Seldom Seen #3

Our Holy Week retreatants have arrived, all 35 strong. The Triduum rituals start soon and it will prove, hopefully, to be another memorable and meaningful weekend, culminating in the celebration of Easter Sunday--the central moment of the Christian tradition.

To that end we will be playing a lot of music and the handbells will ring out gloriously. Recently they underwent their annual shining and this gave me the opportunity to get out three bells, the largest, that we very seldom see. Our director told me that they are really used for tolling, not playing notes in a piece. I did try to ring them when I was finished with the cleaning and I was amazed at the sound--very, very low. I had to use two hands to get them to sound---and hold on for dear life!

More on our Easter celebration next Monday for sure.

Here are the largest bells we have. They are C, D and G 3, meaning they are two octaves below middle C.

To get a perspective, here are the two largest with the middle C bell in between them. Quite a difference in size---and weight!