Towering achievement
David, our bellringing correspondent, shares a fascinating Coronation achievement…
When Charles III was proclaimed King by the Accession Council the bellringers had the idea to try ringing ‘God Save the King’ on the Priory bells.
In the Priory tower we are fortunate to have a ring of ten bells in E with a semitone bell, a sharp seventh. We checked the tune and found that, using the semitone bell and the smallest six bells, we had a scale suitable for playing the melody.
For many years Malvern has had links to the Veronese association of bell ringers and in that part of Italy the bell ringers have a system of ringing tunes called concerti. We decided to try to to play ‘God Save the King’ in the Veronese style which involves swinging the bells until they are upside down and holding them balanced until each note is needed.
We tried it on the day of the proclamation and it didn't go well, but we agreed that the idea was worth bearing in mind for the coronation, when it should arrive.
A laptop, a sensor on each bell in the tower and a set of clapper ties enable us to hold silent practices, so when the date of the Coronation was announced in early October we decided to begin practices in the new year ready for the 6th of May.
Eleven members of the band expressed an interest in trying the Veronese style of concerto ringing, some of whom already had some experience, either in Italy or here in Malvern.
We needed a lot of practice to be able to balance the bells in the way needed but after several practices we were able to play the tune quite well, although it takes a long time because of the time it takes to repeat notes.
On the day of the Coronation, nine of the concerto ringers were there and, since only seven were required for each performance, we did several with different ringers in each and we had made sure during our practices that each of us could ring more than one bell. We had even practiced performing with only six ringers since bells 1 and 7# can be managed by one person, so long as they don't take too long moving between the two bells!
The performances were very successful and we were all pleased with our achievement. It was interesting to note that there was a marked improvement in our normal change ringing after all the practice balancing our bells.
The Priory bells are one of only a few rings in the world which have the right combination of notes to play ‘God Save the King’, so we hope that, if you heard it, you enjoyed this truly unique performance. If you missed it you can see it here; https://youtu.be/D_MdPw6XJgY
