WORLD PREMIER
A composition BYnatalija Marchenkova Frei AnD karl SchiMke FoR
118 chUrch BellS29 toWerS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 A concert featuring 118 church bells the project Zusammenklang
2 St.Gallen, Switzerlands church bells Centuries of cultural heritage
3 Zusammenklang Harmony through computer technology
4 Culture Society Spirituality
5 Participants
6 Factsheet
7 Sponsors
8 Audio-Visual material
9 Contact
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A CONCERT FEATURING 118 CHURCH BELLSENDURING CULTURAL HERITAGE RESONATES IN THE CIT Y OF ST.GALLEN, SWITZERLAND
The composer, Natalija Marchenkova Frei, and the orchestral musician, Karl Schimke, are creating a musical work for the church bells in the city of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Using specially created mod-ern technology and the help of numerous volun-teers, 118 bells from 29 church towers will be played simultaneously to create a 35-minute musical work. The bell ringing will be coordinated so that the peals will converge at a special listening point on a hillside above the city, with all other points in the city hear-ing a variation of the same piece. Together with the various church congregations and the ecumenical association WirkRaumKirche, the concert will bring the churches together and highlight St.Gallens cul-tural assets.
The vision to bring all the bells together in harmony was born many years ago triggered by the sounds
of bells in different parts of the world. Growing up, the Russian Natalija Marchenkova Frei heard bells in Moscow. When he first came to Europe, the Ameri-can Karl Schimke was strongly influenced by the church bells in Strassburg. The artists, who have both been living in St.Gallen for many years, decided to join forces to create this monumental work. This August 21, 2016, Schimke will use the 118 bells in 29 church towers to create a soundscape in the city and Marchenkova Frei will share her neo-romantic com-position for bells.
A sophisticated high-tech system was developed to coordinate the bells as their tolling converges at the designated central Listening-Point near the Buben-weier. The participating churches are located up to 16.3 kilometres apart. This distance, the weather con-ditions and the reaction time of the volunteers will
Position of the 28 churches in St.Gallen
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all influence the speed at which the sound will arrive at the Listening-Point. These diverse variables were accounted for and incorporated into the control software developed especially for this concert by programming specialists from the St.Gallen software company Namics.
Zusammenklang (Resounding Unity) is a very unique and ambitious project. For the first time ever, all the church bells of a city will be played together
in orchestral fashion. The initiators believe the project will have a deep meaning both spiritually and socially. Only through the choreographed collaboration across denominational lines, through all the neighbourhoods and churches, can the project be successful.
There are so many hidden treasures and century-old cultural assets in St.Gallen we want to bring them into general awareness, making them audible and creating a one of a kind soundscape. Karl Schimke
Time and Place:
AUGUST 21ST 20162:453:10 PM ST.GALLEN, SWITZERLAND
Media-Contact: Ann Katrin [email protected]+41 78 8662933 | www.zusammenklang.com
WORLD PREMIER
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ST.GALLENS CHURCH BELLSRICH CULTUR AL HERITAGE IN THE CIT Y BET WEEN T WO HILLS
The city of St.Gallen, Switzerland is home to 29 churches and chapels, with a total of 118 bells.
These bells reflect St.Gallens cultural richness and long and colourful history, dating back to the year 612 when, according to the records, the Irish monk Gallus moved into the previously uninhabited area. During the 9th and 10th century, the St.Gallen Abbey became a cultural centre of Europe due to its unique library. Each of the churches and chapels
represent a specific part of St. Gallens long history. Over the centuries, approximately 150 metric tons of bronze has been cast into the bells that hang in these 29 churches and chapels. The St.Gallen Cathe-dral, which is listed as a UNESCO-World cultural heritage site, is home to the oldest bell to play in Zusammenklang, the Armenseelen Bell, or Poor-souls Bell, cast in 1616. The largest of the bells to be featured, the Holy Trinity Bell, weighing 7,500 kilo-grams, hangs in the St. Gallen Cathedrals second bell
The Poor Soul Bell in the St.Gallen Cathedral Photo: H.J. Gnehm (Denkmalpflege Stadt St.Gallen)
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tower. The smallest of the bells hangs in the Wolf-gang-Chapel and weighs only 25 kilograms.
