Beautiful ringing

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This article was published 31/10/2020 (1894 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Accustomed to singing beside other tenors in his church choir, Winnipegger Gordon Pizey now rings out his part one note at a time.

“As a member of choir, you have a certain number of people singing the same note,” says Pizey, 71, a member of the bell choir at Fort Garry United Church.

“With the bells, you’re responsible for one unique note.”

The vocal choir modulated into a bell choir a few months back after one singer recalled the church owned a four-octave set of handbells and a sheaf of musical scores for them, says music director Helen Bergen.

The vocal choir has not sung together since the global pandemic hit Canada in mid-March. Singing in groups is not recommended because singers generate a lot of droplets in the air, which could transmit COVID-19.

Bergen says some musicians wear large duck-bill style masks marketed as singing masks, but wearing any mask can be difficult.

“It’s impossible to sing at full volume with a mask on,” says Bergen, director of four other choirs, including the Winnipeg Male Chorus, which rehearses by video call.

“It’s impossible to do because you also breathe in the material (of the mask).”

Handbells also give players the opportunity to rehearse songs and hymns together and share them with the congregation when many group activities can’t continue, says Pizey.

“It’s nice to have an alternative” to singing in the choir, says the long time choir member, who has played piano since he was a young child.

“At least you’re getting together on a weekly basis to make music.”

Until recent government restrictions limited group sizes to five, up to eight masked and gloved choir members met every Thursday afternoon for a two-hour physically distanced bell rehearsal in the church hall.

Under the new restrictions, Bergen rehearses two groups of four in two shorter periods.

The bell ringers stand or sit behind fabric-covered folding tables, each responsible for sounding two or three bells.

“There’s no sharing,” says Bergen.

“Everyone has their own bells and their own gloves and they take them home and wash them.”

Bergen records two pieces during each rehearsal to be used as the prelude and postlude for the Sunday morning worship service, which is held online.

She says playing hand bells employs many of the same skills as singing in a choir. Players need to read music, follow the director, and to count out the rhythm to ensure playing the note at the right time.

New bell player Wendy Broadfoot admits to feeling some pressure when she plays her bells — high G, high F and high F sharp — especially if she’s switching bells in the middle of a song.

The alto misses singing in the choir, but she’s still able to sing duets with a soprano singer, and for the last few months, she’s enjoyed making music with handbells.

“It’s just great to be able to make harmonies with the music,” says Broadfoot, 72, who has sung in the choir for the last two decades.

Playing handbells together offers the added benefit of understanding how every note has value and needs to be rung exactly at the right time, says Pizey.

Once a player moves the bell, the clapper inside hits the brass shell and continues to resonate until dampened when the player presses the bell against his or her shoulder.

“Every sound is important,” says Pizey who enjoys the novelty of playing the melody after years of providing harmonies in the bass and tenor sections.

“At times you’re blending with the piece and at times you’re a vital part of it, like in life.”

The move from vocal choir to bell ensemble at Fort Garry United reflects the current time of transition for the Christian church, when nothing is as it was before the pandemic, and yet life has not settled into a post-pandemic routine, says Rev. Min-Goo Kang.

“Our Gospel story is all about new possibilities and new possibilities always grow,” he says.

“It’s a matter of what we’re willing to let go off and what we’re willing to embrace.”

brenda@suderman.com

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