Old Russian bells and ringing. What are bells cast from? Components of a bell

Having glanced at the history of bells, it will be interesting to get acquainted with their casting.

As mentioned above, the main advantage of any bell is its euphony, but casting a bell in the required tone and the required weight is not so easy, although there are different rules for constructing bells, yet even an experienced craftsman is not always able to fully satisfy all the requirements. Much depends here on the composition of the metal. The master is very often required to achieve the desired bell tone, euphony and strength with the least amount of metal.

As you know, for casting an alloy of copper and tin is used in a certain proportion, i.e. bronze, which is called both “bell bronze” and “bell metal”. Incorrect composition sometimes leads to rapid damage to the bell, i.e. the bell breaks. However, bells often break for other reasons, such as, for example, from a low tongue or from the excessive zeal of a bell-ringer who wants to beat out the sound harder.

The bell alloy must be composed in such a way that it combines sufficient rigidity and strength with a pleasant sound. Typically, 80 parts of copper and 20 parts of tin are used for the alloy, although these figures often fluctuate depending on the purity of the metals.

The popular belief that an admixture of silver improves sound is completely erroneous. Known for their pleasant sound, the bells, which were supposed to contain a significant amount of silver, did not yield the slightest trace of silver during chemical analysis. For example, the famous Roneni bell, which was supposed to contain gold and silver, gave the following analysis results: copper - 71%, tin - 26%, iron - 1.2%, zinc - 1.2% .

In Rouen there is also a bell, which for a long time was considered to be silver.

Girardin, who analyzed it, says that the presence of precious metal in the large bells is doubtful. He thinks that the foundries, instead of throwing the precious metals they brought into crucibles, forced the donors to throw them directly into the fire. “Thanks to this, the silver mass, instead of being added to the bronze, remained in the ash, from where the foundries pulled it out as soon as the ceremony was over and the workshop was empty” 1).

The popular rumor about adding silver to the bell has its own history. In the old days, churches that needed bells sent special collectors on carts, moving from village to village, and stopping at the market square, the collector would ring and collect worldly pennies and silver rubles from generous donors so that the bell would be louder and better. This custom has been preserved in some provinces of the Volga region.

In addition, good bell metal has a silvery sheen when broken, which also gave reason to think that silver was fused into the bell.

It happens that peasants, having delivered a broken bell to a bell foundry and supposing there was silver in it, ask to be recast, but do not buy a new one.

Copper for casting bells must be pure without any impurities, then it is easier to make the bell harmonious, and it is easier to calculate the correct ratio of copper to tin. In society, Demidov copper is considered the best copper for casting, and customers willingly pay extra just to have a bell made of Demidov copper. This copper is the purest of all varieties of Russian copper found. Electrolytic copper, which has appeared recently, is higher in purity, but foundries, having no experience with it, still prefer the former.

The metal itself has a characteristic red color and melts at a temperature of 1084°C; Molten copper is liquid and has the color of sea water. At the temperature of a voltaic arc, copper flies and oxidizes, giving a greenish flame.

The second metal for the bronze alloy is tin; the white is quite soft with a silvery sheen, has a crystalline composition and melts at 228°C. When heated in air, it burns bright white. Copper and tin fused together in a certain proportion produces bronze. Both soft metals in the alloy become hard and the color of the copper from the tin changes dramatically. The color of the alloy when fractured is grayish steel, the appearance is uniform, densely fine-grained. The heterogeneity of the appearance indicates poor mixing of the alloy.

The melting point of bell bronze is about 880°C. Bronze becomes worse when melted down. It becomes thick and its fragility increases with each pouring; this is explained by the absorption of oxygen by the alloy and the transition of metallic tin into tin acid. Correction of the alloy is possible by adding phosphorus to the alloy, which, melting together with bronze, seems to dissolve in it and restore tin acid.

Experiments were carried out with an alloy containing 9.6% tin and after each remelting the percentage of tin dropped by almost 1%.

A liquid alloy, passing from a molten state to a solid state, disintegrates into its component parts; this phenomenon is called segregation and its degree depends on how much the alloy was heated before pouring into the mold and how quickly it cooled. For bell alloy, relatively rapid cooling is desirable to avoid white spots appearing in the middle of the casting, which is a copper alloy with a high tin content.

Likewise, in the lower part of the bell, more copper is noticeable than in the upper. An analysis of one old bell showed that by taking three samples from different places of the bell: the top, middle and striking part, we obtained different components: tin and lead, as fusible materials, collected at the top of the bell.

On the surface of the bell, a thin layer of alloy with a high tin content is deposited.

The best ratio of copper to tin in the bell alloy, found in practice, completely coincided with laboratory experiments in determining the properties of bronze depending on the content of tin and copper.

A diagram of such a study showed that the best compatibility of the properties of bronze for a bell, such as malleability, hardness and toughness, is found in an alloy of copper with tin with a tin content of about 20%.

Bronze expands when heated, and when cooled it contracts strongly, which is why the surface of the casting is unclean. The settlement factor for bronze is 1/65; knowledge of it is necessary for the foundry worker to correctly calculate the dimensions of the model.

Bell bronze is covered in air with green basic copper carbon dioxide powder - patina, this layer protects the metal from further influence of the atmosphere.

Typically, for non-custom sale, bells are not made from new metals. They are cast from old, used metals and often analysis shows the presence of foreign metals in the bell alloy that are harmful to the quality of the bell.

They are the “voice” of Russia. Sounding either a romantic evening bell, or an alarming alarm, or an iridescent bell. Each Russian bell has its own destiny, its own history. Unfortunately, from many of them only “echoes” reached us. And some, according to legend, have yet to herald the great revival of the Russian land...

Veche Novgorod bell

There are many legends about the fate of the veche bell. In 1478, Ivan III and his army approached Mister Veliky Novgorod and besieged it. At the same time, the Moscow prince raised the issue of the veche system with all severity. Those events are described in chronicles literally day by day. On February 8, “the great prince ordered the eternal bell to be lowered and the veche to be destroyed.” To commemorate the liquidation of the Novgorod freemen, the Veche bell was removed from the bell tower and taken to Moscow. Popular rumor did not want to agree with such a decision on the fate of the freest bell of Rus'. And a legend was born that the eternal servant “did not go into captivity in Moscow for disgrace.” Having reached the borders of the Novgorod land, he chose a steep hill, rolled under it and, hitting the stones, killed himself, shouting in his dying breath: “Freedom!” And someone thought he was shouting “Valda.” Those little hills began to be called Valda (Valdai). And the fragments of the eternal bell turned into small bells... But the chronicles say that the bell reached Moscow safely. There, in the bell tower of the Assumption Cathedral, suppressing his pride, he began to sing in one voice with other Russian bells. There is an assumption that in 1673 it was poured into the Moscow “Alarm” or “Vspoloshny” and placed in a half-turret near the Spassky Gate. And in 1681, by order of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich, he was allegedly exiled to the Nikolo-Karelian Monastery for frightening him with his ringing at midnight.

Uglich exile alarm bell

Until 1591, in Uglich, on the bell tower of the Spassky Cathedral, there hung an unremarkable, ordinary alarm bell, which by that time, as chronicles and oral traditions say, had lived for three hundred years. But on May 15, 1591, when Tsarevich Dmitry was killed, the bell suddenly “unexpectedly sounded good news.” This is according to legend. According to the historical version, on the orders of Maria Nagaya, sexton Fedot Ogurets rang this bell deafeningly, notifying the people of the death of the prince. The people of Uglich paid off the alleged murderers of the heir to the throne. Tsar Boris Godunov cruelly punished not only the participants in this lynching, but also the bell. The alarm bell that rang for the murdered prince was thrown from the Spasskaya bell tower, his tongue was torn out, his ear was cut off, publicly in the square, and he was punished with 12 lashes. Together with the Uglich people they sent him into Siberian exile. For a whole year, under the escort of guards, they pulled the bell to Tobolsk. The then Tobolsk governor, Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky, ordered the corn-eared bell to be locked in the official hut, having written on it “the first exiled inanimate from Uglich.” Then the bell hung on the bell tower of the Church of the All-Merciful Savior. From there it was moved to the St. Sophia Cathedral Bell Tower. And in 1677, during the great Tobolsk fire, “it melted and rang out without a trace.” Thus, by the will of fate, the “eternal exile” turned out to be not eternal.

Annunciation bell of the Savvino-Starozhevsky Monastery

Annunciators, the heaviest among church bells, have since ancient times determined with their voice the nature of the ringing of a particular temple or monastery. In the middle of the 17th century, thanks to the zeal of the admirer of the Monk Savva, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, his own “Tsar Bell” appeared in the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery. The sovereign's cannon and bell master Alexander Grigoriev cast the most famous monastery bell - the Great Blagovestny - weighing 2125 poods (approx. 35 tons). The bell had an unusually deep and beautiful ringing, which had no equal in Russia, and, according to legend, was heard even in Moscow. It was a unique phenomenon in bell casting - it was “a bell tuned to itself.” The extraordinary purity of the bell alloy still surprises experts. In addition to its sound, the Annunciation Bell is remarkable for its external design. It did not have any decorations generally accepted for bells (images of the Savior, the Mother of God, saints, royal coats of arms and regalia), except for the inscription that covered its walls in nine rows. Of these, the bottom three are secret writings compiled personally by the Sovereign . The cryptography was solved only in 1822. It followed from it that the bell was cast as a sign of special affection for the monastery of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich - “out of spiritual love and heartfelt desire.” In the 1930s, all the bells of the monastery belfry were removed and broken. The last to “fall” was Bolshoi Blagovest, the most melodious bell in Russia, in October 1941. Most likely, it was melted down for military needs. Nowadays, only part of the language, located in the monastery, has been preserved.

Solovetsky captive bell

In the summer of 1854, British ships blocked the White Sea ports. On July 6, two sixty-gun frigates “Brisk” and “Miranda” approached the Solovetsky Monastery. After Archimandrite Alexander refused to surrender the monastery, an unequal battle began. Just two six-foot monastery cannons against one hundred and twenty frigate guns. The unparalleled courage and fierce resistance of the defenders of the monastery forced the British to retreat. Fifty years later, in 1908, the Solovetsky Monastery was visited by Edward Kelart, a member of the London Chamber of Commerce. Then one of the monks informed him about the theft of a Russian bell by the British in 1854. Kelart treated history with distrust, because the monastery was not taken. We made a request. It turned out that the bell taken from the White Sea region was actually kept in Portsmouth. Weighing 139 kilograms, with the image of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God. The inscription on it said: “In 1852, the Bakulev brothers rang this bell in the Vyatka province of the city of Slobodsky.” Presumably, he was taken from the St. Nicholas Church on Kovda. The Solovetsky bell was returned only in 1912. On August 4, the former prisoner was brought to Solovki on the monastery steamer. His fellow bells greeted him with joyful ringing. Hundreds of pilgrims and monks filled the shore. The “Returnee” was hung on the Tsar’s Bell Tower next to the “Blagovest” - another symbol of the miraculous salvation of the monastery.

