The HRGB National Residential Ringing Week Concert 2015:

Rowena and I were lucky enough to attend the grand finale of the week: a concert in Sheffield on the Friday night, in which Wendy took part.  As members of the audience, watching and listening to the performance that evening, we were immediately impressed with the professionalism of the ringers from beginning to end of each piece of music they played.

The dynamics of the musical items were impressive and made each piece stand out as poignant and sensitive, holding the audience spellbound from beginning to end.

The great diversity of bells and other instruments enriched the whole experience.  They ranged from enormous bass bells, which looked far too heavy to lift, never mind ring, to tiny bells, harmonious chimes, and delicate hanging wind chimes with magical sounds like tinkling streams of running water.

Mallets were used to sound the bells in some of the pieces, sending out soft, muted tones.  Mallets were also used on the table to produce hard beats. Sometimes bells were damped on the table and, in contrast, continuous, powerful and beautiful notes sounded out from bells held upright, as the ringers stroked the outer edges with short wooden poles; this method of ringing is called “ singing bells”. The result was amazing!  

Each of the three conductors that night was excellent and brought to the concert their own particular type of music from their own countries.

We thoroughly enjoyed the evening and were impressed that such a performance could be delivered after only five days of playing and practising together.

Jean