Bronze bells, black gloves, English tradition

MARENGO — The soft sounds of bronze bells cradled listeners in a basement room at Marengo Public Library Wednesday.

The RiverBend Bronze, a handbell choir from the Quad Cities, rang out well-known and not-so-familiar Christmas carols for about an hour in front of a full room.

Thirteen ringers made up last week’s ensemble in Marengo, but another 10 are on the roster, said ringer John Klopp. The group rehearses in Rock Island, Illinois, but the members come from both sides of the Mississippi River.

The bell choir has more than 450 bells and chimes, but it didn’t bring all of them to Marengo. The bell ringers did have the full complement for their concert at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Cedar Rapids Saturday, however.

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An import from England, handbells were invented, not for performance, but for practice, said Klopp. The ringers who pulled the ropes that rang the bells in church towers had to practice their patterns, and residents weren’t interested in hearing the bells for hours each day. So carillon ringers practiced indoors with handbells.

Whitechapel Foundry in London, which made the Liberty Bell, was once a manufacturer of church bells and handbells, but RiverBend Bronze used Schulmerich bells manufactured in Pennsylvania, Klopp said.

“Way back when I started ringing, all you did was ring,” said Klopp. Now ringers have 21 different methods to vary the sounds of the bells. A thumb damp, for example, damps the sound by pressing the thumb against the bell.

Thumb damping produced the staccato sound in RiverBend’s performance of “Deck the Halls.”

Notations in bell music can instruct a ringer to let the bell vibrate, to strike the body of the bell on the table, to pluck the clapper in a bell that is lying on the table or to shake the bell rapidly back and forth.

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When Klopp returned to bell ringing after a hiatus, he had a lot to learn, he said. “Fortunately, there’s a lot of talent in this group.”

RiverBend also uses handchimes in their concerts. Klopp described them as glorified tuning forks.

The chimes are a cheaper alternative to handbells, Klopp said. Many schools incorporate handchimes in their musical programs because they are inexpensive and relatively easy to learn.

“We are all about promoting handbells and handchime ringing,” said Klopp.

Because there are many ways to play, people of all skill levels can play, said Klopp. He’s seen special needs adults play handbells using color codes, and another bell ringer said she plays chimes with someone who is blind and reads music in Braille with one hand while ringing with the other.

“If you can hold an ice cream cone, you can play handbells,” Tricia Fuelling tells people.

While most ringers have two bells to play — one for each hand — ringers at the high end of the spectrum can play four notes, having a high side and a low side to each bell, said Fuelling.

The bass section, meanwhile, deals with larger, heavier bells that produce lower notes.

“When I first started ringing, I was ringing the bass bells,” said Klopp. Handbell groups didn’t have as many octaves to play then, he said.

Today handbell choirs include large bells for extremely low notes, but they’re made of aluminum, which doesn’t weigh as much as bronze.

Julia Cozad-Callighan said her bass bells weigh about 10 pounds each, and she holds one in each hand. Whitechapel bells are about 15 pounds, she said.

Not everyone wants to play the bass bells, said Cozad-Callighan, a Rock Island resident. “I started out as a cello player, so I was already reading bass clef.”

The RiverBend ringers wore traditional black gloves during their performance, though Klopp said it’s no longer necessary. Handbells used to have leather handles which would be damaged by the oils in the ringers’ skin.

Handles are made of plastic now, but many performers continue to wear the gloves as a nod to the tradition.

Gail Dover, of Bettendorf, is one of the charter members of RiverBend Bronze. The ringers had to audition, and a few music majors from Augustana College in Rock Island decided who made the cut, she said.

RiverBend Bronze performed for the first time on Mother’s Day in 2013. It tours in the winter and again in the spring, usually in the Quad Cities and Iowa City area. This was her first time in Marengo, Dover said.

The RiverBend bell ringers come from 13 different towns, said Chon Wherry. Many, like Wherry, are church bell choir directors. They practice several hours a week during tour seasons. “This is a great group,” Wherry said.

The bell choir came to Marengo at the invitation of Adrienne Phelps, president of Friends of Marengo Public Library. Phelps said she was very happy with the turnout Wednesday. She’s always looking for something interesting to bring to the library.

“I work at night, so this is what I do. I search random things,” Phelps said.

RiverBend Bronze is glad she did, said Klopp.