The Tsar Bell

“The Tsar Bell” refers to the heroes - the thousand-strong people. Such bells began to be cast in the 16th century. In 1533, master Nikolai Nemchin cast the first “thousander”, installed on a special wooden belfry in the Moscow Kremlin. In 1599, the Great Assumption Bell was cast in Moscow, weighing more than 3 thousand pounds. He died in 1812 when the French blew up the belfry attached to the bell tower of Ivan the Great. But in 1819, foundry worker Yakov Zavyalov recreated this bell. Weighing already 4 thousand pounds, it has survived to this day and is located in the Kremlin belfry. In the 17th century Russian bell makers distinguished themselves again. Andrei Chokhov, who cast the famous Tsar Cannon, in 1622 completed work on the 2 thousand poods Reut bell, which is now located on the bell tower of Ivan the Great. In 1655, Alexander Grigoriev cast a bell that cost 8 thousand pounds over the course of a year. According to eyewitnesses, 40 - 50 people were required to swing a 250-pound tongue. The bell rang in the Kremlin until 1701, when it fell and broke during a fire. Empress Anna Ioannovna set out to recreate the largest bell in the world, increasing its weight to 9 thousand pounds. The well-known dynasty of bell makers, the Motorins, undertook to cast the order. In November 1735 the bell was successfully completed. It weighed 12,327 pounds (about 200 tons) and was called the “Tsar Bell.” In the spring of 1737, during another fire, the wooden shed above the bell pit, where the bell was located, caught fire. It became hot from the fire, and when water got into the hole it cracked. A “small” piece of 11.5 tons broke off from the bell. And only in 1836, a hundred years later, the “Tsar Bell” was raised and installed on a special pedestal near the bell tower of Ivan the Great, where it remains to this day.

Bells of Rostov the Great

In 1682, master Philip Andreev cast the first, not the largest, bell for the belfry, weighing “only” 500 pounds, called the “Swan”. Next year - "Polyeleny" weighing 1000 pounds. It was created by the same master. And in 1688, Flor Terentyev poured the largest bell - 2000 pounds named "Sysoy". Two people rock it, and the bell is still famous as one of the most beautiful in sound. "Golodar" ("Lenten") was poured three times (the last time in 1856), it weighs 172 pounds, and was named so because it was rung during Lent for certain services. The oldest bell of the belfry of the Assumption Cathedral is "Baran" (80 poods). In 1654, it was cast in Rostov by the Moscow master Emelyan Danilov, who died that same year from a pestilence. The remaining bells are from 30 poods and below. Two have names: “Red” and “Goat”. These bells date back to the 17th century. Nine large bells were hung on the belfry in one line, four smaller ones - across, 13 bells in total. The idea was brilliant - the result speaks for this: Rostov bells are still considered the most beautiful in Russia. Here the Ioninsky, Egoryevsky, Akimovsky (Joakimovsky), Kalyazinsky bells were born and preserved to this day.

Bells of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra

The bell tower of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra is one of the tallest and most beautiful in Russia. The 88-meter long openwork white stone beauty is sometimes compared to a Russian birch. It began to be built in 1740, and construction was completed by 1770, under Catherine II. The bells of the Lavra were famous throughout Russia as the most ancient and had a beautiful, harmonious sound. The earliest surviving bell of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra is “Wonder Workers,” cast in 1420 under Abbot Nikon, the successor of St. Sergius of Radonezh. “Swan” or “Polyeleos” was cast for the Lavra in 1594 at the expense of Boris Feodorovich Godunov. In 1602, another bell, donated by Godunov, was brought to the monastery from Moscow. “The Tsar and Grand Duke Boris Fedorovich of All Russia and with the Tsarina” followed him to the Trinity Monastery. Later, in 1683, in the workshops of the Lavra itself, the “Kornoukhy” (so named because it had iron ears rather than copper) or “Sunday” bell, weighing 1275 pounds, was cast. And in 1759, the unique 4,000 pood bell “Tsar” was raised to the bell tower. The weight of his tongue alone was 88 pounds! In the winter of 1930, the historical bells “Kornoukhy”, “Godunovsky” and “Tsar”, masterpieces of bell makers, were destroyed. Evidence of this tragedy was preserved in the diaries of M.M. Prishvina: “On January 11, Kornoukhy was dropped. How differently the bells died... The Big Tsar trusted the people that they would not do anything bad to him, he gave in, sank onto the rails and rolled with great speed. Then he buried his head deep into the ground. Kornoukhy seemed to feel something was wrong and from the very beginning did not give in; sometimes he would sway, sometimes he would break the jack, sometimes the tree under him would crack, sometimes the rope would break. And he walked onto the rails reluctantly, they dragged him with cables... When he fell, he was smashed to pieces. The Tsar Bell still lay in its place and fragments of the Corn-Eared One ran quickly in different directions from it across the white snow.” On April 16, 2004, a new “Tsar Bell”, the largest existing in Russia, was raised to the belfry of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. This giant bell weighs 72 tons and its height is more than four and a half meters.

Bell

Bell- an instrument, a source of sound, having a dome shape and, usually, a tongue striking the walls from the inside. At the same time, in various models, both the dome of the bell and its tongue can swing. In Western Europe, the first option for operating the bell is most common. The second one is widespread in Russia, which makes it possible to create bells of extremely large sizes (“Tsar Bell”). There are also known bells without a tongue, which are struck with a hammer or a log from the outside. The material for most bells is the so-called bell bronze, although bells made of iron, cast iron, silver, stone, terracotta and even glass are known.

The science that studies bells is called campanology (from lat. campana - bell and from λόγος - teaching, science).

Currently, bells are widely used for religious purposes (calling believers to prayer, expressing solemn moments of worship), in music, as a signaling device in the fleet (rynda), in rural areas small bells are hung on the necks of cattle, small bells are often used in for decorative purposes. The use of bells for socio-political purposes is known (as an alarm, to call citizens to a meeting (veche)).

The history of the bell goes back more than 4000 years. The earliest (XXIII-XVII centuries BC) of the bells found were small in size and were made in China. China was also the first to create a musical instrument from several dozen bells. In Europe, a similar musical instrument (carillon) appeared almost 2000 years later.

The earliest known bell of the Old World at the moment is the Assyrian bell, kept in the British Museum and dating from the 9th century BC. e.

In Europe, early Christians considered bells to be typically pagan objects. Indicative in this regard is the legend associated with one of the oldest bells in Germany, called “Saufang” (“Pig prey”). According to this legend, pigs dug up this bell in the mud. When he was cleansed and hung on the bell tower, he showed his “pagan essence” and did not ring until he was consecrated by the bishop.

The belief that by striking a bell, bell, or drum one can get rid of evil spirits is inherent in most ancient religions, from which the ringing of bells “came” to Rus'. The ringing of bells, usually cow bells, and sometimes ordinary frying pans, cauldrons or other kitchen utensils, according to ancient beliefs prevailing in different regions of the planet, protected not only from evil spirits, but also from bad weather, predatory animals, rodents, snakes and other reptiles, drove out diseases. Today this has been preserved among shamans, Shintoists, and Buddhists, whose services it is impossible to imagine without tambourines, bells and bells. Thus, the use of bell ringing for ritual and magical purposes goes back to the distant past and is characteristic of many primitive cults.

Church bells

Church bell

Bell on Valaam

In the Russian Orthodox Church, bells are divided into three main groups: large (evangelist), medium and small bells.

Evangelists

Annunciators have a signaling function and are mainly intended to convene believers to Divine services. They can be divided into the following types:

• Holiday bells

Festive bells are used on the twelfth holidays, the feast of Holy Easter, and when meeting the bishop. The abbot of the Temple can bless the use of the holiday bell on other days, for example, the consecration of the altar in the temple. The holiday bell should be the largest in weight in the set of bells.

• Sunday bells

Sunday bells are used on Sundays and major holidays. If there is a holiday bell, the Sunday bell should be second in weight.

• Lenten bells

Lenten bells are used as an evangelist only during Lent.

• Polyeleos bells

Polyeleos bells are used on days when the Polyeleos Divine Service is celebrated (in the Typikon they are designated with a special sign - a red cross).

• Everyday (simple day) bells

Simple daily bells are used on weekdays of the week.

In addition to the gospel, large bells alone (without other bells) are used when singing “Most Honest...” at Matins and “Worthy...” at the Divine Liturgy. Blagovestniks are also used in chimes, searches, and trezvons. Thus, the use of one or another type of evangelist depends on the status of the service, the time of its performance or the moment of the service.

In addition, the group of evangelists can include the so-called “hour” bells, which “chime” the hours.

Middle bells

The middle bells have no special function and serve only to decorate the ringing. The middle bells themselves are used in the so-called double ringing, which is carried out during the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts during Great Lent. In the absence of middle bells, ringing “in two” is carried out on ringing bells.

Middle bells are also used for chimes, percussions, and trezvons.

Small bells

Small bells include ringing and ringing bells.

Ringing bells, as a rule, are light weight bells, the tongues of which have ropes attached to them, which are tied together. This results in a so-called link. There can be at least 2 bells in a bunch. As a rule, a bunch consists of 2, 3 or 4 bells.

Ringing bells weigh more than ringing bells. There can be any number of ringing bells. The ropes (or chains), which the bell-ringer presses when ringing, are attached at one end to the tongues of the bells, and at the other to the so-called bell-ringing post.

Through the use of small bells, trezing is performed, which expresses the triumph of the Church, and also indicates the performance of certain parts or moments of the Divine Service. Thus, one trezvon is rung for Vespers, two for Matins, and three for the Divine Liturgy. The reading of the Holy Gospel is also celebrated by ringing the trezvous. The trezvon takes place with the participation of an evangelist.

Placement of bells

Church of St. Catherine at Tuchkov Bridge

The simplest and most cost-effective option for placing church bells is a primitive belfry, made in the form of a crossbar mounted on low poles above the ground, which allows the bell ringer to work directly from the ground. The disadvantage of this placement is the rapid attenuation of the sound, and the bell is therefore heard at an insufficiently large distance.

In the Russian church tradition, an architectural technique was initially widespread when a special tower - a bell tower - was installed separately from the church building. This made it possible to significantly increase the range of sound audibility. In ancient Pskov, the belfry was often included in the design of the main building.

At a later time, there was a tendency to attach a bell tower to an existing church building, which was often done formally, without taking into account the architectural appearance of the church building. In the most recent buildings, mainly in the 19th century, the bell tower was included in the design of the church building. And then the bell tower, which was originally an auxiliary structure, became the dominant element in its appearance. An example of such intervention is the addition of a bell tower to the Orthodox Church of St. Catherine on Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg. Sometimes the bells were placed directly on the Temple building. Such churches were called “like the bells.” Before the mass construction of high-rise buildings began, bell towers were the tallest buildings in any populated area, which made it possible to hear the ringing of bells even when located in the most remote corners of a big city.

Signal bells

The bell, which produces a loud and sharply increasing sound, has been widely used since ancient times as a means of signaling. Bell ringing was used to inform about emergencies or enemy attacks. In years past, before the development of telephone communications, fire alarm signals were transmitted using bells. If a fire broke out, it was necessary to strike the nearest bell. Hearing the ringing of a distant fire bell, you should immediately ring the nearest one. Thus, the fire signal quickly spread throughout the populated area. Fire bells were an integral attribute of government offices and other public institutions in pre-revolutionary Russia, and in some places (in remote rural settlements) they have been preserved to this day. Bells were used on the railway to signal the departure of trains. Before the advent of flashing lights and special means of sound signaling, a bell was installed on horse-drawn carriages, and later on emergency vehicles. The tone of the signal bells was made different from the church bells. Signal bells were also called alarm bells.

