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What can you hear when the bells ring. | Yaroslav Timofeev | TEDxMoscow


[applause]
[music]
[applause]
you have now heard a fragment of a wedding
ringing of the Bogorodsk tradition
this short phrase immediately requires 2 slightly
less short comments 1
this Novgorod tradition which
now speak a little more than twenty five
years and ringing you composed my teacher and all
because the old Novgorod tradition
almost lost 2
I now called the portable belfry
so it’s not the ringing itself, but rather
miniature copy
for you to present the difference of scales
I will say that you need about 1700 such
belfries to cast a single
tsar bell and ours is ringing
Here and now
but the king-bell for three hundred years
History did not utter a single sound
therefore, the introduction is already clear that in
Russia has a special relationship with the bells about
I’ll tell you this
Bells in Russia appeared about
a thousand years ago
they came west but almost immediately
import substitution has begun
and in this area it was successful and with
by the time the bells became integral
part of Russian life and more
national symbol
what did the bell mean to the Russian man
middle ages in the first bells were
utilitarian meaning
they helped to navigate in time
and in space
if you don’t know what time it is
the nearest ringing if you get lost in
the forest go to the sound of the bell tower
bells collected people to serve in the temple
this is their main task
and such a ringing lasted and lasted in former
about 10-15 minutes now in this
no particular meaning then was completely
the specific meaning of the matter is that throughout
there were practically no such places in the country
where the road from home to the temple would occupy
more than a quarter of an hour this ringing consisted
two parts the first part is called
Announce it is dimensional blows to big
bell
[music]
the second part was more active
used several bells more often
the whole was the easiest everyday
the bells were the most important
public warning function
hazards
about fires raids and so on for these
goals there was an alarm sound and if
you we lived a little bit earlier here now
to escape all of the Tretyakov Gallery in
In general, you already understood that the bells were
first in russia mass
information this was the most present
medieval media besides they have
there was a sacred function in every city
in each village it was the bell tower
the highest building is not a temple
it is the bell tower and, accordingly, the sound
flowed from the sky and was perceived as a voice
god bells treated with great
respect
they were given their names and whether they were human
it even says the name of the parts
bells is a language it’s called skirt
that’s kings and princes
punished objectionable bells
opposition bells which
spread the wrong information
those that cut off their ears ripped tongues
whipped and even sent to
the link well and trustworthy bell
stopped by symbols of power symbols
statehood and greatness
naturally every monarch every prince
wanted his bell to be bigger than
neighbor and so in Russia began the race
bell weapons with time our
Bells have become much more than Europe
and this led to important changes in
the technique of ringing the fact is that in the west
more often
swinging the bell itself left-right
and the language remains motionless with us when
there were too big bells people
understand what to rock the whole bell
expensive and came up with rock your tongue
which weighs an average of 20 times less and
it opened the way to rhythm management
ping here on a rhythmic basis
and the Russian ringing system
besides evangelism alarm and everyday
ringing it also includes a chime
for example, water-sacrifice that is, on
sanctification of water it sounds like this
sometimes a bell ringer is asked forgive it
now chime bell ringer print no
sorry this is a bust
bust is another kind of ping the same
most only from the smallest
bells to the biggest and this jingle
used in the funeral service but
besides there is a huge amount
festive bells they have many names
red easter sunday counter
that is, towards the bishop and their
proper set they depended on
regional traditions of which were also
quite a lot but if we talk about the most
recognizable there are two groups of such
traditions this is the northern chime and and
conditionally central Russian specificity
northern peaks associated with architecture
because there were so many in the north
wooden bell towers respectively
fatal masks should have been smaller
and ringing and get such more
fishnet detailed lungs
[music]
but let’s say in the Moscow tradition sleeves
were more sedate solid calm and
because the bells themselves were much
more here it’s hard to portray but i
conditionally try
[music]
what are the requirements for
the bell ringer must be able to quickly
run up and down the stairs
the bell ringer must be hardy because
that heat cold happens that the bishop
for example, it is late by the hour and the ringing is not
should stop in any weather
the ringer must have good eyesight
I still found the second signal system
when there were no mobile phones
the system this is as follows
Grandmother Candle runs out of the cathedral
waving like that and screaming to call well
it is generally understood that the profession was related
with physical exertion and as always
happens in such cases with low
social status but on this basis
flourished free creativity of these
of the most bell-ringers, art developed according to
the laws of folklore that is folk
talented craftsmen added something
its and enrich the tradition here is one of
Such craftsmen was ringer Egorka
who worked in Novgorod on Sofia
belfries
at the end of the 19th century on the same ring
where I had to work and I through
