“The bells gave tongue; Gaude, Sabaoth, John, Jericho, Jubilee, Dimity, Batty Thomas and Tailor Paul, rioting and exulting high up in the dark tower, wide mouths rising and falling, brazen tongues clamouring, huge wheels turning to the dance of the leaping ropes.
“Tin tan din dan bim bam bom bo – tan tin din dan bam bim bo bom – tin tan dan din bim bam bom bo – tan tin dan din bam bim bo – bom – tan dan tin bam din bo bim – bom – every bell in her place striking tuneably, hunting up, hunting down, dodging, snapping, laying her blows behind, making her thirds and fourths, working down to lead the dance again.
“Out over the flat white wastes of fen, over the spear-straight, steel-dark dykes and the wind-bent, groaning poplar trees, bursting from the snow-choked louvres of the belfry, whirled away southward and westward in gusty blasts of clamour to the sleeping counties went the music of the bells – little Gaude, silver Sabaoth, strong John and Jericho, glad Jubilee, sweet Dimity and old Batty Thomas, with great Tailor Paul bawling and striding like a giant in the midst of them.”
[from “The Nine Tailors” by Dorothy L Sayers]
We devised this programme - twenty-five minutes of words and music inspired by English church bells - for Chelmsford Folk Club in the late 1970s. The recording - made separately, without an audience - was made by Dennis Rookard for the Essex Radio folk programme.
We apologise for the variable sound quality.
This link will take you to the Hosiprog store: http://1drv.ms/1ohFbiS
Replies
BTW, do you know Jethro Tull's "Ring Out, Solstice Bells?" -Karen
The words of "Norton New Bell Wake" date from the late 18th century - you'll find them here: http://www.kingsnorton.info/articles/poem_new_bell_wake.htm - and the tune was composed by Dick Brice.
"The Bell Ringers" ("One day in October, neither drunken nor sober...") was collected in Devon by Sabine Baring-Gould, who's probably best remembered today as the writer of "Onward Christian Soldiers". The words are here: http://www.quoditch.org.uk/quoditchvisitors.htm.
The poem "Bristol" ("Green upon the flooded Avon shone the after-storm-wet-sky...") is by John Betjeman. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/bristol/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_c....
The comic monologue "St Boggett's Church Bell" was written for me by my old friend Jim Garrett, and has never been published.
For some reason, despite the programme title, we omitted Tennyson's poem "Ring Out Wild Bells"!
For the record, the guitar and hammered dulcimer were played by Howard Jones. He's also a wizard on the anglo concertina, but this time he limited himself to the two instruments.
I was reminded of this recording last Monday, when Howard and I met for the first time in a decade. The occasion was Peter Billinge's funeral...
Roger
R
THANK YOU for the notes. I will definitely follow the links as I want to understand the songs better. I do know a fair number of English folk songs, but neither of the longer ones & I like them both.
Karen