Anniversary of the Tower Bells recognized after 10:15 service on April 11
Posted on Friday, April 9th, 2010
On Easter Sunday, April 8, 1860, the thirteen bell "Harvard Chime "in our tower was played for the first time. Donated by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. and two Harvard classmates, and cast for he centennial of Christ Church in 1861, the bells range in pitch from low D to high G, and weigh from 200 to 1300 pounds for a total of 12,000 pounds. Each bell bears an inscription in Latin of a portion of the Gloria In Excelsis. The clapper of each bell is attached to a cable that passes through a pulley into a console in the ringing chamber just above our main entrance. This enables one person to play hymns. The chime was used exclusively for this purpose until silenced by a dangerously weak tower. Strengthening the tower made the bells once again playable and allowed for a new activity, namely Change Ringing. About 1975, several current (Faith Chase, Pam Ross and Julie Smith) and former (Nancy Wrenn and Kathy Parker) parishioners became interested in this ancient art and tradition. Melissa Hirshson, director of our wonderful handbell choir, joined us as a teenager about 1985. With the help of ringers from Old North Church, the Church of the Advent and the MIT Guild, and with borrowed handbells for practice purposes, we learned change ringing as adapted in the United States to bells that are not free swinging. Change Ringing is the art of ringing a number of bells in a particular order, the order changing each time the bells are struck. A particular group of these changes, which never repeats any one change, is called a method. The length of time it takes to play a method depends on the number of bells involved, from a few minutes to many hours. The more bells, the more different combinations may be rung. The longest peal at Christ Church lasted about 40 minutes. Once we had become competent on handbells, now our own beautiful English White chapel bells, we transferred to tower bells and rang weekly before the 10AM Sunday service. We rang for weddings, always for Harvard Commencement, for Peggy Gunness's Ordination, Lessons and Carols and for Memorial Services where we rang The Nine Tailors ( read Dorothy Sayre's mystery) and tolled on the lowest bell the age of the deceased, During the Iran hostage crisis, Pam Ross tolled weekly the number of hostages as did most other U.S. towers. To celebrate this 150th anniversary of the first ringing from the tower, Faith, Pam and Julie will again ring changes after the 10:15 service on the Sunday closest to the original date, April 11 this year. Please visit Louise Ambler's exhibit on some of the history of the bells in the Rector's reception room.