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Global Bell Concert in Apolda: 11th August 2007
Worldwide concert
What do Buenos Aires, Dresden, Cologne, Dar es Salaam and the 273-soulvillage Großromstedt near Weimar have in common? They all have bells made in Apolda and they are all taking part in the “Global Bell Concert” on the 11th August 2007 – just like Magdeburg, Rome, Boston, Lützelflüh in the Emmental valley in Switzerland, Kathmandu in Nepal and Tanunda in Southern Australia...
The bell-founding tradition in Apolda comes alive every four years with a homage to the worldwide bell culture. For the third time after 1999 and 2003, the small Thuringian town will be the technical heart of a global concert with experimental charms. The “Global Bell Concert” lives up to its name – it does not only take place on Apolda’s market square but also on simultaneous bell festivals all around the world. And with the help of internet and television broadcasts it can be witnessed everywhere on earth.
Under the title “Bells are music”, the MDR (Central German Broadcasting) will simulcast the happening from Apolda, Dresden and Magdeburg and will show live coverage from Apolda’s bell partners all over the world. From 3:15 pm to 4:30 pm, the complex live programme will be on the air. In addition to MDR’s coverage, the concert can also be watched as a live-stream on the internet on MDR-Online.
The composition “From bell to bell”
The greatest treasure of the bells is their sound which doesn’t forfeit any of its sonority and vibrancy even after one or two-hundred years. This applies to carillons from far away continents as much as to those in the surroundings of Apolda. In collaboration with the regional congregations, a special “bell pilgrimage” is taking place a week before the Global Bell Concert on the 5th of August. The hike leads to the village churches of Weiden, Rannstedt, Großromstedt and Rastenberg. Sound recordings of the bells ringing are used by the musicians Gert Anklam, Silke Gonska and Frieder W. Bergner together with the dancers Beate Gatscha and Madlen Werner of “Devi Dance” for their composition “From bell to bell” which premieres on the 11th of August.
Programme
The ringing of the Luther-Church with its three highly symbolic bells from three centuries marks the grand opening of the Global Bell Concert at 3 pm prompt. The bells display the arts and crafts of Apolda’s bell founders Rose (1722), Ulrich (1870) and Schilling (1950). The triad of tones, “E”, “G#” and “C#”, can be heard all over town, and invite all to the Global Bell Concert.
A prayer will be held beforehand at 2.30 p.m. in the Luther-Church.
The stage programme alternates between live stage performances in Apolda and special features, which can be seen on a large video screen on the city hall. Bells from five continents, from different times and cultures are performed through music, images and motion. Impressive visualizations of bellsounds by the American artist and acoustic scientist Mark Fischer and the “Bauhaus Bell Group“ can be seen in the bell gallery. Blanka Weber, the well-known anchorwoman from the MDR Thuringia newscast, guides us through the event. Members of the comical and ingenious fashion-theatre group “Modetheater Gnadenlos Schick“ (merciless chic) from Weimar will perform on stage.
From Magdeburg to Buenos Aires
Each bell presented has its own sound, its historical reference and its meaning for the community. The participants of the Global Bell Concert reveal how diverse the links of bell culture to music really are.
Dresden. The mighty, 28,810 kg bells of the Dresdner Cross Church (Kreuzkirche), founded in 1899 by Franz Schilling in Apolda, inspired the cantor Oskar Wermann (1840-1906) to a “fugue in the notes of the bells of the Dresdner Cross Church: E, G, A, B, D”. A recording of the fugue played by the Kreuzkirche’s resident organist Holger Gehring will be broadcast to Apolda and on television at the same time.
Boston / Moscow. Hans Tutschku, who is originally from Weimar and teaches in Harvard as a music professor, contributes an electro-acoustic composition on a Russian carillon from the 17th and 18th century. It stems from the Danilov-monastery, founded in 1282, and was sold after the revolution to a US businessman, who donated it to Harvard. After standing for decades on the Campus of Harvard University, it will now be transported back to its place of origin in Russia – in exchange for a newly founded copy made in Russia. Tutschku tested and recorded the sounds of these new Russian bells and composed a special piece of music from their samples.
Lützelflüh. As in 2003, the bell festival in the village in the Swiss Emmental will be staged by Paul Christ and Thomas Bertschi from the “Rainbow Project” and connected live with Apolda. We will be able to hear and see the ringing of the bells in Gotthelf-Church in Lützelflüh, the sounds of many bells brought by visitors and the pealing of the bulky cowbells performed by the Treichel group from Schwanden.
Rome. Three bells made by the bell-founder Schilling from Apolda in the notes “B”, “D” and “E”, that replicate the peal of Wittenberg Castle Church, will ring in the protestant Christ Church in Rome. The Church has a profound symbolic meaning because it is the first Lutheran church after the Reformation in which a pope gave a sermon – Johannes Paul II gave the sermon in his capacity as the bishop of Rome on the third Advent in the year 1983. For the bell concert, Roman musician Roberto Laneri and dancer Betty Lo Sciuto will accompany the bells with sound and movement.