Classic bell as a musical instrument

Small bell (bronze)

Small bell (bronze, tongue view)

The data in this article is as of 1900.

Medium-sized bells and bells have long been included in the category of percussion musical instruments that have a certain sonority. Bells come in various sizes and all tunings. The larger the bell, the lower its pitch. Each bell makes only one sound. The part for medium-sized bells is written in the bass clef, for small-sized bells - in the treble clef. Medium-sized bells sound an octave higher than the written notes.

The use of bells of a lower pitch is impossible due to their size and weight, which would prevent their placement on the stage or stage. So, for a sound up to the 1st octave, a bell weighing 2862 kg would be required, and for a sound an octave lower in the church of St. Paul in London, a bell weighing 22,900 kg was used. There is nothing to say about lower sounds. They would demand the Novgorod bell (31,000 kg), Moscow (70,500 kg) or Tsar Bell (200,000 kg). In the 4th act of the opera “The Huguenots,” Meyerbeer used the lowest of the commonly used bells for the alarm, producing sounds of F from the 1st octave to the 2nd. Bells are used in symphony and opera orchestras for special effects related to the plot. In the score, one part is written for bells numbered from 1 to 3, the tunings of which are indicated at the beginning of the score. The sounds of medium-sized bells have a solemn character.

In the past, composers commissioned this instrument to perform expressive melodic patterns. This is what Richard Wagner did, for example, in the symphonic film “The Rustle of the Forest” (“Siegfried”) and in the “Magic Fire Scene” in the final part of the opera “Die Walküre”. But later, bells mainly required only sound power. Since the end of the 19th century, theaters began to use bells-caps (timbres) made of cast bronze with rather thin walls, not so bulky and emitting lower sounds than a set of ordinary theater bells.

In the 20th century To imitate the ringing of bells, it is no longer classical bells that are used, but so-called orchestral bells in the form of long tubes.

A set of small bells (Glockenspiel, Jeux de timbres, Jeux de cloches) was known in the 18th century; they were occasionally used by Bach and Handel in their works. The set of bells was subsequently equipped with a keyboard. This instrument was used by Mozart in his opera The Magic Flute. The bells have now been replaced by a set of steel plates. This instrument, which is very common in orchestras, is called metallophone. The player hits the records with two hammers. This instrument is sometimes equipped with a keyboard.

Bells in Russian music

Bell ringings have become an organic part of the musical style and dramaturgy of the works of Russian classical composers, both in the operatic and instrumental genres.

Yareshko A. S. Bell ringing in the works of Russian composers (on the problem of folklore and composer)

Bell ringing was widely used in the works of Russian composers of the 19th century. M. Glinka used bells in the final chorus “Glory” of the opera “Ivan Susanin” or “A Life for the Tsar”, Mussorgsky - in the play “The Heroic Gates ...” of the cycle “Pictures at an Exhibition” and in the opera “Boris Godunov”, Borodin - in the play “In the Monastery” from “Little Suite”, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov - in “The Woman of Pskov”, “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”, “The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh”, P. Tchaikovsky - in “The Oprichnik”. One of Sergei Rachmaninov's cantatas was called "Bells". In the 20th century, this tradition was continued by G. Sviridov, R. Shchedrin, V. Gavrilin, A. Petrov and others.

Chimes

A set of bells (of all sizes), tuned to a diatonic or chromatic scale, is called chimes. Such a large set is placed on the bell towers and is in connection with the mechanism of the tower clock or keyboard for the game. Chimes were and are used primarily in Holland and the Netherlands. Under Peter the Great, on the bell towers of the Church of St. Isaac (1710) and in the Peter and Paul Fortress (1721) chimes were placed. At the bell tower of the Peter and Paul Fortress, the chimes were resumed and exist to this day. The chimes are also located in St. Andrew's Cathedral in Kronstadt. On the Rostov cathedral bell tower, tuned chimes have existed since the 17th century, since the time of Metropolitan Jonah Sysoevich. Currently, Archpriest Aristarkh Aleksandrovich Izrailev paid special attention to the system of K., who built an acoustic device for accurately determining the number of vibrations of sounding bodies, consisting of a set of 56 tuning forks and a special apparatus similar to a metronome. The harmoniously tuned K. Archpriest of Israel are located: in the bell tower of the Anichkov Palace, the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg, in the palace church in Orianda, Kiev, Nizhny Novgorod, Gethsemane near old Jerusalem at the Church of Mary Magdalene (see "Journal of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society", volume XVI, g. and p. 17, “Russian Pilgrim”, g., No. 17). The set of small Ks used for room clocks was also called chimes.

carillon

Bells from the pre-imperial era

The Chinese bell culture, which has survived to our time, appears in a new perspective in the light of archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. It was discovered that, unlike modern round bells of Indian origin, the ancient original Chinese type usually had an almond-shaped cross-section. Bells of this type were distinguished by a shorter duration of sound, but could produce two distinct tones and, in their most developed form, were made up of sets covering up to 5 octaves and adjusted to the chromatic scale (see Tomb of the Marquis I). The production of almond-shaped bells flourished during the Zhou Dynasty. The discovery of the largest bell of this type (more than 1 m in height) was announced in 1986.

The characteristic shape of some bells is noteworthy: type nao was installed, like goblets, with the sounding part upward (this is evidenced by a long, even “leg”, not suitable for hanging an instrument), and the one that developed from it yongzhong retained the “leg” for installation, but was suspended by attaching a rope along the transverse ring on it, or by a special loop. The “leg” of the bell, which was hollow from the inside, was retained, presumably for acoustic reasons.

It is curious that after the Warring States period, along with the decline of the Zhou ritual, the golden age of Chinese bell making also ended. The last echo of the old tradition, lost by the Han Dynasty, was the making of giant ritual bells by Qin Shi Huang. By his order, they were made from weapon bronze from the conquered kingdoms.

In philately

see also

• Veche bell
• Alarm bell
• Dotaku - ancient Japanese bell from the Yayoi period
• Ring control system

Notes

Literature

• Pukhnachev Yu. V. Mysteries of sounding metal. - M.: Nauka, 1974. - 128 p. - (Popular science series). - 40,000 copies.(region)
• Kavelmacher V.V. Methods of bell ringing and ancient Russian bell towers // Bells: History and modernity. - M.: Nauka, 1985. - P. 39-78.
• A. Davydov. Bells and bell ringing in folk culture; V. Lokhansky. Russian bells; L. Blagoveshchenskaya. Belfry - a musical instrument // Bells. History and modernity. M., 1985.
• Valentsova M. On the magical functions of the bell in the folk culture of the Slavs // The sounding and silent world: Semiotics of sound and speech in the traditional culture of the Slavs. - M., 1999.
• Dukhin I. A. Bell factories of Moscow / Preface by Yuri Rost. - M.: Groshev-design, 2004. - 122 p. - 1,000 copies.(region)

Links

• Bell ringing on the website pravoslav.at.tut.by

Percussion musical instruments
Instruments with a certain pitch
Membranophones
Wooden idiophones
Metal idiophones
Instruments with indefinite pitch
Membranophones

T.F. Vladyshevskaya,

Doctor of Art History, Moscow

Many monasteries and churches in towns and villages
very splendidare painted with wonderful icons
and kanbans, like bells...

Since ancient times, bell ringing has been an integral part of Russian life. It sounded both on days of great celebrations and on small holidays. The people were called to a veche with a bell (for this purpose there was a veche bell in Novgorod), they called for help with an alarm or alarm bell, they called on the people to defend the Fatherland, and they welcomed the return of regiments from the battlefield. Bells were used to signal a lost traveler - this was the so-called saving blizzard ringing. Bells were installed on lighthouses and helped fishermen find the right direction on foggy days. The ringing of bells greeted distinguished guests, rang the arrival of the Tsar, and reported important events.

Starting from the 16th century in Rus', bells played a chronometric role; at this time, tower clocks appeared on bell towers with hour bells that rang at a certain time of day. In the church, the bell announced the beginning and end of services, weddings and funerals.

It is unknown when and how the custom of ringing bells developed in Rus': some believe that the Western Slavs played an intermediary role in the spread of bells in Rus', others believe that Russian bell art was borrowed from the Baltic Germans.

The ancient East Slavic tradition of bell ringing goes back centuries. The Arab writer of the mid-10th century, al-Masudi, wrote in his work: “The Slavs are divided into many nations; some of them are Christians... They have many cities, as well as churches, where they hang bells, which they hit with a hammer, just as our Christians hit a board with a wooden mallet.” 1

Theodore Balsamon, a 12th-century canonist, points out that bell ringing is not found among the Greeks, and that it is a purely Latin tradition: “The Latins have a different custom of calling people to temples; for they use campan, which is so named from the word “campo” - “field”. For they say: just as the field presents no obstacles for those who wish to travel, so the high sound of the copper-mouthed bell is heard everywhere.” 2 So, F. Balsamon explains precisely the etymology of the word campan (satrap) from “campus” - “field”; it was in the field (incampo) that large bells were made. The most plausible explanation for the origin of this word derives it from Campanian copper (Campania is the Roman province where the best bells were cast). 3

The bell is one of the most ancient musical instruments in the world. In different countries, bells have their own characteristics. This is evidenced by the etymology of the word “bell”, which goes back to the ancient Indian kalakalas - “noise, screams”, in Greek “kaleo” means “call”, in Latin - “kalare” - “to convene”. Obviously, the first purpose of the bell was to convene and announce the people.

Across the vast territory of Russia, small bells are often found in excavations. They are dug out from ancient graves and mounds. Near the city of Nikopol, 42 bronze bells were found in the Chertomlytsky grave; several had remains of reeds and chains on which the bells were suspended from the plaques. Bells come in different shapes, some have slots in the body. Archaeologists find such bells everywhere, even in Siberia. They testify that even in pre-Christian times, bells were used in the everyday life of the Slavs, but one can only guess about their purpose. One of the assumptions was made by N. Findeisen 4, who believed that the bells from the mounds were the original attributes of the liturgical cult, like the magic bells of modern shamans.

So, bells and bells have been a symbol of purification, protection and spells against evil forces since ancient times; they were a mandatory attribute of all kinds of prayers and religious rituals. Huge church bells were called the voice of God. In the old days, the bell was a herald. It was the voice of God and the people.

In the West, the bell oath was adopted, that is, an oath sealed by the ringing of a bell: people believed that such an oath was inviolable, and the most terrible fate awaited those who violated this oath. The bell oath was used more often and was valued more highly than the oath on the Bible. In some cities there was a rule that prohibited legal proceedings without ringing bells in all criminal cases involving bloodshed. And in Russia, in certain cases, this kind of purifying oath was given during the ringing of bells, also called Vasiliev’s. “Walk under the bells,” they said here about this oath, to which the defendant was taken if there was no evidence or means of justification. This oath took place in the church while the bells were ringing in public. “Even if the bells ring, I will take the oath,” says a Russian proverb, which reflects the ancient custom of standing under the bells while taking an oath.

Both in the West and in Russia, bells were humanized: the names of different parts of the bell were anthropomorphic: tongue, lip, ears, shoulder, crown, mother, skirt. The bells, like people, were given their own names: Sysoy, Krasny, Baran, Besputny, Perespor, etc.

