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Gaily they ring, while people sing songs of good cheer. Christmas is
here. |
By Julie Wakefield
Ten men and women stand facing each other in a circle. Their stage at
roughly 670 feet above sea level means they are higher than the
Washington Monument. They forsake the panoramic views beyond the windows
to take turns pulling on ropes. As they tug in sequence, each of the 10
bells in the chamber above them swings 360 degrees. Clang, clang, clang
... the tower around them shakes as the clappers strike.
The resulting rich cascade of sound evokes the holiday season for many.
Traditionally the cacophony summons worshippers to church services. As
the mathematical pattern of bell strikes progresses, a continuously
shifting melody emerges from the Washington National Cathedral. When
weather conditions are ideal, the sound carries several miles away, as
far as the Memorial Bridge.
“People don’t realize that for every ring there’s a human being at the
end of the rope,” says Katie Emmons, ringing master of the Washington
Ringing Society, which has been pealing the cathedral bells since they
were installed in 1963. The central tower’s 10 bells range in size from
the treble at 608 pounds to the tenor at 3,588 pounds, each a note in
the D major scale. (No wonder change ringing has been dubbed ”the
ultimate heavy metal music.”)
The quintessentially British art form of change ringing emerged in the
17th century and spread around the world with the Empire from India to
Zimbabwe. Ringers discovered that they could create “music” by precisely
varying the order in which they pull on the ropes, which are strung
along wheels that rotate the bells to cause the strikes.
In the 18th century, the British installed bells in Boston, Charleston,
New York and Philadelphia. Midnight rider Paul Revere had access to the
tower at the Old North Church in Boston, because he was a ringer. In
1775 his compatriots hung two lanterns there to signal a British
invasion by sea. Although change ringing declined in the U.S. after the
Revolution, the arcane art has resurged in the past 50 years. Today
there are about 45 working bell towers in North America.
Another prized set of 10 peal bells hangs in the 270-foot-high tower of
the Old Post Office Pavilion on Pennsylvania Avenue. For the U.S.
Bicentennial, Great Britain’s private Ditchley Foundation gave Congress
this set modeled after the bells at Westminster Abbey. The society rings
these bells, which arrived in 1983, at the opening and closing of
Congress and on holidays. The Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London cast
both sets of Washington’s peal bells.
On New Year’s Day at the cathedral, Emmons and other members of the
45-strong Washington Ringing Society plan to ring in the year with a
full peal, a cycle of 5,040 ring changes. These switches in the order of
the 10 bells take about 3.5 hours to complete. The society also rings a
quarter peal New Year’s Eve at 10:30 p.m., muffling the bells for the
first half of the sequence to mourn the passing of 2009, then opening
the clappers at midnight to celebrate 2010.
What’s in it for the ringers? “The pure pleasure of making so much
noise,” Emmons says, plus an “enormous intellectual challenge.” The
ringers play by sight, sound, feel and a sense of rhythm. Emmons
explains that they must keep in sync with the other ringers, because
there’s a one-second gap between the yank on the rope and the sound of
the bell, then another second for the bell to recover 360 degrees to its
starting position. “It’s the ultimate team sport.”
Just beneath the peal bells in the central tower, the cathedral houses a
carillon of 53 bronze bells, each inscribed with a Bible verse.
Installed in 1963, the carillon’s bells range from 17 pounds to the
heaviest called the bourdon at 24,000 pounds. A single player controls
all the clappers via a keyboard that works much like an organ’s. The
carillon can play melodies, because its bells remain stationary. Only
the clapper moves by a system of levers and pulleys. The cathedral, the
only place in North America to sound both types of bells, serves as
Washington’s epicenter of holiday tintinnabulation.
Bell Concerts ...
The Washington Ringing Society rings the peal bells Christmas Eve at 2
pm at the Old Post Office Pavilion and Christmas Day at the cathedral
after the service. The society rings at the cathedral every Sunday after
the 11 am service at about 12:30 pm and practices there Tuesdays from 7
to 9 pm and at the Old Post Office Thursdays from 7 to 9 pm. To see the
Bells of Congress, visitors may take self-guided tours of the Old Post
Office Pavilion and Tower Monday through Saturday from 9 am to 5 pm and
Sundays and federal holidays from 10 am to 6 pm. The pavilion is closed
Dec. 25. |
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