By VikingChild
“And the Christmas bells that ring there
Are the clanging chimes of doom.”
While I was compiling this, this much maligned phrase rolled around in my head because that’s the age I am. It did reflect two sides of bell tunes, after all. But that aside, a veritable surf-wave of bell-ridden tunes came my way (>200 eligible), which was appropriate because who knew the Beach Boys liked bells so much? You did!
Early on I decided that the celeste, a keyboard instrument, should be included because the sound is very bell like, undamped. Also the celeste is in one of my favourite pieces by Bartok, so I was biased. But the condition was that it had to sound like bells.
But here lay an interesting conundrum: the glockenspiel. The topic of “hammer and mallet instruments” had already been covered, so where does that leave the glockenspiel? With a name that means “play bells” and in German is also the word for carillon, it’s a tough call. It can also be hard to tell, so my compromise was that if I could tell it was a glock, it was ruled out – if not, then ruled in.
Gamelan, a grouping of percussive instruments from South-East Asia, includes metallophones like the glockenspiel, but also bonang, tuned gongs. Their sound is so bell-like that I felt they had to be included in the mix.
It was at this point that I thought about the triangle and the sound of zills and had a nervous breakdown.
There are of course some excellent bell-saturated Christmas songs out there. How could I balance these, given that they have a jingle-bell, sleigh-bell advantage? Then I thought – two lists! The non-Christmas list and the Christmas list! Presents for everyone. Plus a B-list of notable and unusual bell pieces, those that perhaps didn’t sit in a coherent playlist.
In the non-Christmas songs, it was interesting to listen to the particular use of bells, what they did for the song, and how they interacted with other instruments – if at all. I narrowed things down by looking for bells within the song, rather than just a bookend. Opening with a peal of wedding bells or ending with a death toll seemed to become a meme in certain genres, and sadly they (generally) didn’t make the cut.
For Christmas songs, I decided to (mostly) take the road less travelled, as you’ll see, but it speaks for itself.
And so first to the non-Christmas list.
Björk opens with what was described, and is, the belliest of bell songs, “Who Is It? (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right)” so much so that in the video she is wearing an Alexander McQueen dress of bells whilst prancing across the black fields of Hjörleifshöfði. The use of hand bells, sleigh bells and tubular bells with very little other instrumentation make this a veritable fest of ringing. Listmeister Marconius7 gave us the “bell choir mix”, it should be noted, featuring the Bústaðakirkja Bell Choir.
From one often-incomprehensible singer to another, DiscoMonster chose the Cocteau Twins’ glorious Lorelei. Here, the handbells chime chords which sound throughout and are an essential counterpoint to the ethereal™ vocals by Liz Fraser. It’s so perfect you almost don’t think “bells”. This is trademark Cocteaus, though Guthrie hates the album. Grumpy old sod.
4AD labelmates Dead Can Dance go for the bigger bells in Summoning of the Muse, the choice of vanwolf2. Some musical groups are built for the sound of bells to be dropped in through their music, and this is a fantastic example, the mediaeval gothic of DCD, Lisa Gerrard's voice and a veritable carillon to support. A true merging of music with bells.
A change of pace and an interesting story, thanks to pejepeine. Once upon a time, some guy called Paul Simon recorded a song called “Take Me To The Mardi Gras” which didn’t do much outside the UK and South Africa. A couple of years later jazz guru Bob James (who wrote the theme music for Taxi) made an instrumental version which, in the first few bars, features a distinctive Brazilian agogô bell and drum rhythm. This, being short of bells, probably wouldn’t have made it to the list, except it’s one of the basic hip-hop break beats. It’s been sampled by all the big hitters, including this classic, Peter Piper by Run DMC who pepper the sample throughout the track.
Talking of sampling, over to some French music history with Pierre Henry who studied under Messiaen, helped develop music concrète and worked with the earliest tape recorders. A lot of his work from the 1950s has been sampled, but this is next level. Pejepeine introduced me to his 1967 Psyché Rock, which literally has all the bells and whistles in it and sounds remarkably contemporary, aided by the fact that it “heavily influenced” the dude who wrote the Futurama theme tune.
More from 1960s France: TarquinSpodd introduced me to this utterly wonderful B-side and piece of French 60s pop, Pauvre Cloche (Poor Bell) by Stella. Not only is the (tubular) bell in the title, it serves to emphasise the theme in the chorus. But whilst France was embracing the Beatles and the yé-yé movement, Stella was resolutely French and anti-yé-yé, spearing and satirising their work. It is this attitude that is spelled out in A-side title “Vous Devriez Avoir Honte” (You Should Be Ashamed) which resonates particularly in this week of the conclusion to the Pelicot/Mazan trial.
A swift jump over the border, because we can’t do this list without some Germans hitting things. Perhaps not the most obvious choice either, but DAF deserve some recognition for this track. Quieter than might be expected, Der Räuber unt Der Prinz includes bell-like sounds from a number of metal things, and even the squeaky theme might be an (electronic) glockenspiel. From their seminal album Alles Ist Gut, which might have a passing nod to contributor MussoliniHeadkick (yeah, I know, another band entirely).
Heading much further east, we come to the glacier in Nepal called Khumbu Icefall and transformed into music by Henry Wolff & Nancy Hennings from the appropriately titled album Tibetan Bells. These very bells are not just ringing but rubbing, resonating. Listening to this made me feel the chill of the glacier, a very evocative piece donated by BanazirGalbasi.
