Bells

Jaan Whitehead

Description

Discover the magic and mysticism of bells around the world, including their political and religious power, their musicality, and their familiarity in daily life.

We live in a world of bells but seldom notice them. However, bells have existed in all cultures since earliest times and are one of the world’s most remarkable artifacts. They have been the “voice” of God and Buddha, a talisman for early monastics, a source of glorious music, and part of many sacred rituals. Yet, they have also been the clocks, school bells, fire bells, and shop bells of daily life. The Song of the Bells brings together seventeen stories that explore the magic and mysticism of these bells, their political and religious power, their wide-ranging musicality, and their familiarity in our everyday lives. 

The stories range from the recently discovered chimes of Ancient China to the music of carillons and change ringing to reindeer bells in Arctic Norway to the surprising bell that is on the International Space Station. Other stories explore Buddhist bells in Japan and Tibet, the famous African bells of Benin, Russian bells, early Christian bells in Scotland, the Liberty Bell and Big Ben, bells on trains, cable cars, and circus wagons, and two bells brought up from lost ships to serve as memorials for their crews. Illustrated with 130 photographs, this beautiful book brings bells out from the background of our days to create a living history of this amazing musical instrument. 

The book is inspired by her great-grandmother’s trip around the world where she collected small bells almost one hundred years ago. Whitehead inherited these bells, which led to her own journeys that included crossing the Pacific to see the famous bells of China, finding peace in the Buddhist temples of Kyoto, interviewing the Sami reindeer herders in Arctic Norway, visiting with master bell ringers in London and Florida, and attending the launch of a space shuttle and conversations with the astronaut who suggested putting a bell in the International Space Station. 

The book will interest bell collectors, musicians, and fans of musical instruments, as well as museums, universities, and libraries that have musical instrument collections. It will also appeal to general readers interested in cultural history, particularly the popular field of “commodity history,” similar to Mark Kurlansky’s books Salt, Paper, and Salmon.

Sujets

• Musique
• Technique musicale
• Technique musicale
• Philosophie
• Esthétique et philosophie de l'art
• Techniques musicales
• Music
• Musical Instruments

Informations

• Publié par: Girl Friday Books
• Date de parution: 18 octobre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781954854857
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 13 Mo

Extrait

Copyright © 2022 by Jaan Whitehead
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

Published by Girl Friday Books™, Seattle www.girlfridaybooks.com
Produced by Indelible Editions

Design: Andrea Duarte
Cover credits: Volodymyr Tverdokhlib/ Shutterstock.com , Ian Littlewood/Alamy Stock Photo Interior credits begin here .
ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-954854-73-4 ISBN (e-book): 978-1-954854-85-7
Library of Congress info: 2022908050
First edition



In honor of my great-grandmother Nannie Spelman Melville
And with love for my daughter, Sarah


The Great Bell Chant
May the sound of this bell penetrate deep into the cosmos
Even in the darkest spots living beings are able to hear it clearly
So that all suffering in them ceases
Understanding comes to their heart
And they transcend the path of sorrow and death.
The universal dharma door is already open
The sound of the rising tide is heard clearly
The miracle happens: a beautiful child appears in the heart
Of a lotus flower.
One single drop of this compassionate water is enough
To bring back the refreshing spring to our mountains and rivers.
Listening to the bell I feel the afflictions in me begin to dissolve
My mind calm, my body relaxed
A smile is born on my lips
Following the sound of the bell
My breath brings me back to the safe island of mindfulness
In the garden of my heart, the flowers of peace bloom
Beautifully.
—Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Buddhist Monk


Contents
Introduction
Part I The World of Bells
The History and Culture of Bells
Bells and Their Music
Part II The Bells of Asia and Africa
Journey to China: The Zeng Bells
The Buddha Is Calling: The Temple Bells of Kyoto
Ringing the Mandala: Buddhism in Tibet
Turning Art into Power: The Bells of Benin
Part III The Bells of Britain
Visiting Iona: Scotland’s “Sacred Isle”
Calling the Changes: St. Mary-le-Bow
Creating an Icon: Big Ben
Part IV The Bells of Europe and Russia
Playing the Carillon: The “Singing Towers”
Remembering: The Bells of War and Peace
Ringing the Zvon: The Bells of Russia
Following the Reindeer: Arctic Norway
Part V The Bells of America
Witness to History: The Liberty Bell
America’s Bells: Trains, Cable Cars, and Circus Wagons
Bells Beneath the Sea: The Fitzgerald and the Erebus
Bells in Space: The International Space Station
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Attributions
Suggested Reading
Index
About the author

Introduction
I n the early evening of April 15, 2020, the deep tolling of “Emmanuel,” the largest and oldest bell at Notre-Dame Cathedral, rang out over Paris to mark the anniversary of the great fire that had destroyed so much of the cathedral one year earlier. As the world watched in horror, the roof of the cathedral went up in flames and its steeple collapsed. The fire came within a half hour of reaching the Gothic towers that housed the cathedral bells before it was stopped, saving the bells. One of those bells was “Emmanuel,” cast in 1681 at the behest of King Louis XIV and rung for France’s most historic occasions. Choosing to toll “Emmanuel” as the sole commemoration of this anniversary was a stirring tribute to the resiliency of the cathedral, the bells, and the French people.
“Emmanuel” is one of many remarkable bells in the world. The Yongle Bell in Beijing is twenty feet tall and covered with 130,000 characters of Buddhist teachings, which flow out into the air when it is rung. The Tsar Kolokol in Moscow is so large that the area inside the bell was consecrated and used as a chapel. The Chion-in Bell in Kyoto takes seventeen people to ring and leads the ringing of all the Kyoto bells on New Year’s Eve. And the Bell for the Fallen in Rovereto, Italy, cast from the metal of weapons used in World War I, rings every evening in remembrance of soldiers lost in war.

