How to tune a bell
February 17, 2019 3:39 AM Subscribe
An interview with Benjamin Kipling, former Bell Tuner at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry (where Big Ben and the Liberty Bell were made) about how church bells are tuned.
This is fascinating. Thank you for posting it.
Yes! More bells, less dung!
If you read to the very end, apparently the foundry may be turned into a boutique hotel; links and instructions are given to file objections with the local council. Unfortunately it seems the foundry has already closed due to rising costs and falling demand, according to a statement on their website.
posted by TedW at 5:25 AM on February 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
Yes! More bells, less dung!
If you read to the very end, apparently the foundry may be turned into a boutique hotel; links and instructions are given to file objections with the local council. Unfortunately it seems the foundry has already closed due to rising costs and falling demand, according to a statement on their website.
posted by TedW at 5:25 AM on February 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
It would be cool to see the actual lathe he turns the bells on. Quite an interesting interview. I found it especially interesting that he taught himself bell tuning by reading on the internet... This is probably the only way that traditional crafts will propagate themselves in the future, since it seems that CEOs and similar lice we cede control to see insufficient short-term value in them.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 5:59 AM on February 17, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 5:59 AM on February 17, 2019 [3 favorites]
This is great!
I love learning about obscure crafts. Especially those which are so specialized that there are, like, ten people in the world who practice them.
(I have no idea how many bell tuners there are in the world. But there can't be many, y'know?)
posted by escape from the potato planet at 6:27 AM on February 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
I love learning about obscure crafts. Especially those which are so specialized that there are, like, ten people in the world who practice them.
(I have no idea how many bell tuners there are in the world. But there can't be many, y'know?)
posted by escape from the potato planet at 6:27 AM on February 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
Here’s a short vid of the lathe at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry .
posted by barrett caulk at 7:30 AM on February 17, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by barrett caulk at 7:30 AM on February 17, 2019 [3 favorites]
“More bells, less dung!”
Interestingly enough, bell casting (“bellfounding”) itself can involve dung. Wikipedia discusses the manufacturing process:
“An exact model of the outer bell, sometimes called a false bell, is built on a base-plate using porous materials such as coke, stone, or brick. It is then covered first with sand or loam (sometimes mixed with straw and horse manure).”
posted by cnidaria at 7:42 AM on February 17, 2019 [2 favorites]
Interestingly enough, bell casting (“bellfounding”) itself can involve dung. Wikipedia discusses the manufacturing process:
“An exact model of the outer bell, sometimes called a false bell, is built on a base-plate using porous materials such as coke, stone, or brick. It is then covered first with sand or loam (sometimes mixed with straw and horse manure).”
posted by cnidaria at 7:42 AM on February 17, 2019 [2 favorites]
awww man. if you read the rivers of london/peter grant series, the casting of bells in london is a key plot point.....
posted by lalochezia at 8:28 AM on February 17, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by lalochezia at 8:28 AM on February 17, 2019 [5 favorites]
What’s brown and sounds like a bell?
Dung!
Blame Eric Idle on Monty Python.
posted by njohnson23 at 9:09 AM on February 17, 2019 [3 favorites]
Dung!
Blame Eric Idle on Monty Python.
posted by njohnson23 at 9:09 AM on February 17, 2019 [3 favorites]
And a cymbal is just a flat bell, but can we use it as a plate? For beans, I mean.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:35 AM on February 17, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by aspersioncast at 9:35 AM on February 17, 2019 [2 favorites]
'Hocus Pocus' (1990) by Vonnegut has a brief digression about bell tuning, with some objections from traditionalists who prefer that their old bells stay out of tune.
posted by ovvl at 11:40 AM on February 17, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by ovvl at 11:40 AM on February 17, 2019 [2 favorites]
Great post! I have been building diatonic marimbas for a few years, and it was fascinating to hear him talking about tuning the various overtones. On a wooden marimba bar, one removes an material in an arch shape under the bar to affect the tones made by the bar. If you remove material under the middle of the bar, the fundamental tone will go down in pitch (this is the main tone you will hear when the bar is struck). If you remove material away from the center, toward the end of the arch, and the first overtone will go down in pitch. However, these tones are not independent -- changing one always changes the other, so it is a bit of a dance to get them all in the right place at the right time. You can only make a bar lower in pitch by removing material, but what if you go too far and make the bar too low in pitch (flatter than the note you want)? You can always cut material off of the bar to make it shorter, and all of the overtones go up in pitch. Then you can resume the process of removing material from the arch to get the tones where you want them. However, you now have a shorter bar, and your marimba may suffer from an out-of-shape look (one bar suddenly shorter than it should be). According to this post, the same is true of bells, but the stakes are much higher. If you tune a bell flat, you have to remove material from the edge of the bell, essentially making it shorter. I hadn't thought of that, but it makes perfect sense.
