Bells
The Dom Tower has an exceptional peal of fourteen ringing bells, weighing 32,000 kg. In 1505 Geert van Wou, in his time the most famous bell-founder of the Netherlands, made a harmonious peal of thirteen bells. The seven smallest bells, sold in 1664 to finance the new carillion, were recast in 1982 by Eijsbouts. The largest bell, the Salvator, has a weight of 8,200 kg and a diameter of 227 cm. Together with the fourteenth bell, they form the largest existing homogeneous group of medieval bells. Today the bells are set in motion by the members of the Utrecht Klokkenluiders Gilde.
In 1625, Jacob van Eyck became carillon player of the Dom Tower. In 1664, a new carillon was installed by Juriaan Sprakel of Zutphen, with a mechanism consisting of 35 chimes, made by the brothers Pieter and François Hemony. In 1972 the carillon was restored and extended to 50 bells.
Read more about this topic: Dom Tower Of Utrecht
Famous quotes containing the word bells:
“Now Lady Maisry is gone home,
Made him a winding sheet,
And at the back of merry Lincoln
The dead corpse did her meet.
And all the bells of merry Lincoln,
Without men’s hands were rung,”
—Unknown. Hugh of Lincoln (l. 61–66)
“The Church disowned, the tower overthrown, the bells upturned, what have we to do
But stand with empty hands and palms turned upwards
In an age which advances progressively backwards?”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“See the wild birds on the wing,
Hear the bells that sweetly ring,
When you feel like singin’, sing—
Keep a-goin’!”
—Frank Lebby Stanton (1857–1927)