Beehive bell

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Early European bronze bells are called beehive bells because of their shape . Depending on their provenance, they are sometimes referred to as Carolingian or Salian bells . They were cast using the lost wax technique from the 8th to the 12th centuries . There are around 20 historical beehive bells and a few cast copies and reconstructions in Germany. On the type of the beehive bell followed from the mid-12th century, the Sugarloaf bell .

The Haithabu bell (around 950)
The Hachen bell (11th century)
The Walbeck Bell (11th century)
The Lullus bell (middle of the 11th century) in Bad Hersfeld
The Kunigunden bell (around 1185) of Bamberg Cathedral
Modern bronze beehive bell with two dominant partial tones : the fundamental tone is 1133 Hertz and the louder partial tone is 3100 Hertz in the singer formant

Manufacturing

The caster modeled the bell with wax on a core made of clay , which was turned with a crank . Then the wax dome was covered with clay and everything was heated so that the clay solidified, the wax flowed out and a cavity formed. The bronze , liquefied by heating in shaft furnaces, was poured into these . The liquefaction of bronze in crucibles was known, but not practicable because of the size of the bells. The lost wax process is a lost shape process .

Shape and sound

In the middle of the hood there is an eyelet with two to six handles that serve to attach the bell and initially only have a supporting function. Only with later and heavier bells do they have a supporting function as crowns. The hood of the bell is not flat, but rather domed. With bells later time in Mantelabhebeverfahren were made, is always a casting technology related line between top and bottom plates available. In this respect, the lack of such a burr - which is the case with beehive bells - is an essential indicator for production using the lost wax process.

From the clearly rounded shoulder, the flank runs from cylindrical to slightly tapered straight or slightly curved to the brass knuckles. This is not yet particularly strong and usually protrudes significantly outward. The neck diameter is large in relation to the diameter of the sharpness. Beehive bells are usually thin-walled, and their wall thickness is the same everywhere. The rib is very light or light. With late bells, the wall and brass knuckles are slightly stronger.

Around 1150, the shape of the bells gradually began to change from a beehive to a sugar loaf shape. Bells in this transition stage have a slightly smaller neck diameter and a stronger curve. Their shape is called the transition shape .

For assigning a bell to a beehive. The transition or sugar loaf shape is the casting process (lost wax or coat lifting process) of subordinate importance, rather the geometric proportions are essential. The ratio of height to sharpness diameter is lower for beehive bells than for sugar loaf bells, the ratio of neck diameter to sharpness diameter is greater for beehive bells than for sugar loaf bells.

The pitch and inner harmony of the beehive bells are not specifically created by the foundryman, but purely by chance. Because the frequencies of the partials are often not in a suitable ratio to one another that would enable a residual tone to be formed, a strike tone is usually either not available or its location is unclear.

Theophilus bells

The Benedictine monk Theophilus described in his work Schedula diversarum artium around 1125, among other things, the production of bells. Therefore, bells made according to his instructions are called Theophilus bells . Because Theophilus did not invent the bell casting, but rather described the common practice of his time, Theophilus bells may have been cast before Theophilus' Schedula .

A special characteristic of a Theophilus bell are triangular holes in the cover of the bell. These sound holes , known as foramina (singular: foramen ), were intended to enhance the sound of the bell.

"[...] quatuorque foramina triangula iuxta collum ut melius tinniat formabis."

- Theophilus : Schedula diversarum artium , around 1125

In the late Theophilus bells, the triangular foramina are no longer designed as holes, but only indicated as depressions, probably because it was observed that the openings have no influence on the sound.

Beehive bells (selection)

