MUSICAL BELLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 113, 15 May 1925, Page 5

MUSICAL BELLS.

CARILLONS IN HISTORY

SIGNALS FOR JOY AND DEATH

BIG BELLS FOR AUCKLAND. j The news that the war memorial for I the great Sydney University is to take I the form of a carillon of 10 bells has j directed attention to the lack of really i musical bells in Auckland, the provision lof which, it is claimed, woulel further i enhance the all tactions id the Queen City. The money lor -.be Sydney bells wai raised by enthusiastic graduates land undergraduates of that. University, 'the sum of'over £17,000 being subscribed j within a year. The carillon of 40 bells jis to be set in a framework capable lof carrying ■'•:'. anil the contractors I guarantee that the tower arrangements jof the University arc perfectly suitable. iA suggestion to ci.vt. a special campanile ! for the carillon v.'.is abandoned on the 'ground o,' c--i-t, tii.iiic.'h Ibe bells may some day be t, ai, sfcrrcd from the prci .-cm tower .if the University ball to a i campanile if funds become available. ! The music of a good carillon, as .opposed to the dirge like knells of some i church bells, makes a:i irresistible appeal jto the ear, and already minds in Auck- [ land are exercised as to where a carillon j could be housed in this city. The tower iof tbe now University is said not, to be 'at all suitable, hut the opinion is expressed thai the tower of St. Matthew's | could adequately contain a tine company jof bells. Moreover, the parishioners of iSt. Matthew.- are considering the c ( uesI tion of a carillon — arc. in Li"t. anxious !to have one in place of the few bells

i that the. tower now possesses. These ; bells were originally scut from F.ugland I for St. Mary's Cathedral, b„: the wooden j tower of St. Mary's could not safely | accommodate them, and so they went to j St. Matthew's. They have served their I purpose, so far as they go. but it is j considered that the time is ripe for the

; funds can be obtained. ' ! The history of bells is full of romantic i ! interest. If) civilised times they have] I been intimately associated not only wi*.h ! all kinds of religious and social 'rights.: but with almost every important bis torical event. Their influence unon I ! architecture is not less remarkable, 'for ! ito them indirectly we owe all the famous j | towers in the world. Towers at first : rose scarcely above the roof, beinrr ,' n . tended as lanterns for the admission of light. Bells early summoned soldiers to arms, as well as citizens to bath or senate, or Christians to church: and :he .rights of burghers in their bells were j jealously guarded. Thus tlie chief bell in the cathedral often belonged to the | town, not to the cathedral chapter. Tbe i curfew, the Carolus, an,l Sr. Mary's hell in the Antwerp lower all belong'lo the town. He who c unimi i-.dcil the "bell i commanded the town, for by that sound. |at a moment's noth-e. be could rally and j concentrate his adherents. Hc:,ee a conqueror commonly acknowledged the importance of bells by melting them clown. [The Germans gave'us an ex-ample of this by their treatment of bells in occupied | French and Belgian towns—to be ' moulded into cannon.

Many a bloody chapter in history has been rung in and out by bells, says an historian. On the third' day of Faster. j 125.:?. at the ringing of the vespers, SOOO French were massacred in cold blood by 'John of Procida. who had planned to free i Sicily from Charles of Anion. On St. I Bartholomew's Day. August. 24. 1371. I bells ushered in tbe massacre of the J Huguenots in France, to the number, i. lis said, of 100.000. Bells have rung over

slaughtered and ransomed cities-, and far and wide throughout Kurone, in the hour of victory or irreparable loss. At

;he new? of Nelson'- triumph and death nt Trafalgar the bells „f Chester ran? a merry peal, alternated with one doop toll, and .similar striking incidents could ,be indefinitely multiplied. There were ' bells aringing in joy all over Europe— in fact, all over 'the civilised world - 'when news camp of the armistice that ended the Great War. To many of the country ami university towns of F.ngiland bells are still rung a, R a.m. and '(! p.m.-a survival of the Curfew. | Many quaint quotations pre found on the hells of Old Fnglanel. In the little sanctum at Westminster Edward 111. huilt a clocher placed in it bells for St. Stephen's Chapel. Around the largest bell is cast : — King Edward made nice tlurtve thousand weiirht ancl three. Take nice down and wev nice. And more you Mia 11 fyn'l mcc. I Some of the music played on the j carillon clavecin is still extant, and 'among this special mention is made of the morceau fugues discovered in the archives at Louvain, the work of the 'celebrated organist and carilloneur Matthias van den Gheyn, the music of : which is declared to be as fine in its .way as Reach or Handel. Thp chief | carillons in England are at Boston I Church. Lincoln?hire. Worepstpr Cathedral, Bradford Town Hall. Rochdale 1 Town Hall, and Shored itch. The largest , bell in the world is said to be one at I Moscow, weighing 12S tons, while there, lis one at Peking of .73 tons. London jis literally alive with bells.