For Whom The Bell Tolls
In Photos: A Typical Sunday Bell-Ringing
Every Sunday at 1 p.m., the Lowell House bell tower erupts in cacophony, as the Lowell House Society of Russian Bell-Ringers plays a series of traditional peals, contemporary melodies, and original improvisational pieces on the set of 17 Russian Orthodox bells that are audible across campus. Although understanding the history and methodology behind Harvard’s bell-ringing tradition helps illuminate this niche art form, the bells are also physically beautiful as pieces of art themselves. This photo essay illuminates the appearance and arrangement of the bells up close, giving a glimpse of what goes on in the bell tower during a typical Sunday ringing.
Ringing the Lowell Bells: The ‘Great, Unfinalizable Symphony’
Writing a column about bell-ringing is, in a way, a hopeless endeavor. The experience is like taking a photocopy of a photocopy — the product takes you further from the art at hand, the lived experience. How can I convey in writing what the vibration of the bell feels like up there in the tower, what it feels like as the breeze off the Charles River numbs your fingers while you tap away at wires that physically connect bell-ringer to bell, and what it feels like to struggle with your fellow ringers to honor your inherited place in a centuries-old tradition without ever really knowing the people you inherited it from? I’m writing this column because I’d like to try.