Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-06-17
GROWING IN v
AMONG THE CHURCHES
Daily Letter by Frederic j. Haskih

WASHINGTON, June 1.-THE
music of the bells is gaining favor
in this country. Another church
in this city has just installed a
chime of bells, and Washington for
bio cks around leans out OF its win
dows or stands on the street every
evening listening to the concerts.
Under favorable conditions, that Is
on a clear day with traffic at a min
imum, the bells can be heard for
three miles, so hat people who are
not radio fans get music regularly
from the air anyway.
The distinctive feature OF this new
chime is that it can play THE Star
Spangled Banner" a feat which
only three other sets Of chimes in
the country can equal. Patriotic
Americans who have recklessly tried
to reproduce this piece with their
vocal chords will remember that the
patriotic air runs the gamut of the
best part OF two octaves. Most sets
of chimes have about eleven bells.
This set was to have fourteen, in
Guiding several half tones, but a
fifteenth hell was added expressly
so that the unofficial national an
them might be played.
The new chimes belong to the
Church of the Epiphany. and r
a memorial to the late rector. DR..
Randolph McKim. AS the church is
the center of Washington's DOWN
town shopping district the music of
the chimes reaches large audiences,
especially when programs are given
at noon.
Such music is rather a novelty
for most American cities. A good
many churches that have a peal
of bells rarely play them. and still
more rarely give programs of any
length.
Few people who hear the tunes
played by the Epiphany chimes
have any idea of how the bells are
rung. Some wonder whether the
ringer pulls on a series of ropes. or
whether he goes from n bell to
another striking each with a ham,
mer, somewhat as a xylophone play
err strikes his notes. Considering
that the largest of these bells
weighs more than two tons and is
five feet in diameter. and some of
the others are very little smaller,
these methods would be obviously
impracticable. No player, however,
agile, could play a tune by leaping
from bell to bell. sounding each
with the proper stroke.
How Chimes Are Played
Instead, the bells are played from
an instrument very much like an
organ console. This instrument is
near the top of the bell tower. To
reach it the player climbs the tow
- hr a facfanad fn tho walls
The console is the only article of
furniture in the little tower room.
for the bell ringer wants nothing to
distract him. He must concentrate
entirely on the business OF getting
clear tones from the bells. The
chime player of Epiphany says that
when he is playing he cannot have
anyone else in the tower with him.
No matter how quiet a companion
might be, the player would be con-
scious of another presence and at
a moment when his attention was
divided he might strike the wrong
bell.
And il you dc that" the player
added, sit Is certainly sounding your
mistake from the housetops." There
is nothing he explained to v up
the false note; no harmony of sound
as on the piano. The melody is car
ried by the bells note at a time
as on a violin or horn, except that
the significance of each note is
even mora striking in bell music.
In a chime rendition the reverber-
ating, clear cut tones OF the bells
make every note of the piece stand
out in pitiless relief-pitiless that Is.
If Won make a mistake.
The bells are struck by an elao-
crate arrangement. The wooden
console has a row of levers. one for
each bell. These levers are attached
to a row of leather-covered wooden
rods which rise above the console
and are in turn connected with the
bell clappers in the story above
by a system OF chains running over
pulleys.
To strike a bell the player presses
the proper lever down firmly about
eight or ten inches. Producing this
sort of music is good exercise as it
requires steady use of the arm mus
cles, and incidentally OF a good
many other mucles in the body.
However. considering that six of the
fifteen bells weigh more than 1900
pounds. the exertion required to ring
them by the levers Is slight.