Tone Deaf?
• Many years ago I was with a friend listening to some bells in Leicestershire and commented on the rather poor tone of the tenor. “Yes agreed my friend, but who will notice as after all ninety percent of bell ringers are tone deaf”, “ Well I hope he doesn’t include me in that category”, I thought, simultaneously realising that there was some truth in his words-or was there? The difficulty is readers , ringers seem to hold varied opinions on good or bad toned bells, what one likes, another dislikes, which introduces us to the subject of bell tuning. • Because of its shape a bell emits more than one musical note-“Oh well”, I imagine you will say, “I can hear only one fundamental note.” Yes indeed, but a bell also produces subsidiary notes, known as “harmonics” and some of these are easily audible and on the majority of bells cast prior to 1896 were not in tune with the fundamentals. The most prominent of these , known in the trade as “the hum note”, is on a modern bell an octave lower than the fundamental. However, in the majority of bells cast prior to 1896 this was always sharp of the octave , in some by as much as a full tone. Just try a chord on the piano, seven tones apart instead of an octave-not too good a sound eh? All of this was, I think ,known to bell founders but not addressed until in 1895 and 1896 Canon A B Simpson published two papers which detailed how this problem could be avoided and resolved, while at the same time the firm of John Taylor & Co independently developed what they called their “five tone principle” of tuning whereby they cast bells with an octave hum, a minor third, a fifth and a nominal an octave above the fundamental. This produced a far improved sound which brings to mind five of our Gedney bells which although cast some hundred years earlier in 1794, sound exactly similar to modern “five tone principle” or what some would call “Simpson” tuned bells. This is remarkable as one would have expected their “hum” to be pitched sharp of the octave, conforming to general practice in those days. However this is not the case as listening to our tenor bell I can easily pick out an octave hum, fundamental, minor third and fifth by ear, but not the nominal, try as I might. Well after all I am old and I read somewhere that with increasing age it becomes difficult to hear high pitched notes. However, with all audible harmonics in tune with the fundamentals, the tenor and No’s 2 to 5 are fine sounding bells, a credit to Thomas Osborn and his long gone Downham Market foundry. As Canon Simpson tells us in his 1895 paper, “there is scarcely a bell in the country that is in tune with itself” He was right and was specifically referring to bells with hum notes sharp of an octave, some by as much as a full tone. For myself, any bell with a seventh hum is a candidate for the melting pot, but this would not be everyone’s choice. As mentioned above, ringers have likes and dislikes so perhaps there is some truth in that old adage, “one man’s meat is another man’s poison” John Bennett