The tiresome fourth

[Bill Hibbert]

Chris Dalton's post on Downside / Beverley, and a correspondent 
sending me a recording of Petersglocke at Cologne (a repeat, I 
already had one) made me think more about the tiresome fourth. This 
is barely bell history, purists move on now . . .

Not all big bells have a fourth secondary strike, some have a major 
third. I went quickly through the 17 biggest bells in my collection, 
estimating the secondary strike. In big Russian bells (the chime at 
Rostov) it is very difficult to estimate the pitches, the sound is 
percussive rather than musical. Most other bells have a strident 
fourth. However, Petersglocke at Cologne, Gloriosa at Erfurt and 
Great Paul at St Paul's have a major third secondary strike. The 
combination of a major third secondary strike and true-harmonic lower 
partials sounds to me fantastic. Once I had identified the bells with 
this characteristic it was quite unpleasant to listen to bells with a 
strident fourth (including all the other big Taylor bells, including 
Great Bede and Great John).

I don't have recordings of any of the big G&J bells. If anyone has 
some and is willing to share I'd love to hear from you off-line.

Bill H