, Vivos ...
Documentary on the Harvey piece • Jonathan Harvey - Mort...
Wells Cathedral singing Eric Whitacre • Lux Aurumque - Eric Wh...
Ligeti's Fem performed by Christina McMaster • Gyorgy Ligeti - Fem Et...
Parsifal Grail Bells Experiment • Parsifal Grail Bells e...
Mussorgsky Boris Godunov • Mikhail Kazakov, bass ...
Marin Marais: Sonnerie de Ste Genevieve du Mont de Paris
• Marin Marais: Sonnerie...
Bell Tuning • Bell Tuning
Claves of Africa Billy Martin • Video
The Ghana Project 2013 has some great Ghana recordings • Sample video of Ghanai...
12 Tone - The World's Most Popular Rhythm • The World's Most Popul...
Shostakovich 11 • Shostakovich Symphony ...
Wagner Parsifal Transformation Music • Parsifal (Transformati...
BELLS
Not sure I agree. Ah, no actually, yeah, you're right. BELLS
Wow, that an impressively quick nod from one of my favourite music youtubers to another! Adam could not possibly have watched the whole the video before commenting, but yeah, BELLS.
Now I want to hear the intro, but with every occurrence of "bells" replaced with Adam Neely saying "BELLS" xD
(also why is this the 184th of 187 comments, tf youtube?)
We're one minute in and the word bells has already lost all meaning for me.
I think David should write a cantata based on the bells poem he wrote at the top of this video.
Isn't he spoofing the E.A.Poe poem "Bells", though? Phil Ochs wrote a song with those words :P
+
@@yuvalne E A Poe is so great.. def inspired the variation at the beginning, but is quite different too imo poets.org/poem/bells
@@dalmacietis I was thinking why the concept of a poem about bells sounds so familiar. Of course it's by Poe!
I'll do it
With pipe organs, we call this “resultant”. It’s a trick to get low notes without actually needed those huge pipes. You just play the corresponding harmonics and your ear thinks it’s the lower note.
A whole video on bells? Tubular! It's amazing how they're such an old field of study.
"Tubular" "oldfield"
I see what you did there.
@@ErebosGRWhat does oldfield mean?
@@columbus8myhw Mike Oldfield wrote Tubular Bells.
The thumbnail is an absolute masterpiece. The perfect way to invite you to watch an amazing video. Thank you!
Love it!
I haven't watched the video yet but came here specifically to comment about the thumbnail!
@@atatdotdot Watched the video some days ago but came *back* here after I noticed the thumbnail in my sidebar :-)
As a mathematician, I like your introduction to the harmonic series: it is a good start for learning Fourier theory.
Why Composers Love Bells?
For em-bell-isments
This one right here, officer, send backups, he makes way too good puns
King of the Dad Joke
That definitely rings true.
Another classic bells tune: Jeff Mills - The Bells
One thing to add is that there is a physical reason bells sound so specific. Their shape is such that because of the thick metal material there is an outside diameter as well as an inside diameter. These define the lower and upper limits of (fundamental) resonances. Pressure waves actually bounce off of both inside and outside of the material, unlike up and down a string. This complex three dimensional interaction of resonances is why the partials are not harmonic. Ask yourself: how can they be harmonic in a shape that is both concave (at the top) and convex (at the bottom)? A well made physical modelling synthesizer that aims to replicate these interactions is at least one dimension more complex than strings, plates, skins, etc...
Also, some work has been done to create new shapes of bells that have more harmonic partials (at least more than classic bell shapes).
Recommended further reading on Rhythms: The Geometry of Musical Rhythm: What Makes a "Good" Rhythm Good? by Godfried Toussaint
In which he makes a thorough analysis of not only the Clave Son, but various other classic bell patterns too
That episode on Gamelan music you suggested would DEFINITELY be something I'd watch! Please do make that!
I was lucky enough to see a live performance which included quite a lot of explanation and also the chance to interact with the instruments and performers. It was fascinating to get a glimpse into a conception of music so wholly different to that we in the west are accustomed too.