Bell epoque - Rebecca Pan
Further east now and Rebecca Pan from Hong Kong. Not only is it called Ding Dong Song, but it includes wooden bells, a very different sound to most of the rest on the list. I couldn't dig much up except she's a very successful singer who was definitely still alive last year and would be 93 at the end of this month. A piece of music nominated by TarquinSpodd full of charm.
For the 10th and final song of this list we travel south to the islands of Indonesia and Detty Kurnia from the Sundanese capital, Bandung. A child star, she mixed pop with traditional sounds and rhythms. Her father was a gamelan player, and Mamanis, nominated by Nicko, seemed to exemplify the genre as well as fully feature the ringing sounds of the gamelan.
The “Bells From the Chapel Went Jingle, Jangle” Non-Christmas A-List Playlist:
Björk - Who Is It? (Bell Mix) (Marconius7)
Cocteau Twins – Lorelei (DiscoMonster)
Dead Can Dance - Summoning of the Muse (vanwolf2)
Run DMC - Peter Piper (pejepeine)
Pierre Henry - Psyché Rock (pejepeine)
Stella - Pauvre Cloche (TarquinSpodd)
DAF - Der Rauber und der Prinz (MussoliniHeadkick)
Henry Wolff & Nancy Hennings - Khumbu Ice-Fall (BanazirGalbasi)
Rebecca Pan - Ding Dong Song (TarquinSpodd)
Detty Kurnia – Mamanis (Nicko)
The “Sleigh Bells Ring, Are You Listening?” Christmas A-List Playlist:
Tchaikovsky/Rattle - Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Nicko)
The Liminañas - Christmas Baby Please Come Home (DiscoMonster)
Pharoah Sanders - Prince of Peace (pejepeine)
And What Will Be Left of Them - Have Yourself A Filthy Little Christmas (TarquinSpodd)
Prokoviev / Fistoulari - Sleigh Ride (TarquinSpodd)
Lou Monte - Dominick the Donkey (Uncleben)
Vashti Bunyan - Coldest Night of the Year (DiscoMonster)
Rotary Connection - Silent Night (Fred Erickson)
The Ronettes - Sleigh Ride (ParaMhor)
Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Christmas Eve / Sarajevo (tincanman2010)
The “Notable and Unusual Bell Collection” B-List Playlist:
Cast in Bronze - Carol of the Bells (Marconius7)
A travelling carillon of bells - quite the thing. Wonderful to watch too.
Matt Berry - Are You Being Served Theme (IsabelleForshaw)
The famous 70s sitcom theme in an acid jazz style features the ringing of the cash register throughout.
Judy Garland - The Trolley Song (Marconius7)
From the film “Meet Me in St Louis”, the trolley bell. Not as much bell as you might think but it's Judy Garland, darling.
Martin Breinschmid with Strauß Festival Orchestra Vienna - The Typewriter Song (Marconius7)
The famous orchestral work which includes the (old-style) typewriter as percussion and the sound of the bell which alerted you to the end of the line. History now.
Pantha du Prince & The Bell Laboratory - Spectral Split (Nilpferd)
A collaboration between DJ and percussion ensemble, the bells drive the music. A tremendous sound.
The Raiders - Farewell to a Golden Girl (Fred Erickson)
Gorgeous celeste piece. Actually bellier than Bjork, but became less “featured” than “almost entirely”, so put here.
Peggy Polias - Garden of Bronze (Nicko)
Music composed for a beautiful outdoor installation in Melbourne.
John Sangster - First Light (Nicko)
You want birds that sound like bells? Here they are.
Tito Puente - Guajira Flute (Pejepeine)
If I never hear another cowbell again, it will be too soon. No. More. Cowbell. But this is a worthy exception.
Stomu Yamashta's Turris Campanarum Sonantium (Bell-Tower), by Peter Maxwell Davies (Tatanka Yotanka)
I’ve included the whole of this, just because. Bells, bells, and more bells, of different types expertly weaved together by PMD.
An honourable mention also to Sanctus, Gothic voices, nominated by Marconius7, a symphonic metal band with an actual carillon as part of their act. Unfortunately it is not on YouTube as far as either of us can detect, apart from some horrible live videos.
The Guru’s Wildcard Picks:
Actually, there are two because it’s Christmas and both are personal.
I couldn’t leave this list without it being touched by remarkable percussion genius Dame Evelyn Glennie, who has beautiful videos on YouTube showing different percussion instruments including many, many types of bells. This is one of them.
Second: when David Bowie died, there were many immediate bell-laden tributes, particularly through Northern Europe, and this was one of them, played on Maastricht’s City Hall Bells.
So with that, a very Merry Christmas, happy holidays, festive joy, cool Yule and a rigtig glædelig jul to everyone who contributed.
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations in response to last week's topic: What a carillon: songs and music featuring sounds of bells. The next topic will launch on Thursday after 1pm UK time.
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Take a bow, everyone for 2024. And here’s an actual Bow bell …
And … from The Landlord: Echoing VikingChild above in bell-like, and campanological fashion, I’d also like to offer thanks to all of our superb Song Bar punters, especially those who have taken the guest guru’s chair this year, as well as the many fabulous song nominators, and also to all donators.
Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. We’ll be back soon.