FEW MONTHS AGO I wrote about Angelus Bells and the Raspberry Pi where I set up a tiny computer to play a sound to remind us to say the Angelus at 6am, 12 noon and 6pm.
A month ago the arrangement was damaged in an electrical storm. Fortunately the computer itself was alright but I needed to reformat the memory and set it all up again.
I had another look for recordings of bells and found some very interesting articles on the internet:
The Bells of Cologne Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral is home to the relics of the Three Magi. It also hosts an amazing collection of bells from over the centuries.
In 1418 a huge bell was cast in honor of the Magi. It weighed around 3400kg. In 1448 it was joined by an even larger bell weighing around 10 000kg. The Magi Bell sounded a B and the new bell called the Pretiosa, sounded a G. One year later they were joined by a third bell, this one in A, called the Speciosa.
There is an Angelus bell, but much smaller. Bells for every occasion!
You can read more about them and listen to them here.
A recording from a French countryside
When ringing the bell for the Angelus, it is a custom to ring three sets of three then a set of nine. The way I was shown was to ring three clear notes, then silence for the time it takes to say a “Hail Mary”, then three more strikes, another silent “Hail Mary”, last three strikes, last silent “Hail Mary”, then nine rings to finish.
This recording from the Internet Archive seems to miss out the first set of three rings. You might edit the sound file to copy one of the three rings a suitable length before the rest of the recording. It is in the public domain,
Lastly, there is a company still making bells in Ohio. As well as real cast bells, they have a range of digital bells. You can listen to samples here.
The Angelus sample gives three clear “dongs” and then a peal of three bells.
So, there you have a whole lot more options for your home Angelus bells.
Of course, in the Easter season the Regina Caeli replaces the Angelus. In case you missed it, watch some young children sing Regina Caeli.
Photo credit: SaintOuen via Wikimedia Commons. There are lots of photos of Cologne Cathedral on Wikimedia Commons. Well worth browsing to get an idea of the scale of the place.
