[Bell Historians] Re: Bell Notes

[David Bryant]

To be honest, I think those rings which are tuned to spot on the
international (or any other) standard are in a minority. Of course they do
exist, e.g. Lincoln, pretty much spot on D, Norton Fitzwarren, Somerset, in
Ab, and St Paul's in London in Bb (although this is coincidental as the
standard hadn't been invented in 1878 when the bells there were cast!).
Bells are not designed to be used with any other instruments, so as long as
they are in tune with each other it doesn't really matter what their note
is. For instance, York Minster are Bb-38, Exeter Bb-23. The new 12 at South
Petherton are, as I recall, a very flat Eb.

What would be interesting to know is what the policy of the foundries is on
tuning - do either or the English foundries aim to provide new rings with
keynotes which are spot on the international standard? And of course even
where this is used there is the matter of temperament - if an unequal
temperament is used is the tenor, whatever key it's in, taken as C and the
other note frequencies calculated accordingly, or are the frequencies
calculated according to the actual note of the tenor?

David