  • The Vatican Museums are home to a 9th century canino bell . Their diameter is 390 mm.
  • Bronze bell in Bojná (Slovakia) from the 8th or 9th century.
  • The Carolingian bell in the bell museum of the collegiate church in Herrenberg was reconstructed with the help of finds from the 9th century from Vreden .
  • In 1966 a bell from the 10th century was found near the village of Csolnok not far from Esztergom . It is now in the museum in Esztergom. Its mass is 16 kg and its diameter is 360 mm.
  • The Haithabu bell (around 950) is the oldest completely preserved chime north of the Alps. It was discovered in 1978 and is now in the Viking Museum in Haithabu . A copy of the bell is installed in front of the museum building, another copy is in the bell museum in Herrenberg and weighs 29 kg.
  • The Walbeck bell (controversial dating, 11th or 12th century) comes from the Walbeck collegiate church and is now in the sculpture collection of the Bode Museum in Berlin . Its diameter is 50 cm and it weighs approx. 100 kg.
  • The Lullus bell (around 1040) hangs in the Katharinenturm of the monastery ruins in Bad Hersfeld . It weighs around 1000 kg and has a diameter of 1120 mm. Their strike tone is h 0 / c 1 .
  • The beehive bell (11th century) originally from the castle chapel in Hachen hung in the Marienkirche there until 1938 and is now in the Grassmayr Bell Museum in Innsbruck . A copy of the bell has been hanging in the Marienkirche in Hachen since 2006.
  • A bell in transitional form (around 1200) from the Church of St. Laurentius in Mintard, weighing around 900 kg, is one of the large surviving Romanesque bells. Their diameter is 1074 mm, their strike tone is g 1 .
  • In addition to a beehive bell weighing 113 kg (early 12th century) with a diameter of 472 mm, the Merseburg Cathedral also houses a late beehive-shaped bell with a strong brass knuckles named Clinsa , which was cast around 1180 . It weighs 1960 kg and has a diameter of 1312 mm. Their strike tone is f 1 .
  • The beehive bell (beginning of the 12th century) from the church in Aschara is the oldest bell in Thuringia and hangs in the bell museum in Apolda . It has the tone es 2 and weighs around 200 kg. A copy of the asher bell is in the Herrenberg Bell Museum .
  • A beehive bell (12th century) with a diameter of 36 cm hangs in the parish church of St. Jakobus in Thurndorf . It is similar to the Ashara bell.
  • A beehive bell weighing around 100 kg hangs in Drohndorf's St. Mary's Church from the first half of the 12th century. Its diameter is 517 mm, the strike note is h 2 .
  • In the parish church in Iggensbach there is a beehive bell from 1144. It was made using the cover-off process and bears a raised inscription. It weighs 25 kg and has the strike note f sharp 2 .
  • In Lutter am Barenberge hangs a beehive bell, called the Ribernus bell , from the mid-12th century in the church of St. Georg . It weighs 39 kg and has the strike note as 2 .
  • A pair of beehive bells from the second half of the 12th century belong to the ringing of the Bardowick Cathedral . The larger is 68 cm in diameter and weighs 234 kg, the smaller 57 cm in diameter weighs 159 kg. The strikes are at f sharp 2 and a 2 .
  • The beehive bell (12th century) of the pilgrimage church Maria Zell in Boll is probably the oldest bell in the Baden-Hohenzollern area. It weighs around 110 kg and has the strike note f sharp 2 .
  • In the County Museum in Wertheim a beehive bell from the Protestant church in Bettingen kept. Their strike tone is g 2 .
  • The Kunigunden bell (around 1185) in Bamberg Cathedral is the heaviest beehive bell in Germany at around 3450 kg.
  • The Dodelinus bell in the Focke Museum in Bremen comes (probably not originally) from the Auburg estate in the Diepholz district , and its inscription names a Dodelinus as the client. (12th century, 28.5 kg, diameter 34 cm, height 42 cm).
  • The rag bell of St. Quintin's Church in Mainz (around 1250) rings out daily with the Angelus. It has the beats c 3 and c sharp 3 and weighs 115 kg.

literature

  • Paul Liebeskind: Die Theophilusglocken , in: Anzeiger des Germanisches Nationalmuseums Nürnberg, 1905, p. 156 ff., Online in the Google Book Search USA
  • Ernst Grohne : The oldest bell in Northwest Germany , in: Old treasures from the Bremen cultural area , Bremen 1956, pp. 28–40.
  • Hans Drescher; Hans Gerd Rincker: The technology of bell casting in the past and present . In: Konrad Bund (ed.): Frankfurter Glockenbuch . Kramer, Frankfurt 1986, ISBN 3-7829-0211-0 .
  • Kurt Kramer : Form development of the bell in the Middle Ages . In: The Minster. 1989, ISSN  0027-299X .
  • Jörg Poettgen: On the inscription and age of the Romanesque bell in Mintard . In: Yearbook for bell technology. Volume 7/8 (1995/1996).
  • Konrad Bund: The development of the medieval bell from a signal transmitter to a musical instrument . In: Kurt Kramer; Advisory committee for the German bell system (Hrsg.): Bells in past and present . (Contributions to bells, volume 2). Badenia, Karlsruhe 1997, ISBN 3-7617-0341-4 .
  • Claus Peter: The musical and casting-technical development stages of the bell . In: Kurt Kramer; Advisory committee for the German bell system (Hrsg.): Bells in past and present . (Contributions to bells, volume 2). Badenia, Karlsruhe 1997, ISBN 3-7617-0341-4 .
  • Hans Drescher: Two particularly early Christian bells and previously unknown edge profiles of ringing bells from the 9th to 11th centuries . In: Yearbook for bell technology. Volume 9/10 (1997/1998).
  • Matthias Friske: Medieval bells in Anhalt up to the middle of the 13th century . In: Yearbook for bell technology. Volume 19/20 (2007/2008).
  • Jörg Poettgen: The contribution of the inscriptions and their design to determining the age of Theophilus bells . In: Yearbook for bell technology. Volume 21/22 (2009/2010).
  • Matthias Friske: Thoughts on the dating of early bells of the lost wax casting process and the time when the jacket lifting process emerged . In: Yearbook for bell technology . Volume 23/24 (2011/2012).
  • Bastian Asmus: Theophilus and the casting of a beehive bell. An experiment . Der Anschnitt 68 (2016), pp. 45–60.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Asmus 2016, Theophilus and the casting of a beehive bell. Der Anschnitt 68, pp. 45-60.
  2. ^ Theophilus Presbyter : Schedula diversarum artium . Digital edition of the University of Cologne .
  3. ↑ Carolingian Bell | Bell Museum. Retrieved May 7, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Haithabu bell | Bell Museum. Retrieved May 7, 2017 .
  5. ^ Frank Matthias Kammel : The bells of the Berlin sculpture collection . In: Yearbook Prussian Cultural Heritage. 33, 1996 (1997), pp. 175-197.
  6. ↑ Asher bell | Bell Museum. Retrieved May 7, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Inv.-No. 1941.021. - Ernst Grohne : The oldest bell in northwest Germany , in: Old treasures from the Bremen cultural sector , Bremen 1956, pp. 28–40.