Of course, the process is similar on any struck idiophone, but exactly where to remove material to tune a particular overtone, and how sensitive a group of tones is to each other (i.e. tune one tone down, the others also drop) is something that is learned with practice. I would expect a long period of apprenticing or small bell work before tuning your first large bell.
I was also interested that they tune the three lowest notes of a bell to play a minor third -- I've never noticed that before! [Now I know why those large bells always sound sad.] I know that the bottom two tones of a xylophone bar are tuned to play a perfect fifth (called quint tuning), and those on a marimba are tuned an octave apart (with a major third on the next overtone). Of course, because marimbas and the like use resonator tubes to bring out the fundamental frequency, the higher overtones get pretty drowned out and are not as easy to make out.
One thing not addressed in the interview is the effect of temperature on the bell's tone. In the previous bell-tuning FPP, it was mentioned that "...a temperature rise of 2 degrees Fahrenheit produces a pitch decrease of 1 cent (one hundredth of a semitone)". Most of those bells are open-air instruments, exposed to great variations in temperature, so I expect they should sound quite different in the summer and winter.
The places on the bell that don't vibrate according to a particular tone are the nodes. For the main overtones on a marimba bar, the nodes are usually horizontal lines across the bar, and you can see them by sprinkling salt on top of the bar and striking it. This effect can also be beautiful on other instruments. I wonder how this could be done on a bell -- perhaps with magnetic dust?
posted by klausman at 7:21 PM on February 17, 2019 [5 favorites]
Of course, the process is similar on any struck idiophone, but exactly where to remove material to tune a particular overtone, and how sensitive a group of tones is to each other (i.e. tune one tone down, the others also drop) is something that is learned with practice. I would expect a long period of apprenticing or small bell work before tuning your first large bell.
I was also interested that they tune the three lowest notes of a bell to play a minor third -- I've never noticed that before! [Now I know why those large bells always sound sad.] I know that the bottom two tones of a xylophone bar are tuned to play a perfect fifth (called quint tuning), and those on a marimba are tuned an octave apart (with a major third on the next overtone). Of course, because marimbas and the like use resonator tubes to bring out the fundamental frequency, the higher overtones get pretty drowned out and are not as easy to make out.
One thing not addressed in the interview is the effect of temperature on the bell's tone. In the previous bell-tuning FPP, it was mentioned that "...a temperature rise of 2 degrees Fahrenheit produces a pitch decrease of 1 cent (one hundredth of a semitone)". Most of those bells are open-air instruments, exposed to great variations in temperature, so I expect they should sound quite different in the summer and winter.
The places on the bell that don't vibrate according to a particular tone are the nodes. For the main overtones on a marimba bar, the nodes are usually horizontal lines across the bar, and you can see them by sprinkling salt on top of the bar and striking it. This effect can also be beautiful on other instruments. I wonder how this could be done on a bell -- perhaps with magnetic dust?
posted by klausman at 7:21 PM on February 17, 2019 [5 favorites]
English style ringing is easily found on YouTube of you want to hear the result, including Garlickhythe, mentioned in the article.
Ben tunes bells made of bell metal - basically bronze, commonly used for bell making. There are also a few rings of steel bells in the UK, if you wondered what difference tuning makes.
And, using a miniring (made of a different material again), you can see the mechanics of how bells are rung in the English style At about 40s in, though there are other options if you want to perform change ringing.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 7:29 PM on February 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
Ben tunes bells made of bell metal - basically bronze, commonly used for bell making. There are also a few rings of steel bells in the UK, if you wondered what difference tuning makes.
And, using a miniring (made of a different material again), you can see the mechanics of how bells are rung in the English style At about 40s in, though there are other options if you want to perform change ringing.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 7:29 PM on February 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
« Older Somebody alert Blinovich! | Deferred Scandal Agreement Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
There was another very good post about bell tuning in December, if others find this topic a source of interest, as I do.
posted by gauche at 4:41 AM on February 17, 2019