When I once was in a Russian church and monastery in Estonia near the border to Russia, I could hear them ringing the bells. They use a style of patterned ringing with bells over a lot of pitch range, just as imitated by Moussorgsky. When you once heard the original, it is easily recognised.
I feel obligated to mention the influence of bells on my favorite composer Messiaen! He was a devout catholic so church bells must have had a strong effect on him. He imitates bells marking a call to prayer and then finally the death of St Francis in Saint François d'Assise, and imitates the joyous clangor of Christmas bells in Noël from Vingt Regards
I just listened to his Vingt Regards all the way through for the first time yesterday and totally agree that it is filled with bell sounds and it's a phenomenal set of music
My Grandma's wind chimes is what captivated me
"Carillon" from L'Arlesienne suite #1 by Bizet is another great bell piece, you hear the 3-note pattern all the way through, even when it's not there.
Amazing what he created on top of the ostinato. Fantastic piece, indeed.
Have not watched the whole video yet, but the thumbnail is amazing. Same goes for the intro! Great job Mr. Bruce!
Yup, you got the thumbs up from the intro alone.
Fantastic intro!!!!
Where can I get that harmonic t-shirt ?
david-bruce-composer.creator-spring.com/listing/new-harmonic-series?product=937
Is that bell poem original?
Seriously, though. Where are the carillons?! 🤔
Great story! My late uncle André Lehr worked for a famous Dutch bell founder. In the eighties, with help from his brother Marius, he developed a 'major' bell, that had a different series of overtones without the minor triad. I believe it was because mostly the Asian clients wanted this sound for their carillons ;-) It was a funny thing; most Dutch people preferred the original bell sound with the solemn ring to it over the brighter sound of the 'major' bells. As you probably know, we have a lot of carillons in NL. More about this: nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klokkengieterij_Eijsbouts
Ik heb zo'n vermoeden dat sir Bruce helaas helemaal nog niet bekend is met het instrument de beiaard. Anders had hij dat ongetwijfeld behandeld in dit verder schitterende overzicht. Ik denk dat ik de hele comment section maar vol ga spammen met allemaal links naar beiaardfilmpjes! 😂
@@erikkrabbenbos4347 dat is een goed idee!
mmm ... bells! My favorite classical music bell piece is Rachmaninoff's Piano Suite for two paino No. 1 - Pâques (Easter), pretty close recreation of orthodox church's bells. The other one probably is the ending of Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy (Symphony no.4). These days you can create bell sounds easily with FM synthesis (e.g. Yamaha - DX7) and Modal synthesis (e.g. Mutable Instruments - Elements / Rings). For FM synthesis, you will need multiple operators in harmonic and in-harmonic relationship with multiple envelopes to capture the transients. For modal synthesis, how you replicate the resonator - elliptic paraboloid-ish shape will be the key. Bell sounds are indeed complex sounds.
Since we’re talking about bells, I’d like to recommend the music of my favorite - and of course, criminally underrated - composer, Federico Mompou. His mother’s family owned a bell foundry, and his grandfather was a bell maker. If you’re unfamiliar with his work, you won’t regret checking it out.
Yes to this recommendation. I hear the influence of bells in his music quite often, often in subtle ways.
Brian Eno's got a thing for bells, and Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells and Pink Floyd's The Division Bell are big influences on me. As The Darkness put it; never let the bells end!
Charles-Valentin Alkan
Alkan's Alleluia and Funeral March are amazing pieces, bells and all.
Yes Mahler 7 is amazing!
Mahler's 7th is underrated, but the last movement is unfortunately the worst symphonic movement he ever wrote (doesn't mean it isn't still decent though). The second movement is absolute genius and is a perfect, 12 minute summary of Mahler's style and his musical colors.