In ancient times, the bell, together with the people, was guilty and held responsibility. So, on May 15, 1591, by order of Maria Nagoya, sexton Fedot Ogurets sounded the alarm to announce the death of Tsarevich Dimitri. The people of Uglich dealt with the alleged murderers of the prince by lynching. Tsar Boris Godunov cruelly punished not only the participants in this lynching, but also the alarm bell that rang for the murdered man. He was thrown from the bell tower, his tongue was torn out, his ear was cut off, he was publicly punished in the square with twelve lashes and, together with several Uglich residents who received the same punishment, he was sent into exile in Tobolsk.

During wars, the most valuable loot was the bell, which, after capturing the city, the conquerors usually tried to take with them. History knows many cases, described in chronicles, when captive bells fell silent in captivity. This was an unkind sign for the winner: “Prince Alexander of Volodymyr took the eternal bell of the Holy Mother of God to Suzdal, and the bell did not begin to ring, as if it were in Volodymyr; and Alexander saw that he had brutalized the Holy Mother of God, and ordered him to be taken back to Volodymer, and put him in his place and in a powerful voice, as he had previously been pleasing to God.” But if the bell rang as before, the chronicler happily announced it: “And it rang as before.”

There was a special crackdown on bells in the 20s and 30s of the 20th century. In 1917, at the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in the Moscow Kremlin, the Sunday bell was shot at more than 1000 pounds. M. Prishvin's stories have been preserved about how the bells tragically perished, how they were thrown from the bell tower of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the Holy Monastery, how they were smashed with a hammer and destroyed on the ground.

I. Bila

In Rus' of the 11th–17th centuries, two types of musical instruments of the ringing type were used - bells and beats. In the charter of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra of 1645 there is an instruction that on Wednesday of cheese week “they beat the clock on the board, and do not ring it.” The beater in the Lavra was used along with the bell even in the middle of the 17th century.

The beater is one of the most ancient and very simple instruments. It was used in Rus' long before the advent of Christianity. S.P. Kazansky 5 believes that in pagan times the Slavs used eastern style beaters, which were hung from tree branches. In the Orthodox East, beats have been used since ancient times. In St. Sophia of Constantinople there were neither bells nor a bell tower: “they do not keep bells in St. Sophia, but holding a small bell in the hand, they ring them at matins, but they do not ring them at mass and vespers; and in other churches they swear at both mass and vespers. The beat is held according to the teaching of Angels; and the bells are ringing in Latin.” 6

In Christian times, beaters of various types were used in monasteries and cities. They were made from different materials - metal, wood and even stone - especially in those places where stone predominated. For example, information has been preserved that during the years of the abbess of St. Zosima in the Solovetsky Monastery (1435–1478), a stone rivet was used to call the brethren to service 7 .

An important source containing information about the use of beats and bells is the Charter (Typikon). The Rules of worship following the model of the Jerusalem Lavra of Saint Sava the Sanctified, which the Russian Church uses to this day, contain instructions that speak of the ancient monastic customs of using different types of beaters and bells in everyday life and during services: “The beater strikes six times”, “it rivets in small campan and hand rivet according to custom”, “strikes the great tree”, “strikes the great tree and rivets quite” 8 .

From the instructions of the Typikon it is clear that in the Lavra of St. Savva the Sanctified in Jerusalem, along with bells (campaniums), two types of beaters were used - a hand rivet and the actual beater (or simply a great tree).

The first type - the great beat - had a rectangular shape; it was suspended from something and hit with a mallet. The beat made a rather strong ringing if it was made of metal (usually in the form of a bar). In this case, the sound had a long metallic hum. Large Novgorod beaters were an iron or cast iron strip, straight or half-bent. If it was a very large beam, then it was hung from a special pillar near the temple. To produce sound, it was beaten with a wooden or iron hammer. In Novgorod, XV–XVI centuries. there were very long and narrow beels, which were a forged iron strip eight arshins long, two and a quarter inches wide and a quarter of an inch thick. In some Novgorod churches, hanging beaters were used in the 18th century. In general, bells existed in Rus' for quite a long time, replacing bells, and sometimes along with bells.

The second type - the small beater - was not suspended, but hand-held (Fig. 1). The statute of Little Vespers says: “Rivets into the little tree.” In shape it was a type of two-oar board with a cutout in the center, by which it was held with the left hand. In the right hand there was a rivet (a wooden mallet), which was used to hit the beater in its different parts. This produced a wide variety of sounds, since the middle of the board was thicker, while it thinned towards the edges.

The miniature depicting the use of a small hand beater in one of the Novgorod monasteries, 9 shows monks leaving the monastery. One of them holds a beater and a rivet in his hands, with which he hits the board. Under the miniature there is a signature: “I told the saint; the blessed one commanded to strike the beat.”

Bila are preserved in monasteries in Greece and Bulgaria. The author of this work heard in the Bachkovo Monastery (Bulgaria) how a monk called people to the evening service by riveting a wooden hand beater. At the same time, the rhythm of riveting imitated the rhythm of the verbal phrase “Cherkva popit” (the church serves), which was repeated at a very fast pace.

In Greek monasteries and in Sinai, beaters were used strictly according to the Charter. Thus, in the monasteries of Mount Athos, a wooden beat was sounded on non-holiday days, and an iron beat was used in those cases when at Vespers, according to the Rule, it was not the reading, but the singing of the psalm “Blessed is the Man” (then an iron rivet was struck). At the same time, the ringing was different.

In an Orthodox monastery in Sinai, at Matins they hit a long piece of granite hanging on ropes with a stick. Its sound, although not too strong, was heard throughout the monastery. At vespers, they beat a piece of dry wood that hung next to a granite beam. The sounds of granite and wooden beaters differed in their timbre.

II. Bells

Unlike the planar bell designs, Russian bells had the shape of a truncated cone, like a huge thick cap with an expanded bell, which had ears at the top for hanging. A tongue was suspended inside the bell - a metal rod with a thickening at the end, which was used to beat the edge of the bell.

The alloy from which the bells were cast is a combination of copper and tin, although ancient manuscripts give more expensive recipes for the alloys: “Ordinary or red copper makes a sound of its own, but not loudly, but if you add tin or silver to it, or gold, then the ringing is sweet,” it is written in “Lubchanin’s Herbal Book” (XVII century). Like any other business, bell casting had its own recipes, secrets, and secrets of craftsmanship 10 .

II. 1. Blessing of the Bell

Just as a born person entering life was supposed to be baptized, so the cast bell, before taking its place on the bell tower, received a blessing. There was a special “Rite of blessing the campan, which is the bell or ringing,” where it is said that before hanging a bell in the church, it needs to be “sprinkled from above and from the inside.” In the rite of blessing the bell, which begins with a series of prayers, psalms, readings, and sprinkling of the bell, a paremia is read - an Old Testament reading from the Book of Numbers about silver trumpets (chapter 10). Trumpets served as bells for the Jews, because bells were possible only with a sedentary lifestyle. The Lord commanded Moses to make trumpets to convene the people and sound the alarm. The sons of Aaron, the priests, shall sound with trumpets: “This shall be a statute for you for ever throughout your generations, and in the day of your gladness, and in your feasts, and in your new moons; Blow the trumpets for your burnt offerings and for your peace offerings; and this will be a memorial of you before your God. I, the Lord your God."

The rite of blessing the bell begins with the usual introductory prayers, followed by psalms of praise 148–150. In Psalm 150, the prophet David calls for praising God on all musical instruments used in his time in Israel: “Praise Him with the trumpet, praise Him with the psaltery and the harp. Praise Him with the cymbal of good cheer, praise Him with the cymbal of shouting.”

Among the listed instruments there are all types of musical instruments - wind (trumpets), strings (psaltery, harp), percussion (tympanums, cymbals).

Bells, like trumpets, called not only to people, but also to God. They served the social and spiritual needs of the people. By ringing bells, Christians gave glory and honor to God. This is precisely what the 28th Psalm is dedicated to, which is read at the beginning of the Rite of Blessing the Bell:

“Bring to the Lord glory and honor, Bring to the Lord glory to his name, Worship the Lord in His holy court. The voice of the Lord on the waters. The God of glory will roar, the Lord upon many waters. The Voice of the Lord in Strength: The Voice of the Lord in Splendor.”

The psalmist David glorifies the greatness of God, revealed in the formidable forces of nature: storms, lightning and thunder. Russian bell-casters, who sought to cry out to God with the sounds of multi-pound bells, imitated the greatness of thunder, for “God will roar with glory.”

The first part of the rite of blessing the campana goes back to biblical psalms and Hebrew images. The second is associated with New Testament texts and includes petitions, prayers and appeals in litanies, stichera and prayers. Thus, the deacon proclaims a peaceful litany, which contains petitions specially written for this Rite, in which they pray for the blessing of the bell to the glory of the Name of the Lord:

“Let us pray to the Lord to bless this campan, to the glory of His holy Name, with our heavenly blessing;

Let us pray to the Lord for the grace to give him grace, so that everyone who hears his ringing, either in days or in nights, will be awakened to the praise of Thy Holy Name;

Let us pray to the Lord for the sound of its ringing to be quenched and calmed and to cease from all the green winds, storms, thunder and lightning, and all harmful winds and evil-dissolved air;

Let us pray to the Lord to drive away all the power, the deceit and slander of invisible enemies from all our faithful who hear the voice of the sound of it, and to arouse us to do our commandments.”

These four petitions of the deacon express the entire understanding of the spiritual purpose of the bell, preaching the glory of the Name of God and sanctifying the air elements with its ringing. These petitions of the deacon are increasingly strengthened by the prayer of the priest that follows them, which remembers Moses and the trumpets he created: “...Lord our God, although from all your faithful we always glorify and worship, but in the Old Testament you will make trumpets of silver for your servant Moses the lawmaker, and the son of Aaron the priest never gave it to you to eat, you commanded the trumpet to sound...”

In the next, secret prayer, “Master God, Father Almighty,” the priest turns to God: “Consecrate this campan and pour into it the power of Thy grace, so that when Thy faithful servants hear the voice of its sound, they will be strengthened in piety and faith, and courageously with all the devil’s slander they will resist... May the attacking windy storms, hail and whirlwinds, and terrible thunder cease to be quenched and calmed down. And lightning, and evil-dissolved and harmful air with his voice.”

Here he recalls the destruction of the ancient city of Jericho by the thunderous sound of trumpets: “Who with the voice of the trumpet, the priest of the seventh week walking before the ark of the meeting, Thou didst make the solid walls of Jericho fall and collapse: Thou also now fill this campaign with Thy heavenly Blessing, for even the voice of its ringing was heard by the contrary air the forces will retreat far from the city of your faithful.” Following the prayer, the bell is sprinkled with holy water, and the psalmist reads the 69th psalm, “God, come to my help,” calling for deliverance from persecutors, since calling for help in difficult times is one of the duties of the bell.

In the Rite of Blessing, special stichera are sung, written for this occasion: “To the earth and the vicious elements” (second voice), “Strive for the foundations of the whole earth” (first voice), “All things are one” (fourth voice). In the poetic texts of the stichera, themes from the prayers of the priest and the petitions of the deacon are sung: “The Lord created everything immediately in the beginning with Himself, but now all mediocre ones act with the voice of this sanctified ringing, all despondency with laziness has been driven away from the hearts of your faithful...”

Indeed, doctors have now come to the conclusion that bells can heal people: this is evidenced by the recent discoveries of psychiatrist A.V. Gnezdilov from St. Petersburg, who treats a number of mental illnesses with the sound of a bell.

