They surrounded three tables with both small and large bells. They picked up the bells wearing black gloves and began playing “Trepak” by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
The Symphonic Bells of Bloomington played its winter concert for a crowd of more than 50 people yesterday evening.
Assistant director of the choir Brian McNulty, along with Director Skip Sluder, conducted and rehearsed some of the performed songs.
The Symphonic Bells of Bloomington was started by Sluder five years ago. The group rehearses once a week for two hours, beginning at the end of August.
McNulty said they try to have a variety of music at each concert.
Last night’s event included songs such as “Stairway to Heaven,” the “Pirates of the Caribbean” theme song and traditional Christmas music. Unlike most church bell choirs, McNulty said the group tries to branch away from the conventional.
“Most of the time people hear about the choir in the context of the church,” he said. “We try to hit a lot of different styles.”
The Symphonic Bells of Bloomington has a variety of people with different levels of experience, ranging from 10 to 30 years.
“Some people have been ringing since they were kids,” McNulty said.
Aside from experience levels, he added that members of the choir also come from different backgrounds. A mix of IU students, including undergraduate, graduate, music majors and non-majors, are involved with the Symphonic Bells in addition to members of the community.
During the concert, performers rang the bells, tapped them against a foam-covered table and hit them with mallets to create a range of sounds and volumes.
By doing this, the group was able to create a variety of textures with their music aside from the more typical piercing sound of a ringing bell.
The group performed five octaves of notes, with each bell playing a single note, meaning there were about 60 bells played last night. Those who rang higher notes juggled up to 10 to 12 bells at a time. Some of the bells are small and others can weigh up to five or six pounds.
Bell ringer Kallan Picha has performed bells for 10 years.
“I sort of accidentally happened upon it,” she said. “I fell in love with it in undergrad.”
She was in charge of playing some of the high notes during the concert.
For those that do not have much knowledge about bell choirs, McNulty said the group could be thought of as a bunch of people coming together to create the sound of one individual instrument.
“It’s definitely different from music designed for one individual instrument,” Picha said.
Unlike other musicians, a pianist for example, who has sheet music that pertains only to them, bell ringers all share the same sheet music and pick out the notes they have to play.
“Everyone has a very specific role,” McNulty said. The upper bells tend to have the melody and ring at a faster pace. The bass notes tend to be more tonal and understated.
Picha said that as a bell ringer becomes more experienced, the music can get more complicated. It feels like juggling at times, she said, as those who play the higher notes could be holding four bells in their hands at the same time.
The sound created is bright, McNulty said.
“It affects people,” he said. “It’s not something you would run into in a lot of music.”
For those interested in joining the bell choir, Picha said the bells could be a good introduction to music as bell music can be more simple that other forms of instrumental music.
“It’s a great way to get into music,” she said. “You can have a couple of bells and look for your notes.”
It also helps that Picha said her organization is more fun than typical groups.
“It’s a lot more interesting than your grandma’s bell choir,” she said with a pause and laugh. “No offense to grandmas.”
