Topic: Instrumental Versions - Handbells
Protestant reformers dismantled organs and banished secular instruments from churches during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward I. They sold bells from closed monasteries, [1] then redefined how churches could use them.
Their greatest ire was reserved for ringing a small handbell during the Eucharist at the exact moment when the wine and bread were transformed into the blood and body of Christ. [2]
Robert Hill thought more than a theological dispute between transubstantiation and consubstantiation was involved. He believed the ritual association with Christ’s death was rooted in beliefs that bells could speak to spirits of the dead. Thus, like a death toll, the sacring bell was rung at the moment of Christ’s reenacted transition between spheres. [3]
Sacring bells weren’t all destroyed. Instead, they were rung just before the sermon to direct the attention of parishioners to the speaker. [4] As Hill noted, they had the same function of announcing "the most solemn and significant event" of the service. In newly formulated "reformed service" that was "the sermon." [5]
When organs were reintroduced by men like Thomas Hastings and Charles Finney, [6] they were used to supplement sung words. The few times instruments were heard alone were ones when people were making noise and no sacred words were being sung or spoken: the prelude when they were settling in their seats, the postlude when they were preparing to leave, and the offertory when ushers were passing collection plates.
Handbell choirs usually were scheduled during one of these traditional instrumental interludes, but especially during what some called the gathering of tithes. By coincidence, in many services that occurred between the explication of the scripture readings and the sermon, the time of the sacring bell. [7]
The moving heads of individuals were seen below the balcony in the video of Middletown’s Heart in Hand Bell choir discussed in post for 6 December 2018. And, as mentioned, in the same post, two other church’s that used Anna Laura Page’s of "Kumbaya" also scheduled it during this noisy period.
Trinity Lutheran Church’s Senior Bell Choir played a different version of "Kumbaya" in a Tinley Park, Illinois, service in 2013. As they started a man walked by them with a wooden collection plate.
The version was deceptively simpler than that of the Congregational church. Seven people stood behind tables placed in a side aisle. Four more stood abeam, two at each end. The tables most likely were covered with foam to keep the bells from rolling. [8] The instruments were arrayed from smallest at the left to largest.
At a signal from Karen Gustafson the seven raised both bells into striking positions. They were wearing white gloves to protect the bronze from oils in their skin that can cause it to tarnish. [9]
Two people began playing the melody in what sounded like unison. Since it was unlikely the church had duplicate bells, it meant the arrangement was exploiting the overtones produced by the bells to create a single sound. American bells are tuned to produce an overtone that is a twelfth above the sounded note, so a composer could get special effects by manipulating fifths. [10]
On the third line, the group began playing the parallel thirds that normally are scored for the song.
The second repetition used a marimba-like instrument that played chords, while the bells continued to sound the melody. They continued into the third iteration, which introduced the deeper-sounding bells at the right end.
The final variation included both the highest and lowest pitched bells, along with what sounded like an organ. This time the melody was less obvious.
Gustafson said the group rehearsed once a week, and once spent months on one song. [11] The results showed in the precision required to get several bells to sound as if they were one. Their skill was more obvious in the variations that included a quick run in the third line.
The differences between this version and that of Middletown were magnified by the acoustics of the sanctuaries. What could be seen behind the Connecticut church choir were white plastered walls with large window openings that reflected sounds to create the illusion of overlapping chords for people seated below.
The Illinois group stood in front of a bare brick wall that absorbed some of the sounds produced just a little above the level of the parishioners’ ears. Gustafson chose a slow tempo that allowed overtones to dissipate so single sounds in a melodic line could be heard.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloists: eleven bell players, nine women, two men
Instrumental Accompaniment: two marimbas played by bell players in the second iteration; something that sounded like an organ in the final repetition
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Conductor: Karen Gustafson
Credits
None given
Notes on Lyrics
There were none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: slow enough so overtones faded between lines
Basic Structure: four repetitions with variations in instrumentation
Notes on Performance
Occasion: Sunday service during collection
Location: in the side aisle of the church
Microphones: none
Clothing: informal clothing worn to church, usually slacks and tops. Everyone wore white gloves.
Notes on Movement
The ringers stood behind tables in an aisle that defined their configuration. No one was seated in the pews in front of the group. Gustafson used both forearms to conduct; her upper arms were close to her sides. Music stands were set on the tables.
Notes on Audience
There was silence when they finished, followed by the resumption of the service.
Notes on Performers
Settlers began moving into Bremen Township, southwest of modern Chicago, in the 1830s. By 1850, 40% of the population was German speaking and 20% was Irish. Migration increased when the Rock Island Rail Road completed a line to Joliet. [12] What would become Trinity Lutheran was organized in 1859 with the second floor of the pastor’s home serving as a church and school. [13]
In 1884, Alfred Andreas reported the community of New Bremen had only the one church, and most of the children attended its school. [14] The village incorporated in 1890 with the name Tinley Park, but remained rural until the post-World War II expansion of Chicago suburbs. [15] Dreieinichkeit Evangelische Lutheranische Gemeinde was still offering services in German until 1960, when it officially changed its name. [16]
Gustafson earned her bachelor’s degree from Concordia University of River Forest, [17] and was teaching in the school in 1986 when the church asked her to take over the handbell choir. She knew how to play piano and organ, but taught herself the rudiments of bell playing. She learned more when the choir joined the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers. [18]
The Senior Handbell Choir "always plays the Sunday before Christmas," [19] and otherwise plays for "for the various seasons of the church year and for special occasions as the need arises." [20]
Availability
YouTube: uploaded by Linda Burns on 14 May 2013.
End Notes
1. Robert Adam Hill. "The Reformation of the Bells in Early Modern England." PhD. Simon Fraser University, summer 2012. 115.
2. Hill. 63.
3. Hill. 64. The post for 9 December 2018 described reformers’ attitudes towards beliefs that bells had supernatural powers.
4. Hill. 29. His discussion was prompted by observations of Christopher Marsh in The Family of Love in English Society: 1560-1630. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994. 34.
5. Hill. 111.
6. Their contributions were mentioned in the post for 3 September 2017.
7. Coincidence may not be the correct word to describe the continuity in the order of service that allowed the re-invention of earlier elements.
8. Wikipedia. "Handbell."
9. Nancy Kirkner. "Gloves." Handbells website. 21 September 2011.
10. Wikipedia. "The overtones on an English handbell are a 12th (an octave and a perfect fifth) above the fundamental."
11. Karen Gustafson. Interviewed by Donna Vickroy. "Handbell Choir Rings in Trinity’s Anniversary." Southtown Star [Tinley Park, Illinois]. 18 October 2009. 7. This arrangement used four octaves.
12. "History of Tinley Park, Illinois." Tinley Park Public Library website.
13. "A History of Trinity Lutheran Church and School." Church website.
14. A. T. Andreas. History of Cook County, Illinois. Chicago: A. T. Andreas, 1884. Reprinted by Ray Brown as "History of Bremen, Il." on Rays-Place website.
15. Tinley Park History.
16. Trinity Lutheran History.
17. "About Karen Gustafson." Facebook.
18. Vickroy.
19. Vickroy.
20. "Music Ministries." Church website.
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