The ability of a bell to influence a person’s spiritual world - to turn him away from bad deeds, to excite him to goodness, to drive away laziness and despondency - is confirmed in life, and sometimes even ends up on the pages of fiction. Thus, in V. Garshin’s story “Night,” the hero, a man confused in a life situation, decides to commit suicide, thus expressing contempt for people and his worthless life, but the sound of a bell ringing from afar forces him to abandon this thought and, as it were, be reborn again .

The text of the “Rite of the Blessing of the Campana” shows that in the Orthodox Church the bell was treated as a sacred musical instrument, capable of resisting enemies, the devil’s slander, and natural elements with the power of its sound, attracting the grace of God, and protecting from forces harmful to humans and “evil-dissolved air.”

II. 2. Ochepnye bells in Rus'

There are differences in the method of ringing in the West and in Russia. In ancient times in Rus', bells were called by the Russian word “lingual”, although in the Typikon (Charter) the Latin word “campan” is often used: “they strike the campan and ring quite a bell.”

V.V. Kavelmacher 12, studying the methods of bell ringing and ancient Russian bell towers, came to the conclusion that the method of ringing by striking the body with the tongue in Russia was finally established only in the second half of the 17th century. The Western method of ringing by swinging the bell with the tongue in a free position is more ancient. It exists in the West to this day, but in Rus' it has also been widely practiced for quite a long time. Swinging bells in Ancient Rus' were called “ochapnye”, or “ochepnye”, as well as “bells with an ochepom”. This name is associated with the words “ochep”, “otsep”, “ochap”, which defined a system of devices consisting of a long or short pole with a rope at the end, attached to a shaft connected to a bell. For a heavy bell, the rope ended in a stirrup, on which the bell ringer placed his foot, helping himself with the weight of his body. The bell-ringer set in motion a shaft with a bell attached to it, which struck the tongue. Thus, the bell, in contact with the tongue, made a ringing sound, a crumbling sound; This is how the blagovest was called, which was considered the main type of church bell ringing. The image of the ringing ringing is on the miniature of the chronicle Facial Vault of the 16th century: two bell ringers ring the bell from the ground, pressing the stirrup of a rope tied to a shaft (ochep) attached to the bell.

The passive position of the tongue in relation to the body of the bell also determines the nature of the sound of Western bells, in which one hears, rather, shimmering sounds without the power that a large Russian tongue bell is capable of. The blows of the tongue on the body created strong and bright bell ringings, melodies, harmonies, rhythms, and numerous ringings of small bells gave the whole sound a special festive flavor. During the Baroque era in the 17th–18th centuries, the number of not only large but also small bells sharply increased. At this time, the trezvon became more and more decorated.

V. Kavelmacher sees three main periods in the development of bells and bell ringing in Russia. The first, from which almost no significant monuments of bell art have survived, covers the time from the Baptism of Rus' to the beginning of the 14th century, when, probably, the original and dominant method of ringing in Rus' was ochepna. Most likely, it was this method that was borrowed from Europe along with bells, bell towers and foundry art.

The second period is the era of the Muscovite state, that is, from the 14th century to the mid-17th century, when both types of ringing coexisted: open and linguistic. This period also marks the beginning of the development of tower bells. Linguistic bells began to dominate no earlier than the second half of the 17th century, at the same time there was a flourishing of Baroque bell art, in parallel with which Baroque choral music developed, and the tradition of a developed polyphonic partes concert grew stronger (the word “partes” implies singing in parts. - Ed.) .

The third period - from the middle of the 17th century to the 20th century - is characterized by the dominance of a single linguistic type of ringing. As you can see, the most varied bell-ringing technique occurs in the second stage. All three types of ringing, in accordance with the sound production technique, had a special design, methods of hanging and fittings, as well as a special type of bell structures and bell openings.

To this day, swinging oche bells are preserved in the North, which over time began to be used as language bells. One such great bell is located in the span of the belfry of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. Traces of bell structures in the form of various kinds of nests for swinging bells are found on many belfries, including the belfry of St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, and on the bell towers of large northern monasteries: Kirillo-Belozersky, Ferapontov, Spaso-Kamenny. In Moscow, the remains of ochep structures were preserved on the bell tower of Ivan the Great, on the Spiritual Church of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, built by Pskov craftsmen as a church “under the bells” (together with the bell tower).

The advantage of tongue ringing was that swinging only the tongue, and not the entire bell, did not have such a destructive effect on the tower where the bell was placed, which made it possible to cast and install bells of enormous size on bell towers.

II. 3. Foreigners about the ringing of bells in Moscow

Among the foreigners who visited the Russian capital, many left descriptions of bells and ringing. An important historical document from the time of troubles was the diary of the Polish military commander Samuil Maskevich. It contains many records relating to the life of Moscow, and, in particular, there are descriptions of bells. These notes were made by an observant eyewitness from the enemy camp: “There are up to twenty other churches in the Kremlin; Of these, the Church of St. John (the bell tower of Ivan the Great in the Kremlin. - T.V.), located in the middle of the castle, is remarkable for its high stone bell tower, from which you can see far in all directions of the capital. There are 22 large bells on it; Among them, many are not inferior in size to our Krakow Sigismund; They hang in three rows, one above the other, and there are more than 30 smaller bells. It is not clear how the tower can support such a weight. The only thing that helps her is that the bell ringers do not swing the bells, like ours, but beat them with their tongues; but to swing another tongue, it takes 8 or 10 people. Not far from this church there is a bell, cast from one vanity: it hangs on a wooden tower two fathoms high, so that it can be seen more clearly; 24 people swing his tongue. Shortly before we left Moscow, the bell moved a little towards the Lithuanian side, in which the Muscovites saw a good sign: and in fact, they survived us from the capital” 13. In another place in his diary, where he talks about the fire in Moscow, he writes about the extraordinary power of the sound of these bells: “All of Moscow was surrounded by a wooden fence made of planks. The towers and gates, very beautiful, apparently were worth the effort and time. There were many churches everywhere, both stone and wooden; There was a buzzing in my ears when all the bells were ringing. And we turned all this to ashes in three days: the fire destroyed all the beauty of Moscow” 14.

Famous foreigners who visited Moscow later and left their impressions of the bell ringing were Adam Olearius, Pavel Aleppo and Bernhard Tanner. Adam Olearius writes that in Moscow there were usually up to 5-6 bells weighing up to two centners hanging on the bell towers. They were controlled by one bell ringer 15. These were typical Moscow bell towers with the usual set of bells.

In addition, Adam Olearius described the ringing of the largest Godunov bell at that time (New Blagovestnik), cast in 1600 under Tsar Boris for the Assumption Cathedral: “The Godunov bell weighed 3233 pounds, it hung in the middle of Cathedral Square on a wooden frame under a five-hipped roof: two crowds of bell ringers set him in motion, and a third at the top of the bell tower brought his tongue to the edge of the bell.”

Pavel Aleppo, who visited Moscow in 1654, was amazed by the power and amazing size of Russian bells. One of them, weighing about 130 tons, was heard seven miles away, he notes 16.

Bernhard Tanner, in his description of the trip of the Polish embassy to Moscow, notes the variety of bells, their different sizes and methods of ringing. In particular, he describes the chimes: “First, they strike one smallest bell six times, and then alternately with a larger bell six times, then they strike both alternately with a third even larger one the same number of times, and in this order they reach the largest one; all the bells are already ringing here” 17. The method of calling described by Tanner is called chiming.

III. Types of bells

The bell in the Russian Orthodox Church was perceived as the voice of God, calling to the temple for prayer. By the type of ringing (blagovest, festive trezvon, funeral chime) a person determined the type of service and the scale of the holiday. For the Twelfth Feast the ringing was much more solemn than for a simple weekday or even Sunday service. At the most important moment of the Liturgy, during the singing of “It is Worthy,” everyone who could not come to the service was notified by striking the bell that the transubstantiation of the Gifts was taking place in the church, so that at this moment everyone could mentally join in the prayer.

The system of church bells was very developed, which is reflected in the Charter. Here it is determined when on which holiday to use this or that type of ringing, which bells to ring: “Before the services of Vespers, Matins, and Liturgy, there is a trezvon, and then when they are not performed in the specified order with other services. So, before Vespers at the vigil (with which it begins), there is a trezvon ringing in a row after the good news. The trezvon before Vespers after the hours also occurs when Vespers precedes the Liturgy, for example on the Annunciation, on Maundy Thursday, on Holy Saturday and on the days of Great Pentecost, when the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts takes place” 18.

Different types of bell ringing correspond to different types of church services. There are two main types: blagovest and zvon (and its variety trezvon). Blagovest is a ringing in which one or several bells are struck, but not together, but each bell in turn. In the latter case, blagovest is called “chime” and “brute force” 19. Blagovest had its own variations, but the general principle of ringing only one bell at a time was preserved. There is no mention of blagovest as a type of ringing in the Typikon. To designate it in the Charter, the following words are used: beat (beat), rivet, sign, strike. The very concept of “blagovest”, apparently, arises later; it is a Russian translation of the Greek word “evangelos” - “good news”, i.e. blagovest marks the good news of the beginning of the service.

The second type is ringing. Unlike the Blagovest, here two or more bells are struck at once. Among the varieties of ringing, “trezvon” stands out, which got its name from three strikes with the participation of several bells. The trezvon usually follows the gospel at evening and morning services and Liturgy. On major holidays, it often happens that the bell ringing is replaced by a trezvon, since the bell ringing is simply a call to prayer, and the trezvon is an expression of jubilation, a joyful, festive mood. The trezvon in the Typikon is mentioned in many places: in the sequence of Easter Matins (“Trezing in two”), on Great Wednesday (“Trezing in all”) 20.

On Easter, as a sign of the special greatness of the holiday, the pealing continued all day; the Easter bell was called the red bell. From Easter until the Ascension, every Sunday mass ended with a trezvon. They rang the bell on tsarist, victorious days, at prayer services, in honor of locally revered Russian saints, whose services were placed in a song book called “Trezvony” after the type of bells that were used to ring for these services.

The duration of any ringing in the Church was determined by the Charter. Thus, the duration of the gospel was equal to three articles, which constitute one kathisma (approximately 8 psalms): “heavy strikes the iron, singing three articles.” The Annunciation for the All-Night Vigil lasted the time of reading the 118th psalm “Blessed are the blameless” - the largest psalm of the Psalter, which constituted an entire kathisma, or reading 12 times slowly “Have mercy on me, O God” - the 50th psalm. Unlike the blagovest, the trezvon was brief and lasted only during one reading of the 50th psalm: “The paraecclesiarch slanderes the campans, rarely strikes with heavy emphasis, as long as he has solved the entire 50th psalm,” says the Charter.

The ringing that accompanies the religious procession usually develops: the bell sounds on one bell, then during the procession itself other bells are connected and the trezvon sounds. A special chime occurs on Easter night when reading the Gospel. The Typikon notes that at each article (excerpt from the Easter Gospel reading) one bell is struck once, and at the last exclamation all the kampana and the great bell are struck (that is, at the end there is a general strike on all the bells). 21 The ringing of the Easter service was extremely colorful, according to its description in the Official of the St. Sophia Cathedral of Novgorod 22. When reading the Gospel line by line, the saint (bishop) and protodeacon alternately rang the candea, on the street - the messenger bell, and in the bell tower there was a chime. At each new line, they struck different bells from small to large, and ended everything by ringing all the bells.