Katmandu. Together with aboriginal performers the artist Salil Kanika will present a Nepalese bell-dance, live in images and sound, in front of the famous Buddhist Swayambunath temple. Although the bell there doesn’t stem from Apolda, it nevertheless plays a major role in Asian bell culture. The Global Bell Concert links up with the colorful “EarthBeat World Bell Festival” featuring bells and percussions from shamans of the Himalaya, Tibetan monk singing, traditional Newari-dancers, contemporary folk, fusion, and rock musicians, poets and performance artists.
Buenos Aires. For the grand finale, the Global Bell Concert switches to Argentina. On the roof of the city parliament of Buenos Aires a carillon manufactured in 1930 by Schilling & Sons in Apolda will resound to the tango melody “El Choclo” by Ángel Villoldo. On the occasion of the Global Bell Concert, the freshly restored 30 bell carillon, with a total weight of 27,350 kg, will be played by the Argentinean maestro of the carillon, Señor Carlos María Morelli. As the dancing couples move to the sound of the bell-tango in Buenos Aires, it will spark a second parallel tango in Apolda, choreographed by Carlos Tapia and accompanied by the Argentinean band “Sexteto Milonguero”. The MDR television coverage closes with the “Global Bell-Tango” between Buenos Aires and Apolda but internet audiences can continue to enjoy the Argentinean tango music by “Sexteto Milonguero” until 5 pm. The party doesn’t stop there, though: Andreas Max Martin and his band from Weimar will play a concert for the audience in Apolda. It goes without saying that there will be a wide variety of food and drink to accompany the rich programme of music and events.
Bell Gallery
The gallery of historic bells founded in Apolda between 1722 and 1988 encompasses some 20,000 exhibits spread across the five continents. The Global Bell Concert features just some representatives from this collection, for example the Schilling-bells in the Azania Front Cathedral in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and the Tabor Lutheran Church in Tanunda, Australia. With luck, some “surprise bells” may also join the Global Bell Concert at short-notice.
To close the celebrations, the Bell Museum in Apolda invites all to a final concert on the following day, 12th August at 11 a.m.: Olaf Sandkuhl from Rostock will give a guest performance with his mobile carillon numbering 37 bronze bells in the idyllic museum garden in the midst of the big old bell exhibits and cool drinks.
Organizer, patron and “Global Bell-Pils”
The Global Bell Concert in Apolda is organized by the city of Apolda and the creative arts society Avantgarde. As with the concerts in 1999 and 2003, the Bell Concert concept and planning is the brainchild of the media artist Micky Remann.
The Central German Broadcast (MDR) with its three regional stations in Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, provides worldwide coverage of the event. As patron, the Thuringian Minister of Justice, Harald Schliemann handed over a cheque; further financial support has been provided by the Sparkasse Mittelthüringen (Central Thuringian Provident Bank). Numerous regional companies, institutions and individuals, and not least the protestant Lutheran Church have and will provide active support for the concert. And to mark the occasion, the brewery in Apolda will launch a limited edition of “Global Bell-Pils”!
The bell town of Apolda
Even though bells are no longer founded in Apolda, bell tradition and culture is still very present. The Bell Museum is an attraction for tourists and visitors, a carillon hangs in the townhouse, which can be heard on the 11th August from 2 to 2:30 p.m., the books by the bell historian Margarete Schilling from the bell founders family are internationally acknowledged standard works, and her exhibition with documents and images of the Schilling-foundry are presented by the VR Bank Apolda.
The “Global Bell Concert” celebrates in its quadrennial rhythm, the excellent resonance of the bells, and wins plenty of new friends and bell lovers.
Global Bell Concert – past history
The first Global Bell Concert in 1999 was part of the European Capital of Culture-programme. In 2003, the musical partners encompassed bells from Australia, Namibia, the United States, Nepal, Bali and Switzerland. A leading part was played by the Bell of St. Peter of the Cologne Cathedral, which was cast in 1923 by Ulrich in Apolda and which is the is the largest free-swinging bell in the world. It is rung only on rare occasions and not only people from Cologne get goose-bumps when it is rung! St. Peters Bell will again have a place of honour at the Global Bell Concert of 2007.
Sounds just like waves…
The now well-known slogan of the concert on the 11th August 2007 is “Bells are music, bells connect, bells make you listen.” Who do they reach? In Apolda several thousand visitors are expected on the market square. Together with television and internet audiences as well as spectators from around the world, we can only speculate on the effective reach.
With the help of modern technology, sounds spread like waves not only over thetown, but also across the land and all over the world until their echo returns to the starting point –that is what makes the Global Bell Concert so attractive for all who take part.