Here are some classic papers on bell tuning, plus a talk given by an American founder and an account of the Coventry court case. Many more papers are available in Rossing’s book Acoustics of Bells. The papers here have been selected because they show the historical development of understanding, and are out of copyright. On Bells, […]
Here are statistics by founder and date of my collection of bell recordings: Founder Dateunknown Before1300 1301-1350 1351-1400 1401-1450 1451-1500 1501-1550 1551-1600 1601-1650 1651-1700 1701-1750 1751-1800 1801-1850 1851-1900 1901-1950 1951-2000 2001-2050 Total Taylor family 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 83 592 851 442 195 2172 Whitechapel foundries 0 […]
Almost all musical instruments (such as pianos, organs, orchestral instruments and the human voice) have sounds that contain a range of frequencies f, 2f, 3f, 4f and so on where f is the lowest frequency in the sound. The pitch or note we asssign to the sound corresponds to the frequency f. Frequencies with this regular arrangement are called harmonic. […]
The first page in this series (What note do we hear when a bell rings?) explains briefly that the upper partials in bells have a significant influence on the note we hear and the general timbre of a bell. This article goes into more detail on the musical relationship between these partials. The first figure […]
It is now quite easy (using Wavanal or a general purpose spectrum analysis program) to ascertain the partial frequencies for church bells from recordings of them. Interpretation of these tuning figures is a different matter. Research recently completed as part of my PhD has shed new light on how the sound quality of bells is […]