In different services the ringing varied in its tempo. On holidays he was energetic, cheerful, creating a cheerful mood. For Lenten and funeral services - slow, sad. In the selection of bells on large belfries there was always a “Lenten” bell, which was distinguished by its mournful tone. The tempo of the bells was very important. The Typikon specifically notes that during the days of Lent the bell ringer rings more slowly (“the paraecclesiarch marks the more inert”). The inert ringing begins on Monday of Great Lent, and already on Saturday of the first week it becomes more lively: “On Saturday for Compline there is no inert ringing” 23 . They rarely call before an early service, but often before a late service.

The funeral chime was the slowest. Heavy, rare sounds created a mournful mood and set the pace for the ritual procession. Each bell sounded separately, replacing one another, and then at the end all the bells were rung simultaneously. This is how the chime is described during the funeral service and burial of priests - clergy. 24 The funeral chime was interrupted by a trezvon at the most important moments of the ritual: when the body was brought into the temple, after the permissive prayer was read, and at the moment the body was immersed in the grave.

The funeral chime in the Good Friday services associated with the death of Christ on the cross and his burial begins with the chime before the removal of the Shroud on Good Friday at Vespers and on Great Saturday at Matins during a walk with the Shroud around the temple, depicting the procession of the removal of the body and burial of Christ. After the shroud is brought into the temple, the ringing begins. The same order of ringing occurs on days of special worship of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord: on the day of the Exaltation (September 14), on the Cross-Worshipping Week of Great Lent and on August 1 when celebrating the Origin of the Honest Tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord. The slow ringing of the bells as the cross is carried out ends with the pealing of the bells at the end of the procession.

IV. Old Russian literature about bells

A lot is said about bells in Russian literature, starting from the most ancient sources. The first mention of them in the Russian chronicle in 1066 is associated with Novgorod and St. Sophia, from whom the Polotsk prince Vsevolod removed the bells: “The bells were removed from St. Sofia and Ponekadila sima" 25.

There is a mention of bells in the Kyiv epic about Ilya Muromets:

“And they led Ilya to the gallows And accompanied Ilya like Muromets With all the church bells...” 26

In the Novgorod epic about Vasily Buslaev, there is a curious episode of the battle between Vasily and the Novgorodians on the bridge, when the elder hero Andronishche suddenly appears, wearing a huge copper bell with a bell tongue in his hands instead of a club:

“How here elder Andronishche Heaped the monastery’s copper bell onto his shoulders onto the mighty one, The small bell is ninety pounds long, Let it go to the Volkhov river, to that Volkhov bridge, It props itself up with the tongue of the bell, Let the Kalinov bridge bend...” 27

In “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” it is said about the bells of Polotsk: “To him (Vseslav) in Polotsk, ring the bells early at Matins at St. Sophia, and he heard the ringing in Kiev.” This allegory about the ringing of Polotsk bells, heard in Kyiv, may indicate that at that early time they sought to cast sonorous bells. Novgorod bells were especially famous in Rus', although it is sung in a folk song that “The bells rang in Novgorod, louder than those in stone Moscow.”

Novgorod was proud of the ringing of the bells of its St. Sophia Cathedral and the ancient Yuryevsky Monastery of the 11th century. Undoubtedly, the Novgorod veche bell stood out among others - a symbol of freedom and independence of the Novgorod Republic.

The veche bell convened Novgorodians to solve state problems publicly and publicly. In the chronicles it was also called “vechy”, or “eternal”, and was perceived as a symbol of legality and freedom. It is no coincidence that after the conquest of Novgorod by Ivan III and the deprivation of the Novgorodians of their former freedom, the veche bell was taken to Moscow and hung along with other bells. The chronicle says: “From now on, the veche bell in our fatherland in Veliky Novgorod will not exist... Neither the mayor, nor the thousand, nor the veche will exist in Veliky Novgorod; and the eternal bell of the Svezosh to Moscow.”

“Zadonshchina,” an essay about the Battle of Kulikovo, describes the Novgorod troops who went out to fight Mamai. In the text of this literary work of Ancient Russia, they are inseparable from their bells - a symbol of independence and invincibility: “The eternal bells are ringing in the great Novgorod, the men of Novgorod are standing at St. Sophia” 28.

There are mentions of bells in the “Royal Book”. There is a well-known story telling about the death of Tsar Vasily Ivanovich III. In this regard, there was, as they say, “a mournful ringing of a big bell.” In the miniature of the manuscript, the king is depicted on his deathbed, and in the foreground, bell-ringers ring a bell of the ochep type from the ground. 29

In the first years of the reign of Ivan IV, the chronicle of 1547 describes an episode of the fall of a bell. The chronicler highlights it in a special paragraph “About the bell,” which indicates the significance of the event that happened: “That same spring, June 3, I began to preach Vespers and the ears of the bell broke off, and fell from the wooden bell tower, and did not break. And the noble king commanded that iron ears be attached to him, and after the great fire he attached ears and erected his wooden bell tower, in the same place at St. Ivan’s for the bells, and the ringing voice of the old one.” 30 This interesting episode of bell life is also contained in the miniature of the “Royal Book” of the 16th century. Here you can clearly see how the bell under the tented dome with the chapel and the rope fell, separating from the shaft. The miniature of this manuscript shows craftsmen repairing a bell: they attach iron ears to it on a crucible (foreground), and then hang it under the bell tower (background). Two bell ringers on the right and left pull the ropes attached to the bells, setting the shaft with the bell in motion.

Chronicles usually mention the casting of bells, recasting and repair, losses and fires, during which the bell copper melted like resin. All this is evidence of great attention to bells in Ancient Russia. The names of many foundry masters, which we find on the surface of the bells 31, have also been preserved. Novgorod scribe books of the 16th century brought to us information about the bell ringers of that time.

V. Legends of bells

The sound of large bells has always created a feeling of magical, extraordinary power and mystery. This impression was associated not so much with the sound of the bell itself, but with its roar. The Vologda Chronicle of the 16th century describes an unusual mysterious phenomenon, when suddenly the bells began to hum on their own, and many residents who heard this hum told about it: “On Saturday, in the very morning, many people heard that the Moscow bells in the square sounded like this when they rang sound" 32. This story about the spontaneous hum of bells without ringing them involuntarily evokes an association with the legend of the Kitezh bells. Great Kitezh, through the prayers of Saint Fevronia, became invisible (according to another version, it sank to the bottom of Lake Svetly Yar), only the hum of the Kitezh bells could be heard. This roar was heard by the Tatars who came to plunder the city, as well as by the betrayer of his compatriots, Grishka Kuterma, who, according to the libretto of Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia,” feeling remorse and trying to drown them out, asked the captive Fevronia to pull her hat down on him. ears, “so that they don’t hear me ringing” (Grishka himself was tied to a tree).

People have created many beautiful legends about bells associated with Russian history (especially about those that were expelled and punished). For example, with the Uglich bell, carved with a whip and sent to the city of Tobolsk in Siberia, there is a legend that the ringing of this bell had healing properties and healed sick children. The people believed that this bell was miraculous: “Almost every day one could hear the dull sound of this bell: this is a peasant, climbing the bell tower, washing the tongue of the bell, ringing several times, and taking the water home in tueskas, as a remedy against childhood diseases.” 33.

Another legend resembles a poetic Christmas tale and is associated with the Novgorod veche bell. It is widespread in Valdai and tells how the first bell, which later became the famous Valdai bell, appeared here. “By order of Ivan III, the Novgorod veche bell was removed from the Sofia belfry and sent to Moscow so that it would sound in harmony with all Russian bells and would no longer preach freemen. But the Novgorod prisoner never reached Moscow. On one of the slopes of the Valdai Mountains, the sleigh on which the bell was being transported rolled down, the frightened horses began to gallop, the bell fell off the cart and, falling into a ravine, was broken into pieces. With the help of some unknown force, many small fragments began to turn into small, miraculously born bells, local residents collected them and began to cast their own in their likeness, spreading the glory of the Novgorod freemen throughout the world" 34 . A version of this legend says that Valdai blacksmiths collected fragments of the veche bell and cast their first bells from them. There are also other versions in which specific characters appear - the blacksmith Thomas and the wanderer John: “The evening bell, falling from the mountain, broke into small pieces. Thomas, having collected a handful of fragments, cast an indescribably loud bell from them. The wanderer John begged this bell from the blacksmith, put it around his neck, and, sitting astride his staff, flew with the bell all over Russia, spreading the news about the Novgorod freemen and glorifying the Valdai masters” 35.

The East had its own legends associated with bells. The Turks, for example, had a belief that the ringing of bells disturbs the peace of souls in the air. After the sack of Constantinople in 1452, the Turks, due to religious antipathy, destroyed almost all the Byzantine bells, with the exception of some located in remote monasteries in Palestine and Syria. 36

VI. Bells as memorials and monuments

In Russia it was customary to give bells to church. Such contributions were made by many members of the royal family. On the bell tower of the Novodevichy Convent there are bells donated by kings and princes, including Princess Sophia, Prince Vorotynsky, Ivan IV. But not only high-ranking persons, but also rich merchants and even wealthy peasants donated bells to the temple. A lot of information about such acts of charity has been preserved in various archives. Bells were cast in memory of the soul of the deceased, in memory of parents, which was especially common in Rus', since it was believed that each strike of such a bell is a voice in memory of the deceased. The bells were cast according to a vow with a promise to give the bell to the temple after the fulfillment of wishes.

A lot of bell-monuments were made in Rus', cast in connection with events that needed to be preserved in people's memory. Such a bell-monument is the “Blagovestnik” on Solovki. It was made in memory of the war of 1854, during which two English ships (Brisk and Miranda) fired at the Solovetsky Monastery. The monastery walls shook, but still the monastery and all its inhabitants remained unharmed. They opened fire on the enemy from two monastery cannons, as a result one frigate was shot down, which forced the British to leave. In memory of this event, a bell was cast at the Yaroslavl plant and a bell tower was erected for it (1862–1863), which, unfortunately, has not survived. The “Blagovestnik” bell is currently located in the Solovetsky State Historical, Archival and Natural Museum-Reserve.

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Introduction

For a long time in Rus', bells have been ringing - inviting and solemn, joyful and sad. The bells and bells of the coachmen brightened up the monotonous road for travelers. Bells on church towers measured the passage of days in cities and villages, church ringing accompanied everyday life, brought joy with good news on holidays... It woke people's souls from sleep, did not allow them to become stale, made everyone kinder and more beautiful. The ringing of bells still leaves few people indifferent. The cheerful chime of small bells excites and pleases, the low sound of large bells calms. The bells inform us about church holidays and call on people to cleanse themselves and repent. How and where did this miracle, the bell, come from in Rus'?

1. The legend of the invention of the bell

In the first years and even centuries of Christianity, the bell was not used by the Slavs, although, according to legend, it was invented back in the 4th century by Paulinus the Merciful, a bishop from the Italian city of Nola. As if returning home after the service, he lay down to rest in the field and in a dream he saw angels holding wildflowers in their hands, bells fluttering in the wind, he heard blissful sounds.... Waking up under the impression of a wonderful vision, the bishop called the master and ordered him to make small copper bells like field bells and teach them to sing...

Legends are not verified, it is customary to believe them - or not to believe them. In its external form, a bell is nothing more than an overturned bowl, from which sounds seem to pour out, carrying God’s grace.

