Bells
Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2016 9:15 am
Bells..
I've been an early bird since going with Dad on his milk round when I was a nipper,
but at something on a Sunday morning there is a radio programme which might just have escaped the attention of most people, as it quite often escapes mine. It is scheduled, I reckon, to rouse the population in time for Fourthought and Something Understood, both of which sometimes annoy me and occasionally inspire me. The programme needs only it's name, Bells On Sunday to described it's full on content. Perhaps it would be improved if it was called Bell At A Considerable Distance On Sunday. My musical sense is not good enough to distinguish between one peal and another, and is a bit overwhelmed by the clangour.
The Grande Champlein monastery is no place for the aurally hypersensitive either. I have seen an almost silent film about the austere lives of the monks that live there. Their day is ruled by a sharply voiced bell that is run by a brother with no time to waste. The result can be seen in the hasty stride of the figures on their way to prayer. It was monks like St. Dunstan who cast the first Western bells in medieval times, and even as early as 400 A.D. It is a bit ironic that, having once been bell masters, the monks are now mastered by bells.
The Westminster chimes from the Elizabeth tower are a much more mellow reminder, and no one could object to the genteel tinkles you get with your Victoria sponge in any decent tea shop.
The bell that I would really like to start my day is the largest of the sort that is used in Buddhist temples of the far East. They are sometimes seen on travel shows and the like, and are hung from hefty wooden frames, and struck by a large hardwood beam which swings on ropes. These bells are far too serene to clang, and instead emit a considered vibration, set centuries ago. The earliest evidence of bells was found in neolithic China, an incredible 4000 years ago. I have set one of these sonorous Asian giants up as my alarm call and their measured tone seeps into my dozy brain as slowly and insistently as dawn.
I quite fancy a device that looks like a mantel clock, that I can set to go TINGGG at regular intervals, as they do in meditation halls. I don't want to carry it around, as I want to react mindfully, in present circumstances, and not automatically. Does anyone know of such an timer ?
Martin.
I've been an early bird since going with Dad on his milk round when I was a nipper,
but at something on a Sunday morning there is a radio programme which might just have escaped the attention of most people, as it quite often escapes mine. It is scheduled, I reckon, to rouse the population in time for Fourthought and Something Understood, both of which sometimes annoy me and occasionally inspire me. The programme needs only it's name, Bells On Sunday to described it's full on content. Perhaps it would be improved if it was called Bell At A Considerable Distance On Sunday. My musical sense is not good enough to distinguish between one peal and another, and is a bit overwhelmed by the clangour.
The Grande Champlein monastery is no place for the aurally hypersensitive either. I have seen an almost silent film about the austere lives of the monks that live there. Their day is ruled by a sharply voiced bell that is run by a brother with no time to waste. The result can be seen in the hasty stride of the figures on their way to prayer. It was monks like St. Dunstan who cast the first Western bells in medieval times, and even as early as 400 A.D. It is a bit ironic that, having once been bell masters, the monks are now mastered by bells.
The Westminster chimes from the Elizabeth tower are a much more mellow reminder, and no one could object to the genteel tinkles you get with your Victoria sponge in any decent tea shop.
The bell that I would really like to start my day is the largest of the sort that is used in Buddhist temples of the far East. They are sometimes seen on travel shows and the like, and are hung from hefty wooden frames, and struck by a large hardwood beam which swings on ropes. These bells are far too serene to clang, and instead emit a considered vibration, set centuries ago. The earliest evidence of bells was found in neolithic China, an incredible 4000 years ago. I have set one of these sonorous Asian giants up as my alarm call and their measured tone seeps into my dozy brain as slowly and insistently as dawn.
I quite fancy a device that looks like a mantel clock, that I can set to go TINGGG at regular intervals, as they do in meditation halls. I don't want to carry it around, as I want to react mindfully, in present circumstances, and not automatically. Does anyone know of such an timer ?
Martin.
). 
