Friday, April 25, 2008

Cathedral Bells


Strolling north on 6th street in Springfield, Illinois the other day, I noticed it was near 2 o'clock and I was approaching the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, which has bells in its clock tower that chime:
  • on the hour with a melody and then a number of dings announcing the hour
  • on the half hour with just the melody (no dings)
  • and on the quarter hour with a shorter melody
This recording, then, captures the full melody plus two dings. Hang in there during the 28 seconds between them. I always enjoy the sound of these bells when I catch them.

The four bars of the melody are G#3, C4, A#3, D#3 ... G#3, A#3, C4, G#3 ... C4, G#3, A#3, D#3 ... D#3, A#3, C4, G#3.

The dings are D#3.

2 comments:

Anonymous Communist said...

I wonder why they wait so long to announce the time.

Timothy Donavan Russell said...

Me too. I don't know if it's always that long or if something was wrong with the program that day. I'd like to call the cathedral and ask them, but I'd feel like explaining about the blog and how I went ahead and posted the recording without asking them first and I don't even want to get into it.

The place is right near where I work, so I'll stroll down there again to see if there's another 28 second pause and report back.

The annoying thing is I have to go around the Springfield Clinic Expansion (old photos) to get there.

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