Above: From left to right, Matthew Strauss (percussion), Mark Griffith (percussion), Marian Beauchamp, Gary Beauchamp and Brian Del Signore (principal percussion) pose with the new low E bell that will be played during this weekend’s concerts.
At this weekend’s performances of Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra, a new sound will ring out through Jones Hall. This will be the first program featuring a bell from the new set specially made for the Houston Symphony by the Royal Eijsbouts bell foundry in the Netherlands, which has made fine bells for churches, public buildings and orchestras since 1872.
This generous gift from the Beauchamp Foundation has long been on the Houston Symphony’s wish list. “I had researched these types of bells a couple of decades ago, and when the opportunity came to pursue this again, I reached back out to the foundry,” explained Principal Percussionist Brian Del Signore, who led the search for the bells. He found that the Royal Eijsbouts foundry is one of the world’s leaders in campanology, the art and science of bell making. Using
sophisticated technology, Royal Eijsbouts is able to produce bells with a sonorous, ringing tone and perfectly accurate pitches, a necessity for orchestral music.
Building a Better Bell
Their pitch accuracy is not the only remarkable quality these bells possess. “We found out that they had a new process that lightened the bells—they were able to make the same pitches with less metal, so that they’re much more manageable,” said Del Signore. “The problem with bells at these pitches is that they’re usually so heavy that you can’t take them anywhere—you actually have to watch the floor joists in the building when moving them! The lighter bells are an amazing improvement.”
The bells might be lighter, but they still fall into the heavyweight category. The lightest bell, the E-flat/D-sharp, weighs in at 453 pounds, while the heaviest (the low E featured in this weekend’s performances of Also sprach Zarathustra) is a staggering 1,718 pounds. Made of a special alloy known as bell brass (a mixture of brass and copper), each of the five new bells is tuned to a pitch required for a specific piece of music. Del Signore explained, “The low E is for Also Sprach Zarathustra, which we’re doing this week; the C and the G are for Symphonie fantastique; the D is for pieces like Night on Bald Mountain or John Williams’ Liberty Fanfare; and then the E-flat/D-sharp is for Pictures at an Exhibition.”
A Musical Milestone
Prior to acquiring the Eijsbouts bells, the Houston Symphony either used tubular bells (which produce a somewhat different sound) or borrowed bells from other orchestras. Having a set of bells to call its own will allow the Symphony to come closer to recreating these great pieces of music as their composers imagined them. “We hope these bells will be with the orchestra for centuries,” Del Signore said. “Perhaps in the future more will be added, but these are the bells we need to have a good start doing the repertoire that calls for big bells.”
The bells have caused great excitement amongst the orchestra’s musicians backstage; their power and resonance fills the hall and envelops listeners in a way that has to be heard live to be believed. You can get a sneak preview, however, in this video from a rehearsal of Also sprach Zarathustra:
Of course, nearly two tons of state-of-the art bell brass does not run cheap, and it is only thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Gary and Marian Beauchamp (pronounced Beecham) that the Houston Symphony was able to acquire them. “They’re absolutely beautiful,” Gary Beauchamp said after seeing the bells for the first time during a special demonstration backstage with Del Signore. “They’re almost like works of art.”
The Beauchamps first began attending Houston Symphony concerts in 1986, and have since become some of the orchestra’s most steadfast supporters. “It’s really amazing to see how excited everyone is about the bells, and yes, they look awesome!” Marian Beauchamp said. “We’re very much looking forward to hearing them ring for many years to come.”
Don’t miss the new bell on April 26, 28 & 29, 2018! Get tickets and more information at houstonsymphony.org.
