I’m conducting a piece I wrote with the bell choir at my sister’s church.
There’s a lot in those few words I’ll save for another day.
The bells are Schulmerich. The 3rd octave was purchased about 1972. The
upper 4th & 5th octave were purchased about 2008, more than 30 years later.
The group performs in a U, with a short battery and long sections for both bass
and treble. That puts the thimbles close to me. As we worked on the piece it
sounded like the top octave was out of tune. At one time I asked the ringers to
play A6 and A7 together and I heard they were not in tune. At times I heard the
top octave bells alone and they sounded off, not producing a clear tone.
I had wondered if the 30 year age difference, though more in the sense that
Schulmerich couldn’t match the pitch of something they had done 30 years before.
I thought that because many years ago heard a new Schulmerich C3 that made a
dreadful noise rather than a beautiful sound.
After rehearsal I asked the usual director (playing bass) if he had ever
noticed the top octave being out of tune. He hadn’t. So I demonstrated – and I
couldn’t find anything out of tune when I played in octaves.
Someone else pointed to the big ceiling fan doing its thing directly over
where the director stands. Since rehearsal was over and the vocal choir was
about to start I didn’t try turning it off.
Has anyone noticed a ceiling fan affecting the perceived pitch of an A7
differently than an A6?
Paul Kinney
Redford Aldersgate UMC, Redford, Michigan