Musically, the 118 bells span the range from the low E in the St Gallen Cathedral up to the Ab in the Maria Einsiedeln Chapel. Two complete octaves can be played with the citys bells. Outside of this range, however, some tones are missing, creating an added challenge for the composers. On the other hand, the different timbre of the various bells can be used to orchestrate the composition. The timbres range from
muffled to metallic and from massive-weighty to crystal-clear. In preparation for the composition, all the bells were recorded and put together in a sound-archive.
St.Gallen lays in a long valley surrounded by long ridged hills. This geography means that while the churches are located up to 16,3 Kilometres apart, almost all of the church towers can be seen from the central listening point.
Aerial view of St.Gallen
Keyboard
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HARMONY THROUGH COMPUTER TECHNOLOGYCOMPUTER SOFT WARE, INTERFACE AND VOLUNTEERS OPER ATE THE BELLS
The full web service agency, Namics, and the church tower technology company, Muff, worked together to enable the precise ringing of the 118 bells.
The longstanding church tower technology company Muff is responsible for maintaining the majority of
the bells in St.Gallen. Their in-depth knowledge of the function of the bells was teamed with the creative software solutions from the St.Gallen internet com-pany Namics. Bernd Jansens and a team of specialists from Namics developed models and wrote pro-grammes to coordinate the tolling of the bells for
Bells in the Protestant church St.Georgen
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Zusammenklang. The largest challenge was calcu-lating all the factors that can influence the sound: distance, weather, different ringing techniques and reaction times of the volunteers. The sound of the bells from the furthest church in far west of St.Gallen requires roughly 20 seconds to travel the 7 kilometres to the listening point. This speed, however, is largely influenced by the weather as temperature, humidity, air pressure and wind all influence the speed of sound. For example, the higher the temperature, the faster sound travels.
There are four different ways that the bells will be rung: In four churches, technicians will install Raspberry Pi Minicomputers and the bells will be operated directly by computer.
Other bells will be rung with an external hammer manually triggered by volunteers. The signal to play will come from a web-based app on the volunteers mobile phone. In many churches, the clappers will be tied up so that a volunteer can ring the bells manually. Here, as well, the web-based app will give the signal to play. In seven churches, the bells must toll continuous-ly. However, a signal from the mobile phone will de-termine the starting time.
For all the bells that are rung manually, the reaction time from signal to sound must be computed to cal-culate the correct time to send the play signal. Since each bell and each volunteer react differently, every volunteer must be individually timed with their bell so their specific parameters can be entered into the software.
An external hammer in the St.Gallen Cathedral / A mechanical redirector
Sketches of possibilities for tying-up and triggering the clapper
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CULTURE SOCIETYSPIRITUALIT YZUSA MMENKLANG IS MORE THAN AN ARTISTIC PROJECT IT IS SOCIETAL AND SPIRITUAL AS WELL .
Zusammenklang is a completely unique artistic project: never before have all the bells of a city sounded in such an orchestrated way. This, alone, is enough reason for it to be realised. For the initiators, Karl Schimke and Natalija Marchenkova Frei, how-ever, it also has deep societal and spiritual compo-nents.
Natalija Marchenkova Frei focuses on the Christian and spiritual aspects of the concert. With my com-position I want to show that when all denominations come together, great beauty can be achieved. All the churches in St.Gallen are participating in Zusam-menklang regardless of their denomination. Only when all come together can our musical harmony emerge. These thoughts highlight the non-denomi-national foundation of the project. It is a great
advantage that WirkRaumKirche, the ecumenical association for the Christian churches in St.Gallen, is supporting this project. Zusammenklang will be a unique auditory experience for citizens in all parts of St.Gallen regardless of their faith or their religion.
For me, it is equally important to raise awareness of the abundance of hidden beauty and cultural trea-sures that St.Gallen has to offer. There is so much here that is overlooked, goes unheard or is just taken for granted. That which we have here in St.Gallen is truly extraordinary!, says Karl Schimke.
Kloster Notkersegg
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PARTICIPANTSNATALIJA MARCHENKOVA FREI COMPOSER, INIT IATOR
Natalija Marchenkova Frei was born in Moscow on July 11,