“Emmanuel,” the largest bell at Notre-Dame Cathedral, is rung for France’s most important occasions. Cast 350 years ago, it weighs thirteen tons and is considered one of the finest bells in Europe.
Besides these grand bells, there are many bells that are remarkable in less spectacular and quieter ways: the charm of wind chimes in the breeze, the tinkle of a baby’s rattle, the echo of a ship’s bell across the water, or the somber ringing of the death bell tolling out the years. There are musical bells like the glorious Chinese chimes and startlingly beautiful bells like the Byodo-in Bell in Japan. And there are bells that surprise us like the bell on the International Space Station 230 miles above the Earth.
All of these bells are part of a fascinating story that reaches back to the earliest days of mankind, for bells are one of the great artifacts of history. Spanning time and space, they have appeared in every society in every time period and played a wealth of roles in these societies. Many cultures have attributed sacred power to bells, their sound being the “voice” of God in Christianity, the “voice” of the Buddha in Buddhism, and the “voice” of supplication to ancestors in other religions. Often, bells were believed to have magical powers. Warriors wore them around their necks or on their clothing to protect them in battle or used them to put curses on their enemies. Sailors long thought that ship’s bells could protect them from the dangers of the sea, and early Christian monks carried bells to ward off evil spirits. And, in all cultures, bells have played more prosaic roles: the clocks, school bells, fire bells, and telephone bells of daily life.
The stories gathered here explore this world of bells; their magic and mysticism, their political and religious power, their wide-ranging musicality, and their familiarity in our everyday lives. But there is another story behind these stories about the origins of the book and the journeys that created it, journeys I took in the footsteps of my great-grandmother.
This story begins in 1924 when my great-grandmother, Nannie Spelman Melville, sailed out of New York Harbor for a three-year trip around the world. On this trip, she collected small handbells, which my mother inherited and which were in a corner cupboard in our dining room when I was growing up. There were elephant bells from India, a bronze bell in the shape of a fish from China, a water buffalo bell from Java, two English altar bells carved with images of the four Apostles, and many small bronze bells shaped like Dutch boys and girls with pantaloons, mop caps, and wooden shoes. Fascinated by these bells, I would sit in front of the cupboard and imagine the stories each bell had to tell.

Nannie as a young woman in Baltimore.
It wasn’t until many years later, when my mother sent me the bells while I was setting up a new apartment in New York, that I learned Nannie’s story. Born in 1855, shortly before the Civil War, Nannie grew up in Baltimore and married a man named James Moore Melville. They lived in Baltimore for many years and had nine children, two of whom died young. In 1891, the family moved to Chicago for Jim’s work and bought a rambling house just north of the city near Lake Michigan, where their last child was born. These were happy years. Nannie entertained, joined clubs, did social work, and witnessed the marriages of many of her children.
The stories gathered here explore this world of bells; their magic and mysticism, their political and religious power, their wide-ranging musicality, and their familiarity in our everyday lives.
This world started to slip away from her in 1911 when she was diagnosed with cancer, had extensive surgery, and was an invalid for more than a year. Under the stress, Jim started having attacks of angina that became more and more severe until he died in 1914 at age sixty-one. With Jim’s death, Nannie’s financial situation became precarious. She didn’t have enough money to maintain the life she had been leading and had to sell her house, using the proceeds to live on. Without a home, she started living with her children a few months at a time. Eventually she tired of this and imagined she could live abroad more cheaply than at home, while also having the adventure of travel. She began reading about the Dollar Steamship Lines and their around-the-world trips where you could pay one fee and get on and off their ships at different ports, depending on your schedule. On her way to another extended stay with her son Carey in Massachusetts, she realized how weary she was of going from child to child. As soon as she arrived at Carey’s, she went to a travel office and booked a ticket on the President Garfield , one of the Dollar ships leaving New York the next week. Without any other preparation, she took the train to New York, boarded her ship, and sailed out of the harbor on October 2, 1924. Almost seventy years old and traveling alone with limited funds, it was a remarkable undertaking for a woman in that era.
Nannie sailed down the East Coast to Cuba, through the Panama Canal and up the West Coast to San Francisco, the home port of the Dollar Lines. In San Francisco, the ship provisioned before going on to Honolulu. Nannie stayed in Honolulu for a year with her son Malcolm, who was stationed in the navy there, and took courses in Chinese literature and art at the University of Hawaii.

Nannie collected these small Dutch bells in 1926 and 1927 while she was traveling in Europe. The two tall bells, the lady carrying an umbrella (left) and the monk-li