2. The appearance of bells in Rus'

Bells in Rus' appeared in the 10th century with the adoption of Christianity, but became widespread from the end of the 16th century. And in the XVII-XX centuries. they have so widely and firmly entered church life, so merged with the worship of the Russian Orthodox Church and with the idea of ​​Russian popular piety, that the question of their spiritual and symbolic meaning deserves special attention.

The question of where bells came from to Rus' remains open to this day. Some believe that bell ringing came from Western Europe, others consider Byzantium to be the birthplace of bell ringing, and others say that bell ringing appeared in Rus' independently of anyone. A number of researchers believe that the birthplace of bells is China. Indeed, the technology of bronze casting was created there back in the Xia era (XXIII-XVII centuries BC). From China, bluebells could eventually reach the West along the “Great Silk Road” and along the routes of the “Great Migration” to begin a new life in European cultures.

Until the 15th century, bells were rung in all Russian monasteries. The beater is one of the most ancient and very simple instruments. It was used in Rus' long before the advent of Christianity. In monasteries and cities, beaters of different types were used. They were made of metal, wood and even stone, especially in those places where there was no other material besides stone. To make the beat sound brighter, dry wood was used. Maple and beech produced the strongest and clearest sound, the pitch of which also varied depending on the force of the blow.

For a long time, Orthodoxy did not accept the bell, considering it a purely Latin instrument. “The bell is kept according to the angelic teaching, but the bells are rung in Latin,” wrote Novgorod Archbishop Anthony at the beginning of the 13th century. It was more common this way, and cheaper. But, despite the rejection of bell ringing by some church patriarchs, its beauty and sonority gradually took their toll. The first mention of bells in Rus' is contained in the 3rd Novgorod Chronicle and dates back to 1066: “Vseslav came and took Novgorod and the bells were removed from St. Sophia and the chandelier was removed.” The first bell in Rus' sounded in the Church of St. Irene in Kyiv.

3. About Russian bell ringing masters

Until the 19th century, the creation of bells in Rus' was the merit of foreign craftsmen. Either the craftsmen came to us to cast them themselves, or the bells were bought ready-made. Apparently, many of the bells that sounded in Rus' at that time were imported. The similarity of all Russian bells that have come down to us with each other and with their Western counterparts allows us to assert that at that time in all Christian countries bells were made according to a single standard. The early history of bells in Rus' went through the same stages as in the West. At first they were cast by monks, but pretty soon the matter passed to artisans. The finished bells were necessarily blessed.

The chronicle of 1259 first mentions Russian bell-making masters, when Prince Daniil of Galitsky transported bells and icons from Kyiv to Kholm. But the casting of its own bells was insignificant. Times were difficult: the feuds of the princes did not give a quiet life to the Russian land, and then a terrible enemy appeared - the Tatar-Mongols. The bells of the conquered city were a coveted trophy for the winner. Bells passed from hand to hand as valuables, were broken and melted in the fires of conflagrations. They were torn from the bell towers and melted down for cannons and coins. There was no greater punishment for a disgraced city or one that had lost its independence than the deprivation of a bell or a ban on ringing.

4. Russian way of ringing

But how did they ring bells in the first centuries of Christianity in Rus'? It turns out that it was not at all like what we are used to seeing today, but in a European way: it was not the tongue that was swinging, but the entire bell. With its ears, the bell was fixedly attached to a shaft, the ends of which were inserted into recesses in the walls of the niche where the bell was placed. The shaft had an ochep (or ochap, otsep) pole extending to the side, to which a rope was tied. Pulling this rope, the bell ringer swung the bell along with the shaft, and the bell struck the tongue that hung freely. The bell rope could end with a stirrup loop. The bell ringer inserted his foot into the stirrup, pressed rhythmically and rang. The obvious method was common in all, with a few exceptions, Catholic churches, not only in Europe, but also in America. It gave not clear, rhythmic, but rattling blows and did not allow the use of large bells on bell towers. When a heavy bell swung, the bell tower itself could become loose.

Russian master bell ringers, using their ingenuity, found a new method of ringing, a more convenient one - the lingual one, which they use now. This discovery probably occurred in the 14th century. The bell was attached to a metal or wooden beam with straps or iron loops threaded through the bell snakes. The swinging tongue struck the motionless bell. The bells, huge, loud, mounted on high towers, could appeal to all residents of the big city at once. In the 13th century they began to be used in tower clock mechanisms.

The Russian method of ringing allowed bells weighing hundreds and thousands of pounds to be placed on bell towers. This created a unique Russian bell polyphony, based on low bass bell voices. And ochepa bells were preserved for a long time in Rus' along with pagan ones, until the middle of the 17th century, especially in the northern region. And to this day they are carefully preserved in the ancient Pskov-Pechersk monastery as an old testament, from which the ringing began its march across the expanses of the Russian land.

With the discovery of a convenient linguistic method of ringing, interest in bells intensifies, and the casting of our own domestic bells is revived. The first name of a Russian foundry worker that has come down to us appears in the chronicles of the 14th century. There is little information about him. It is known that he lived in Moscow, then still a wooden city, inferior in external grandeur and number of inhabitants to Yaroslavl, Tver, and Vladimir. The Moscow master was famous, and the Novgorod archbishop invited him to cast the great bell for the St. Sophia Cathedral. He left his name on the bells: “A lil master Borisko.”

Agree that the tradition of “inscribing” bells is wonderful. Over time it will develop. And if the first Russian bells had a smooth surface, now ornaments, writing, sometimes even very extensive ones, will begin to appear. The inscriptions are like a chronicle that tells us about the age, weight of the bell, the event in honor of which it was cast, the customer and the craftsmen themselves. Separate bells will depict saints, patriarchs, kings and queens. Sometimes entire landscapes and even battle scenes

And the inscription by master Boriska... It may be small, but this is the first joyful news from the depths of centuries about the beginning of the Russian bell foundry.

5. The flourishing of bell art in Rus'

At first, bells were treated with caution, and they were only in grand ducal and metropolitan churches. However, the 16th-17th centuries became the heyday of bell art in Rus'. Such wonderful masters appeared as Alexander Grigoriev, brothers Ivan and Mikhail Motorin and others who developed the “Russian profile” of bells. The craftsmen strived to ensure that each bell had a melodic, personal sound coloring. Russia has its own bell foundries. Bells ring loudly across the Russian expanses, delighting both the common people and the kings with their voices, who loved to visit the bell tower, ring it with their own hands, and cast a larger bell to commemorate their reign.

Bell-makers were highly valued, and the casting of a new bell was always a big event. Previously, this complex, labor-intensive and centuries-old process was the same almost everywhere. The bells were cast in a specially dug hole. Before this, an internal mold was made - a blank, an external mold - a casing, and bell bronze, which consists of approximately 80 percent copper and 20 percent tin, was poured between the two molds. The bell cooled down, the small one for three days, the large one for seven days, then it was processed and polished. Of course, this is a rather simplified, schematic explanation. Foundry workers say that the process of casting a bell, its “voice”, is in the hands of God. Therefore, the casting of a bell is always accompanied by prayer. At that time, Russian bells were famous all over the world and almost always took first place at international fairs. The Yaroslavl Olovyanishnikov plant and the Moscow bell foundries of Finlyandsky and Samgin were widely known.

6. Famous Russian bells. The Tsar Bell

church bell ringing

The total number of bells in Rus' grew rapidly. Peter Petrey, a Swedish subject who visited Moscow at the very beginning of the 17th century, writes: “There are supposedly 4,500 churches, monasteries and chapels in the city and outside the city. You will not find a single one where there are not at least four or five hanging, and some even have nine or twelve bells, so that when they all ring at once, there is such a roar and shaking that one cannot hear each other.”

Travelers who came to Russia in those years were amazed not only by the abundance of bells, but also by their weight. By the middle of the 16th century, Russian bells surpassed Western ones in this regard. If in the West bells weighing 100-150 pounds were considered rare, then in Russia they were quite common.

In the Moscow Kremlin, bells of such weight sounded the gospel only on weekdays and therefore were called daily. Bells weighing up to 600-700 poods were called polyeleos and rang the gospel on the feasts of the apostles and saints; bells weighing up to 800-1000 poods were called Sunday bells and sounded on Sundays; bells weighing up to 600-1000 poods were called polyeleos and sounded on Sundays; bells weighing up to 1000 poods and above were called holiday bells, and were rung on major twelve-day holidays and on royal days.

Among the foundry workers who worked in Russia, at first there were many craftsmen who arrived from the West, which is noted by their nicknames: Boris Rimlyanin, Nikolai Nemchin, Pyotr Fryazin. But at the same time, talented Russian foundry workers came forward.

Andrei Chokhov, whose bell “Reut” (1622, 2000 pounds, according to other sources - 1200) is still in the Moscow Kremlin;

Alexander Grigoriev is the creator of the Great Bell of the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery, forever recognized as the most harmonious bell in Russia (1668, 2125 pounds).

Khariton Popov, who cast the Great Bell of the Simonov Monastery in Moscow, one of the most interesting sounding Russian bells (1677, 1000 poods).

The achievements of Russian masters are undeniable and meet the highest criteria. One of the clearest examples of this is the three heaviest bells of the belfry of the Assumption Cathedral in Rostov the Great: “Swan” (500 pounds), “Polieley” (1000 pounds), “Sysoy” (2000 pounds), cast by Russian masters Philip Andreev and Flor Terentyev.

The personalized bell that Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich planned to cast was supposed to weigh 8,000 pounds. The royal order was completed in 1654 by Emelyan Danilov. Its bell sounded only for a few months - in the same year it broke from an awkward blow. Emelyan Danilov was no longer alive then - he died of a pestilence.

They began to look for someone who could recast the huge bell. Alexander Grigoriev, the future famous bell maker, volunteered, but at that time an unknown young man - “short, frail, thin, under twenty years old, still completely beardless.” Grigoriev brilliantly coped with the responsible task - the bell was ready in ten months. For its enormous weight and magnificent appearance, the people nicknamed it the Tsar Bell. It was lifted from the foundry pit and suspended only in 1668 - the task turned out to be so difficult.

In 1701, the giant bell became a victim of the great Moscow fire. Its fragments lay for a long time in the middle of the Kremlin. In 1730, shortly after her accession to the throne, Anna Ioannovna ordered “that bell to be poured again with replenishment, so that it would contain ten thousand pounds in finishing.”

It was supposed to entrust the casting to a foreign master, a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, Germen, but he, having heard about the weight of the future bell, considered that he was being played. Then Ivan Motorin and his son Mikhail got down to business. According to their design, the weight of the new Tsar Bell was supposed to be 12 thousand pounds.

Preparatory work lasted from January 1733 to November 1734, and when casting began, disaster struck - an accident occurred in three of the four furnaces. Ivan Motorin started to work again, but soon died.

In 1735, the gigantic bell was cast by his son Mikhail. They began to build scaffolding to lift the bronze giant, but in 1737 a new terrible fire broke out in Moscow. Fearing that the bell would melt, the people who came running began to pour water on it, the hot metal cracked, and a piece fell off of the bell. In 1836, the Tsar Bell was raised and installed on a granite pedestal. For all centuries it remained the heaviest (more than 200 tons!) of all the bells ever cast in the world.

7. Stories and legends about bells

The masters kept the secrets of bell production, they knew what needed to be added to the alloy to make the bell ring more softly or loudly, so each master’s bells sang in their own way, as if part of his soul passed into the bell. Perhaps that is why bells, like people, were given names; during hostilities they were taken prisoner, punished with whips, exiled, ears or tongues cut off...

