Bells have been part of religion around the world for more than 3,000 years. In early Christian churches they were believed to have supernatural powers – driving evil spirits away, healing the sick and calming storms.
In the early 1600’s, those who played church bells in England began the practice of ringing them in intricate sequences.
But practicing for those performances would drive the neighbors nuts, so congregations began buying small hand bells that could be used to rehearse inside before going public.
In the 1840’s, circus owner P.T. Barnum brought the art form to America, and hand bells are now used by ensembles nationwide to play all kinds of music.
Donald Dollins has been playing for more than 50 years, and he now directs a hand-bell choir in Crozet, with twelve people playing dozens of bells.
“Most of the time a church likes to have at least three octaves, and we are right now playing with five octaves here," he says. "That’s sixty bells!”
Each player is responsible for one or more notes – following the score and counting to the moment when it’s time to ring a certain bell.
And just to make things more complicated, each bell can be played in different ways.
“If you want a steeple sound you can swing -- by swinging the bell it gives it that fading in and out of a steeple. There’s a monolete where you hit the table to the bell. Then there’s a mallet, and then then there’s a pluck, where you pluck the clapper. Composers – you do what they want, because they want that specific sound. Echo? Echo.”
And some performers literally have their hands full.
Don’s daughter holds two bells in her left, two in the right– angled in different directions, then swings forward and back, one at a time, to produce all four notes.
“You notice the bell will only ring in one direction," the conductor explains. "If you turn in a quarter turn, it won’t ring. So what she has is two bells facing one way and two facing the other. So she’ll play the four.”
It’s a complex business – a skill that takes months to master, but Robin McElwee reports the reward is immense.
“We get something right, it’s worth celebrating!”
And for whatever reason, she says, those who hear the music are moved.
“Last year Donald’s brothers and sisters sang Silent Night when we played it on a piece, and I’m telling you, there wasn’t a dry eye in the building. Oh my goodness. It’s just magical.”
Don has played four times now at the White House – at the invitation of First Ladies Barbara Bush and Hilary Clinton – the bi-partisan performance making public tours more enjoyable.
“The first year the weather was so bad that none of the other acts showed up, and it was the largest crowd they had ever had, and we played for five and a half hours!”
His group of musicians is now rehearsing for their holiday concert in December and preparing to take their show on the road – playing in retirement homes and at schools where they hope to inspire the next generation of hand-bell enthusiasts.