@@DynastieArtistique the final movement is genius, seemingly purely joyous, yet (to me) dripping with sarcasm culminating in the final statement of the primary theme of the first movement in major. It’s contrapuntally quite interesting as well. Also, the worst symphonic movement of Mahler’s is the Scherzo of the First Symphony, in my very humble opinion😅
Mahler 7 has quite possibly the best opening movement ever written for any genre or ensemble but the rest of the symphony is quite hit and miss. I love how he experiments with it but it completely lacks the refinement of the previous 6th and the later symphonies.
Sometimes on Christmas Eve at the church I sing at, I get a set of tubular bells in to play countermelodies to the hymns and carols, and it sounds & feels 50% Christmasier.
Pro tip: never play two bells at once, even octaves, as the harmonics interfere with each other and you can't work out what either note is.
Interesting. I've never heard someone outside of the general midi spec call chimes tubular bells.
@@jasonzurlo1543 Hmmm… I learned orchestration 30 years ago and have hung around choirs ever since. I don't think I ever noticed people using chimes, but it seems like a thing, hehe.
@@jasonzurlo1543 I’m a percussionist and I refer to deep tubular bells as tubular bells, and high pitched bells as chimes.
Speaking of Parsifal, I always find the various recordings from Bayreuth are let down by the strange keyboard instrument used to represent the bells. There is however a remarkable recording from the 1920s with Karl Muck conducting where you can hear the much more impressive sound of the actual bells that were used before WW2
It's so nice that you can just make an illustrated half-hour talk about what bells sound like.
When I was little I was terrified of the idea of being stuck in a bell tower next to one of those huge bells when it starts ringing. Still unsettling to think about. They are like sleeping giants that crush you with sound when they wake up. Not quite as bad as being too close to the Space Shuttle when the engines light up, but similar in concept.
Me, a huge Rachmaninoff fan, before watching: Oh this is going to be good
After watching: What, not a single mention of Rachmaninoff? He literally wrote "The Bells" exploring the different jubilant/announcing/alarming/mournful meanings a bell can have
Still a great video, I'm currently working on his Sonata 2, which has some bell sounds in fourths... I was wondering why, now I know :)
I entered the video like "yeah, he's definitely gonna mention Rachmaninoff"
Yeah, Rach was pretty obsessed with fourths, resonant and dark in the bass, bright and mysterious in the upper register. Funnily I can't hear fourths the same after I heard Jacob Collier talking about how he perceives fourths as minor, but for Rachmaninoff it kind of fits.
Same here! David, I feel Cheated!
Literally I’ve watched a lot of Bruce’s videos on other composers (Beethoven, Ravel, Stravinsky, Messiaen, etc) and have been eagerly awaiting one for Rachmaninoff…but alas today is not that day I guess. The 2 pages leading up to the recapitulation in the 1st movement of R's 2nd sonata (and the recapitulation) has I think the greatest evocation of bells in piano history (with closest competition really again being Rachmaninoff himself, in say his Op. 39/7 mentioned in another comment below) --- clattering chromatic bells in the high register (some in groups of 4 or 8) over the earth-shattering roars of fifths/fourths in the contrabass register (in a triplet rhythm), slowly but inexorably descending further and further until the huge wall of B flat minor that begins the recapitulation.
What about "La Campanella"? It literally translates to "the little bell".
This will recontextualize Rob Scallon's video about carillon in fascinating ways!
Is this what "the Internet"was supposed to be?. A way to get information, history and ideas that were away from us.
This was wonderfull. Thank you.
I once participated in a contest, writing a short piece for the carillon of the big church my home town (and won the second price). In another brass band piece I used the principle of change ringing in some parts. Fascinating stuff for a mathematician. :)
Carillons are inspiring
What a marvelous exploration! Another piece that use bell-mimic is “La Cathedrale Engloutie” by Debussy. Thanks David for the video!
The opening of Débussy’s Sunken Cathedral is also an excellent evocation of bells (with lots of fourths!)
This is my favorite David Bruce thumbnail ever
When I was very youun one sunday I was allowed to ring the church bell of the little village - it was the last millenium and the bell was rung by rope and hand. Awesome experience and I was sooo proud!