about a hundred and ten years we know about
thanks to grandma sergei
Rakhmaninov of the great Russian
composer because she singled out and
all of the bell-ringers loved him to ring and
invited to her house for tea and
I met my grandson and grandson with time
became the greatest bell composer of all
times and peoples
because the echoes of the ringing can be heard
almost in every measure the score
Rakhmaninov and especially he remembered
jingle and with four solo and
the bells as he spoke 4 crying
notes
the ringing is itself lost because the beginning
Great Patriotic War
but the short bells were lifted taken out
and
says trace caught in Novgorod their not
It was all this time, but Rakhmaninov
wrote the piano all this very sieve
for two pianos in which
imprinted these same four bells
and just recently a few years ago a part
the bells returned Novgorod
my colleague who works there
called me and said i found these four
notes these four bells so thanks
classical music managed at least
a grain of this old tradition
probably restore in no country
the bells didn’t mean as much as in
Russia and exactly in any country with them
have not been so cruel
I have 20-30 years of anti-religious
company within which
the vast majority of the bells can
be 95 percent nobody knows for sure
was destroyed
well and in the 80s and 90s we hit
the other extreme because for 10-15 years
it was necessary to restore all this
giant infrastructure which
originally created for centuries on this
the soil there are many bells-negative
good and not very good plants
there was a big business because
bells are expensive but
the main thing is that new traditions have appeared and
attempts to reanimate the old now in
country thousands of bell-ringers absolute
most of them are such i would say
ringers social phobias very good sense
that is, self-taught who call on their
belltowers as they can sometimes it’s crazy
talented people and there is a small
a handful of festival bell-ringers
country 30-40 people may be who
communicate there is it on every forum
adopt traditions and in fact
there are quite a few such bell-ringers
which have developed an absolutely recognizable
author’s style that is, you can go on
the city does not see what is happening there and
say it calls such and such
and in the post-Soviet era appeared
several innovations in this bell tower
art such as mobile portable
belfries
says for little money for any
celebration
This is not advertising in the second
belfries spread inside theaters
This unique Russian such invention
still the first belfry appeared before
Revolutions in Mariinsky and in large
now there are more
and the thing is that nowhere in the world there
so many operas in which
implied bell ringing and but
there are other compounding experiments
ringing with classical music
here’s your humble servant participated in
concert on the red square to the opening
world cup soccer
the concert was broadcast in dozens
TV channels were denis matsuev
Valery Gergiev Mariinsky Orchestra
theater
and my task was to
enable ringing in the performance of the first
Tchaikovsky concert where the ringing
not provided but it is even more so
interesting with the main difficulty the task
was in technical aspects the case is
that I called on the Kazan Icon Cathedral
Mother of God
near the gates of the tribune and orchestra
were near the mausoleum that is in
about four hundred meters away from me like
you know the speed of sound is 343 meters in
second so to match
Chakovsky I needed to stay ahead of him
more than a second do not know how much
this idea was a success in reality
television broadcast she’s exactly
failed
because the sound engineers who wrote
the ringing right under the belfry let him in
ester without delay exclude speed
sound there are experiments on the connection
ringing modern music with jazz
for a term
with hip-hop well, that’s me 11 years ago
quite calmly managed to call from
today beatles in yaroslavl
but it is clear that such things are possible
only where the bell towers belong
a museum and such places in Russia are less
It becomes here four years ago
a similar experiment in the same song in
vologda ended very badly because
that the diocese made a scandal and and
the bell-rapper was eventually banned
take any
experiments are the funny thing about
really it is very old
Native Russian tradition is known that
Revolutions bells adored especially by
holidays include your ringing and some
popular melodies and popevki the fact that
people knew including singing songs
rather low content and
Orthodox people rejoiced when they recognized these
most familiar melodies in general if
this tradition is not interrupted now this
could sound something like this
[music]
Oh, thanks
the most important thing that changed with the second
the advent of the bells on the Russian land
that is, 80 90 years is the perception of ringing
because the utilitarian function of course
disappeared we do not define time and do not go
to the temple at the bells of the sacred
functions are also badly hit because
what exactly is this gap so far
the bells were silent from 20 to 80 x the bell tower
ceased to be the highest
buildings in Russian cities and the ringing
ceased to be the most powerful musical
sound that a person hears with his
life remains invulnerable only one
ringing function as art as
musical art
ringing is like a game with its own rules and
Naturally, as any rules sometimes their
can break
and if the bells are as such we
borrowed in the west then
Russian ringing music is
absolutely right
our invention is possible and necessary
proud so what if next time
hearing somewhere ringing you linger on
a couple of minutes and listen to this music
I will consider the purpose of my speech
achieved thanks
[applause]
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