The history of the bell, whose name is Uglitsky Kornoukhy, is remarkable. It was they who sounded the alarm on the occasion of the death of Tsarevich Dimitri. Boris Godunov punished not only people; for impudent behavior, the bell was ordered to cut off an ear, and in 1595 he was exiled to Tobolsk as a “corn-eared man.” The bell “lived” in exile for almost 85 years. Like many convicts, he did not live to see his liberation; he died in a major fire in 1677. A copy of the disgraced bell was transported to Uglich in 1892, where, by order of the governor, it was placed “for safety in the museum on the crossbar.” This bell is still alive. Its sound is sharp and loud; the inscription on it along the edges is cut out, not poured in; it reads: “This is the bell that rang the alarm during the murder of the noble Tsarevich Dimitri in 1593...”.

In 1681, the alarm bell of the Moscow Kremlin was imprisoned in the Nikolsko-Karelian Monastery because its ringing disturbed the sleep of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich. A century later, in 1771, the bell that took its place, by decree of Catherine II, was removed from its place and deprived of its tongue for calling the people to revolt.

The bell was surrounded in Rus' by wonderful legends and edifying beliefs. From time immemorial, people have had special feelings for the ringing of bells and believe in their extraordinary, miraculous power. It is known that bell ringers do not suffer from colds. It is believed that any headache goes away under the bells... On the night before Christmas and Easter, women were allowed to touch the tongue of a large bell or a rope. They believed that after this it would be easier to get pregnant and give birth to a child...

It was believed, for example, that he became silent in captivity, in a foreign land. If a bell has a soul, then it also has character. Removed by decree of Prince Alexander of Suzdal, the bell of the Mother of God from the Assumption Cathedral in the city of Vladimir and sent to Suzdal, the bell did not want to obey the prince’s word and “refused to ring” - it stopped sounding. I had to put it back in place.

In 1854, during the Crimean War, the Solovetsky monastery was miraculously saved. On July 6, two English sixty-gun frigates approached the monastery. A parliamentarian arrived with a proposal to surrender the monastery with the entire garrison. They refused. The next day, the ships opened fire with all 120 guns and fired 1,800 shells and bombs at the monastery, which, according to the English captain, were enough to destroy several cities. However, the monastery's fierce resistance forced the English ships to leave. Summing up the battle, the defenders were surprised by the lack of casualties. The huge number of English shells did not touch a single person out of 700 inhabitants and not a single one of the seagulls that settled there in large numbers. One of the cores was found unexploded behind the icon of the Mother of God, which finally convinced people of God’s providence. In memory of the miraculous salvation of the monastery, Tsar Alexander II presented it with a bell, for which a separate chapel was built. The general ringing before each service in the monastery is preceded by three strikes on this bell.

8. Years of hard times

Through the bell, Russian people strengthened their connection with the Creator. The temples were filled with an amazing abundance of bells, from small ones to huge giants that amazed the world. The bells cried, moaned, and prayed for the Russian land during the years of hard times. When the end of the terrible war came, nothing could speak more strongly about the people's joy than powerful jubilant ringing. Immediately after the revolution, an active struggle against religion began. Temples were closed and destroyed, and the ringing of bells was prohibited in those still in operation. No special legislative or government acts were issued on this matter; in every city, district, village, a typical scenario was played out, according to which a group of people turned to the authorities with a request to rid them of the ringing of bells, which interferes with work, leisure, etc. This campaign acquired a particularly wide and furious scope at the turn of 20-30- x years. The God-fighters took the bells from Rus'; the empty eye sockets of bell towers and destroyed temples looked at a whole generation of people who did not know the temple, God and the heavenly singer-bell.

The bells were thrown from the bell towers and went to be melted down. This is how many genuine masterpieces of bell-casting art perished: the Tsar Bell of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the Great Bell of the Simonov Monastery... Without continuing this list, suffice it to say that at the beginning of the century in Russia there were 39 bells weighing 1000 pounds or more (which was three-quarters of the total number of such large bells throughout the world). Of these, only five have survived to this day: the Tsar Bell, the Great Assumption, Reut (Moscow, Kremlin), Sysoy, Polyeleos (Rostov the Great, Cathedral Belfry).

It was during these years, when temples were destroyed and ancient bells were melted down, that the work of the remarkable musician, composer and theorist of bell art, Konstantin Konstantinovich Saradzhev, flourished. He knew all the bells of all the bell towers in Moscow. He compiled a list of all the bells of Moscow and the Moscow region, writing out for each of them on musical lines the tones that make up its sound. He composed music and performed it himself, attracting hundreds of listeners. Thanks to K.K. Sarajev, it was possible to preserve some ancient bells.

From ancient times it was customary that the most bitter punishment for a defeated city and people, which meant the loss of will, was the deprivation of bells. In internecine wars, the princes took veche bells from each other. The sovereigns, when fighting, brought foreign “captive” bells as an important military trophy. In the twenties of the last century, this terrible deprivation befell the entire Russian land. Today, monasteries and church parishes are being revived, and belfries with bells appearing, again singing a song to God.

9. Bell ringing and its meaning

The art of Russian church bell ringing is unique and represents not only a great spiritual phenomenon, but also a true masterpiece of world culture.

The sound of a bell, which carries for many kilometers, is a complex phenomenon. Each bell's individual voice is made up of a combination of overtones and is completely unique. The sound depends on a huge number of factors: weight, shape, wall thickness, metal quality and even small features of manufacturing technology. A foundry master can never thoroughly accurately determine all the features of the voice of his creation.

For traditional canonical ringing, three bells are in principle sufficient. For richness, beauty and individuality, the sound of bells can be much larger, but usually they are divided into three groups.

The smallest bells are ringing or trilling. Each of them weighs up to a pound; there are two to four of them in an ensemble. Larger bells are of medium size. There can also be up to four. The largest are bells or bass bells. They can weigh about a hundredweight or even more. A bell ensemble is a choir of instruments that, in the skillful hands of a bell ringer, are capable of “singing” a wide variety of songs. There are a great many bell ringings, as well as the reasons for them.

There are four canonical ringings. The oldest of them is the ringing of a large bell, the bell, which can be heard before every church service. Measured, majestic blows are heard all around and seem to be calling: “To us... To us... To us...” The chime can be heard during Holy Week, it sounds on Holy Saturday at the Rite of Burial of the Shroud (like a slow funeral bell) and in the Rite of some water-blessing prayers (then the chime becomes quite fast). When chiming, the bells ring from large to small, symbolizing the exhaustion of the Lord. Bust is a funeral, sad ringing, it sounds after the funeral service. In the enumeration there is a different order of ringing the bells - from small to large, which seems to symbolize human life from infancy to old age, and at the end - the ringing of all the bells - a break, death. All groups of bells participate in the ringing, weaving their voices into the general choir. This is the most complex and joyful ringing. The modern typology of ringing is as follows. Bells are divided into signal and artistic. The first include alarm and bell, the second include busting, chime and trezvon.

Bell ringing is an integral part of Orthodox worship. He calls on everyone to turn from everyday vanity to the highest, eternal. “Put aside your vanity and idle time. Listen to the bell - create others in the sky,” wrote the poet and translator of the late 17th century, Karion Istomin.

The absence of melody in Russian ringing does not limit its expressiveness and richness, nor does it make it monotonous and boring. A skilled bell ringer often performs the same ringing differently from case to case, and during the course of the ringing he changes its structure, forcing listeners to perceive it with unflagging attention. It is not for nothing that Russian bell ringing has been repeatedly compared to a symphony.

Many Russian composers turned to bell ringing as a rich musical material: M. Glinka and M. Mussorgsky, P. Tchaikovsky and A. Borodin, N. Rimsky-Korsakov and A. Scriabin, A. Glazunov and I. Stravinsky. In Russian operas you can find all types of ringing - from standard signals to wonderful examples of bell art.

10. Revival of bell art

Last quarter of the 20th century. marked by an unprecedented surge of interest among Russian scientists in issues related to bells and bell ringing in Russia. New scientific directions emerged, scientific conferences and bell art festivals began to be held.

In 1989, the Association of Bell Art was created, the purpose of which was to revive and develop the traditions of Russian bell ringing. Beautiful bells are cast in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yaroslavl, Voronezh, and the Urals. The bells are ringing again from the bell towers that were empty during the Soviet era.

The casting of the new “Tsar Bell” for the Trinity-Sergius Lavra took place on September 10, 2003. The previous, 65-ton “Tsar Bell” was destroyed more than 70 years ago, along with other bells of the Lavra. To cast a bell for the largest Russian monastery, the Baltic Plant purchased a special American-made melting furnace. The artistic design of the “Tsar Bell” was developed by the icon painting workshops of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra together with the Icon Painting School at the Moscow Theological Academy. This is the largest bell cast in modern Russia. Its weight is 72 tons, its height is 4,550 meters, and its diameter is 4,422 meters. On April 16, 2004, the Tsar Bell was installed on the belfry of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and sounded for the first time on the holiday of the Trinity.

When bell music sounds, faces brighten. Wherever this happens - near a temple or in a concert hall... Even a small bell will ring - and your soul will be lighter; it is no coincidence that the tradition of giving bells for good luck is still alive today.

Conclusion

What is the mystery of the bell? Where does it have so many attractive properties, so many wonderful powers directed towards animate and inanimate nature?

A bell is a church object. And before ascending to the bell tower, the bell is always consecrated by the priest, that is, God's blessing and power are asked for it, for which there is a special rite of consecration, after which the bell ringing can no longer be empty and simple. So he consoles, stops storms, sanctifies the air with his ringing, and strengthens a person in piety and faith, instructs him to resist the devil’s slander with prayer and praise. Hearing the ringing of bells, in the old days people took off their hats and crossed themselves, calling on the grace of God and giving thanks for it.

In Rus', bells measured the pace of time, sounded the alarm when a fire or other disaster occurred, when a rebellion broke out or an enemy was approaching, they gathered warriors and instructed them to battle, they rejoiced when meeting the victors, and welcomed noble guests. They gave the life of every city and village a clear, sonorous rhythm, announcing a time to stay awake and a time to sleep, a time to pray and a time to the bustle of life, a time to work and a time to rest, a time of fun and a time of sorrow.

With the development of bell casting and the widespread dissemination of church bells, bell ringing became one of the characteristic elements of Russian Orthodox worship. Since the time of the princes, from Ancient Rus', the most fateful events in the history of our Fatherland, our Church, have been marked precisely by the ringing of bells. The ringing of bells accompanied every person throughout his life; this world of bell sounds was as natural for everyone as, for example, sunlight or a blow of wind. Church bells and church ringing are a great spiritual shrine; bell traditions must be carefully preserved for posterity.

There is something in the ringing of bells that cannot be analyzed from a logical point of view, it is perceived by the senses, felt at the subconscious level... This is our ancient past and a mysterious signal going into the heavens... Perhaps it is genetic memory that awakens in us a special feeling in those moments when the bells are ringing... We were not there - they sounded, we will leave, they will still remind people of the eternal in the same drawn-out and majestic way...

List of used literature

1. Kavelmakher V.V. Methods of bell ringing and ancient Russian bell towers // Bells. History and modernity. M., 1985

2. Shashkina T.B. Bell bronze // Bells: History and modernity. M., 1985

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