I love the sound of bells. I grew up with the sound of church bells calling us to church for Sunday Mass.
That intro was gold
The entire 30-minute video, and he didn't make a single *smash that notification bell* joke? What a legend.
I'm really looking forward to hearing your new choral piece.
I used a perfect 4th interval when working with FM synthesis to make a church bell patch on my synthesizer. This really enlightened me as to why it worked. Thank you!
5:35 If you highpass it at around 400 Hz, you can barely hear the C, only the F, but the strongest partial is a G (harmonic of the filtered C).
Amazing and fun to listen. Never thought about bells that deeply. Thank you for this great presentation.
There's a moment in "Three Quarter Tone Pieces" by Ives that always strikes me as sounding just like a bell.
That caped guy ringing the massive bell in the Russian bell music looks so cool
David: "Bells [...] you can really only get one sound of them"
Handbell players: "Are we a joke to you?"
Another, truly ringing piece is young Ravel's "Entre cloches" (in "Sites auriculaires") for two pianos - especially Paul Jacobs and Gilbert Kalish's marvelous interpretation.
An interesting aspect of the harmonic series is that many instruments only approximate it. In general only those that are actually excited at a certain frequency produce pure harmonics. Examples of this are the human voice, where the repetitive motion of the vocal cords creates the sound, and string instruments where the slip-stick motion of the bow against the string creates the sound. In the case of strings the phenomenon is known as Helmholtz motion. When the excitation is in the form of an impulse or noise, the overtones that are heard are the eigen-frequencies of the instrument, which are often close to the harmonic series, but not exactly the same. So a violin string will have a slightly different overtone series depending on whether it is bowed or plucked.
In organ pipes you can observe very clearly that a narrow pipe will have louder overtones than a wider pipe due to their purity or impurity.
Thumbs up just for the title image!!! XD
Nice turn around on Bells / Belles!
the sound of bells is one of those sounds that stirs the soul in a very special way
You got me with this one. I literally just finished a one movement symphony called Bell 🔔 Harbor. It premieres in October. Thanks for your splendid videos.
I always overlooked the fourth in bells, I always focused on the minor third and attempted to write melody with minor third double stops.
Plus . . . tubular bells. Great video, David. Thanks for sharing. Cheers.
Txs for another great video. I am a tiny disappointed though for not mentioning the orchestra work by Rachmaninov that even has the "The bells" as its title...but for another time...
There are several works that manage to evoke bells (especially church bells), at least in my mind, without necessarily trying to emulate the timbre of a bell. Above all, it's the Gratias/Donna novis pacem movements of Bach's Mass in b minor. The same goes for the finales of Musorgsky's Pictures from an exhibition and Stravinsky's Firebird, though it's a more distinctly Russian chiming style both are going for.
As a drummer, I've always considered myself more of a cymbal player that keeps time with drums than anything else. One day the guitar player asked me to play a beat sticking on the hi-hat rather than on the rides I originally played... I obliged and then he said "ok, no... do it as as you did it sounded much better!" The hi-hat version just sounded empty while the way I played it was a soft ride pattern played on my riveted Zildjian accented on my very bell like 505 Paiste ride and the whole thing underpinned by a pedal hi-hat pattern faking the sticking and it just sounded like two drummers playing a straight rock beat but layered atop one another!! I love these kinds of brass/bronze instruments!!
A video about bells and no section about Arvo Part's Tintinnabuli? I guess that means we are getting a separate video just about that, aren't we?
I thought the same
I LOVE Alkan, especially Le festin d'esope
I love Thomas Traherne! Did not expect to hear some of his writing on RUclips today.
The poem about bells in the beginning is awesome 👍🏻😃
17:14. Bells at HTM, Ellwood City, Pennsylvania. Thrilled to see a monastery which with I am well acquainted in the video! Bells are the best! Thank you, David!!
