Resounding Community: The History and Meaning of Medieval Church Bells

Arnold, John H.; Goodson, Caroline

doi:10.1484/j.viator.1.102544

Cited by 57 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Bells have been used for religious purposes throughout history (Kovačič 2006;Hernandez 2004;Kovačič 2009;Arnold and Goodson 2012), and, as expected, there were numerous comments highlighting the roles church bells play in religious settings. Free-form comments suggest that some denominations express a more united view of the role of bells and others are largely divergent within the denomination.…”

Section: Religious Overtonesmentioning

confidence: 74%

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Practitioners’ Views on Bell-Ringing Practice in Contemporary Society in New South Wales (Australia)

Parker

Spennemann

2020

Religions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

For centuries, religious buildings have been using bells to call the faithful to prayer. Bell-ringing activity on church premises does not serve a purely religious function, however, as people in the community may perceive this activity secularly, attributing their own meanings and significances towards these sounds. If bell ringing (or the actual sound) were found to have great significance to a specific community, denomination, or a regionality bracket, this may have future implications in any management of these resources. There is a need to hear the voices of the actual practitioners and their perceptions regarding what they, their congregations, and their host communities feel. This paper represents the first large-scale assessment of the views of practitioners of five major Christian denominations with regards to bell-ringing practice and its role in contemporary society.

show abstract

Section: Religious Overtonesmentioning

confidence: 74%

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Practitioners’ Views on Bell-Ringing Practice in Contemporary Society in New South Wales (Australia)

Parker

Spennemann

2020

Religions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A further possibility for a fire producing a narrow column of hot gases is also connected to metal-working but of copper alloys, and in particular in the process of bell-casting (Blair and Blair, 1991;Elphick, 1988). While this process could take place within churches, highlighting the liturgical significance of the act, for example at ninth century Vreden (Germany) and fourteenth century Sola (Norway), it was not exclusively so (Arnold and Goodson, 2012;Hommedal, 1986a;Hommedal, 1986b). The methods of casting recorded in the remarkable early twelfth century treatise on metal-working, glass, and stone, De diversis artibus [On the…”

Section: Gervase Continues His Description As Followsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Church bells and bell towers were increasingly common across Europe from the later tenth century; from the mid-eleventh century bell towers were frequently built within churches in Britain. The Normans also developed a particular type of bell tower over the course of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (Christie, 2004;Arnold and Goodson, 2012). Christ Church, Canterbury was exemplary of this process (Gibson, 1995).…”

Section: Gervase Continues His Description As Followsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘The moon quivered like a snake’: A medieval chronicler, lunar explosions, and a puzzle for modern interpretation

Gasper

Tanner

2020

Endeavour

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…An acoustic organization was carried out around the sound object that acoustically unified Europe during the Middle Ages: The bell. Its official use in ecclesiastical buildings dates back to the sixth century, assuming a triple function: Gathering the faithful for lectio divina and prayer, announcing the passing of time and frightening the evil spirits [32]. Starting in the eighth century, its use became widespread in parishes and monasteries.…”

Section: Urban Sounds Legislated: the Normative Spherementioning

confidence: 99%

The Social Construction of the Soundscape of the Castilian Cities (15th and 16th Centuries)

Schwindt

2021

Acoustics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper seeks to develop some conceptual elements that articulated the social construction of the soundscape of the urban spaces of the kingdom of Castile (15th–16th centuries). We focus our attention on the revision of the normative spheres that structured the subjective universe of the Castilian inhabitants, in order to notice and spot the different sound representations that intervened in the spatial and social configuration of the cities, their possible conflicts, and levels of acoustic tolerance. This proposal is part of the so-called “sensorial turn” in the Social Sciences, defined by David Howes as a cultural approach to the study of the senses as well as a sensorial approach to the study of culture. The research is carried out through the analysis of the sensory marks present in a documentary corpus made up of normative documents (municipal ordinances, books of agreement, chapter acts, diocesan synods, and royal dispositions) and judicial documents (General Archive of Simancas) combining methods of discourse analysis and the history of the senses. In the article, we argue and remark that the sound dimension operated as a device that acted in the shaping of the identity of places, since it contributed to define and delimit their use. This was reflected in the importance given by the authorities to the normative regulation of the community, which included a textual dimension in which the historical soundscape was imprinted, revealing the multiple social interactions that integrated it.

show abstract

Resounding Community: The History and Meaning of Medieval Church Bells

Cited by 57 publications

References 0 publications

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Practitioners’ Views on Bell-Ringing Practice in Contemporary Society in New South Wales (Australia)

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Practitioners’ Views on Bell-Ringing Practice in Contemporary Society in New South Wales (Australia)

‘The moon quivered like a snake’: A medieval chronicler, lunar explosions, and a puzzle for modern interpretation

The Social Construction of the Soundscape of the Castilian Cities (15th and 16th Centuries)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About