I must inform you all that tintinnabulate, which he said in the beginning poem, literally means "sounds like a bell."
Oh yes, this is so true: Composers love bells! The sound of a bell tells us so much about it. It seems like there is a whole soul in it, which you can bring to life by composing something for it. Bells reminds us of the old times, of morning and evening rituals, of religious festivities, of the end of a school day and the beginning of something new. You strike a big bell once and you will hear it for minutes... it is a shining example for deceleration, slowness and enjoyment of the moment.
I know a few instruments that use bells, One is a chime of bells, A chime has around 8 to 22 bells, That can also be used to play different kinds of music, Two is a carillon of bells, A carillon has around 23 to 77 bells, 2 octaves to 6 1/2 octaves.
Good stuff! It's interesting to speculate about why bells have all of their cultural connotations, and whether at least a part of that is due to the qualities of the sound itself, like its immutability. Of course, the association goes both ways, so bells and bell-like sounds are often used symbolically to suggest finality or eternity. My favourite example of that is "Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten" by Pärt. Recommended along with its backstory!
I never knew I could learn about so many types of bells one minute into the video🧐
The tumbnail in this video is gold. Props to you.
I'm just now having my awakening to bells and this was the only video I saw that explained their beauty well. They're really very inspiring things.
Wonderful video as always, thank you David. Interesting to note the 'missing fundamental' heard in bells - organists use a similar trick for 'resultant bass' notes in the pedal. Sometimes you'll find a rank of pedal pipes tuned at a fifth away from 16ft pitch, which when played with the 16ft pipes implies a fundamental at 32ft even if the organ doesn't contain pipes that big. There's a physical effect of the two notes interfering constructively to produce a lower frequency, but also since you're hearing an octave and a fifth (plus overtones), the brain tends to fill in and reinforce the lower 'imaginary' fundamental too.
That is a well composed thumbnail.
There is a very popular German poem by Schiller "Lied von der Glocke" (Song of the Bell) which has been set in music by several composers, Max Bruch among them. It's one of the most famous poems of the Weimar classical era.
Also, because Germans need a word for everything, there is a particular job called "Glockensachverständiger" ("bell expert", though that does not have quite the same important ring to it, pardon the pun). They don't build bells themselves, but they do administer and coordinate basically everything else concerning bells, like ringing orders, pitching, restauration etc.
Just wanted to chime in to say this is fascinating. So much of it rings true. I hope all the intense research didn't take a toll on you.
I'm a bit curious on why you didn't mention tubular bells (also: chimes, Röhrenglocken) as a means to mimic church bells in an orchestral (or rock; cf. Mike Oldfield) setting?
Probably because there is such an abundance of material on the topic that he had to limit himself…
That thumbnail is JUST PRECIOUS!!
I'm glad you mentioned the African origin of the double bell.
Gehard Kubic has some interesting info on that in Africa and the Blues.
What a great video David! Wanted to mention my absolute favorite invocation of bells in all of music: Rachmaninoff’s Étude Op. 39 No. 7 in C Minor, specifically, the transcendent climax! A great example of the “joyful cacophony” you describe towards the end of the video. In its context however, the joy of the climax is rather bittersweet, given the bleak outer sections of the piece. In my opinion, Rachmaninoff’s most underrated Etude, other than 39/8.
what about his masterpiece - the choral symphony thats literally named "The Bells"?
@@samaritan29 another great Rachmaninoff work using bells as its inspiration! I particularly love it’s 3rd movement, in all its unhinged devilish-ness :) would love to see David talk about that one as well!
Have you ever composed for or intersected with the world of handbell choirs? The "canon" of active handbell music is no more than 50 years old, and could greatly use the attention of composers from a variety of disciplines. Internationally recognized groups like the Raleigh Ringers, Timbré Ensemble, and the Kinjo Gakuin University handbell choir frequently ring pieces of older classical music and music from the new canon of handbell-specific pieces, but could use music from the discipline of 21st century orchestral music as part of a more complete realization of the potential of the ensemble.
the thumbnail for this is so great
Nice to include Carol of the bells, indeed much Russian and Ukrainian music is heavily inspired by the orthodox bell tradition, but the association of this particular melody with bells is something that was added upon translation into English. In the original Ukrainian, Schedryck is about a swallow heralding the arrival of spring. The famous hemiola is lifted from a much older folk chant of the same name. These folk chants, with simple, easy to remember, repetitive melodies are often performed acapella with 2-3 part harmony, and form the foundation for a lot of slavic music.
Those were some real Jay Foreman vibes in the intro. Love it.
Ha! Dead on! It was that Winchester tenor bell that drove me to study and work with Jonathan Harvey n the late 80s. I had the privelidge of hearing the 8 track master in class at Sussex. The saga continues
Good video. Bells "haunt". It's the sustain effect that impresses me. Like a drone. Ditto the clarsach tone. Yet the bell that impressed me most was some little dinner bell (Buddhist) type thing I heard in a shop that had no audible sustain. It's price was ridiculously high but I had to fight a temptation to buy it for about half an hour because its tone sounded so inexplicably "perfect". Bells are on my mind of late because I was thinking of watching the film "Andrei Rublev" which ends with a long tortuous bell making scene, although it is probably too depressing to put it on. As it is, the only bell I own isn't quite a bell. It's some sleigh bells that rattle rather than ring. Cat bells are hilarious, when you think about it. The one time my dad played a synth in a church was to do a synth-bell intro, setting the tone for a choir to do the Ukrainian "carol of the bells", unaccompanied. I remember hearing a piece based on Poe's poem "The Bells" by Danish composer Poul Ruders that certainly mystified me but I'm also pretty sure that I didn't like it (much). Speculum Musical play The New Danes: good album. Bells. Bells. Bells. What else is there? Presto sounds interesting.
Thank you for including the links for the videos you use.
This masterpiece of a video is mind blowing, it should have millions of views to say the least
The poem that opens this video just makes me so happy.
Greatest intro in the history of this channel
The Bells poem with voice and recordings is a composition in itself ! I so enjoy this man's video . I need to go back to school and get a composition master !
I was expecting a 25 minute video about overtones lmao. Thanks for this
Thank you for posting thus video David! Bells have always be a great source of inspiration for me and after watching your video, I understand clearly why. PS, I missed a section for Arvo Pärt on your video 😊😊😊😊
Chimes Blues is another good example of imitating bells with other instruments. I've got fond memories, as a young musician, of learning this tune, as well as Ejala and Kongolela (both chock full of African rythms) from the absolute legends in Brazz Brothers.
I have to many bells going crazy outside to listen to this video about bells. Sunday morning in Europe....
That thumbnail is bonkers, simply smashing
that crystal bell motif is the only part of parsifal that particularly stuck with me
My favorite way a composer made a bell-like timbre on another instrument is in Saint-Saen's 2nd Concerto, the Egyptian.
Do you mean Piano Concerto number 5, entitled "The Egyptian"?
he did a short piano solo piece once called "les cloches du soir" (evening bells), although I think it is only the opening and closing phrases of that piece which fit the bill
what a great video
The opening of Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta 'The Sorceror' features an evocation of English change-ringing to indicate the engagement of the young protagonists Alexis and Aline.
Tubular Bells is one of my favorite instruments! ✨✨
I am 3 years late to the show here. I personally think the piano trio is so unique in the way the instruments interact with each other - thinking Beethoven here. Why has everyone overlooked this beautiful intimacy between 3 instruments.
I thank you for introducing Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco to me. This piece moved my soul.
Very profound video. I think this should be standard viewing for all humanity. Look forward to hearing your beautiful piece.
The thumbnail of this vid is simply awesome… What a nice variation on a « meme »… 😂
Superbly curious exploration, both the overtones and timing
Fabulous! And you included one of my favourites: the Boris Godunov bells 🙃👍 A gamelan episode would be fascinating...