Restoration and Sound Practices
Persona
Keoma is an architect and a restorer
Goal
Keoma needs to find different types of information and data from different sources. His goal is to interconnect data between architectures and their use for sound performances, in order to proceed with protection actions.
- sound practices
- restoration
Scenario
Keoma has to elaborate a restructuring plan for various bell towers and wants to know what kind of interventions to implement on the wall structure respecting the characteristics related to the use of the bell cell as a component of the production of the sound of the bells, and respecting traditional local sound practices.
Keoma therefore needs to know what kind of sound practices are performed in each bell tower, starting with the names of the Churches given in a list.
Keoma begins to search for the location and the address of each church, also to understand if it is an urban, peri-urban or rural context.
Keoma needs to know if in each of the churches the practices of sound are currently practiced by moving the bells manually or electrically.
Furthermore, for static calculations he needs to know with which mounting system each bell is attached, its weight, its measurements and the material it is made of.
Keoma also needs to know if there are sound documents of the musical performances carried out in the different bell towers, to document the use of the bells in different events.
To do this, Keoma would have to resort to numerous searches: bibliographic sources, archival sources, field surveys and interviews with informed people.
Thanks to Polifonia, Keoma can carry out these searches automatically, through a keyword search, retrieving these data in a short time.
Example data
The searched data can be divided into: Architectural data, Data related to the bells, Data related to sound practices, Data related to sound recordings, Bibliographic data.
Architectural data
The data related to each individual Italian church can be retrieved on the web from different sources, in particular Wikipedia, the General Catalog of Cultural Heritage, BeWeb, for example:
-
The Church of San Pietro di Sturla is located in Carasco, Genova Province.
-
The Church was built in 1619
-
The Church is located in a periurban context
Data relating to the bells
The data relating to the bells can be searched on some websites of the sector such as Associazione Campanari Liguri, Associazione Italiana di Campanologia; in the specialized bibliography of which very few publications are online; in the General Catalog of Cultural Heritage. For example:
-
The bells in the Church of San Pietro di Sturla are 5 (a “set of bells”)
-
The mounting system of the bells is the “falling clapper” (battaglio cadente)
-
The bells are all made of bronze and they were cast by Fonderia Regolo Capanni di Fidenza (PR) in 1929
-
The bells have different nominal notes: REb3, MI b3, FA3, SOL b3, LA b3. The extension of the whole concert is an “intervallo di quinta”
-
The bells have different weights (…), and measures (…)
Data relating to sound practices and musical features
The data relating to the bells can be searched in specialized bibliography, of which very few publications are online. Data relating to the bells can be searched on some websites of the sector such as Associazione Italiana di Campanologia, Associazione Campanari Liguri etc, and in the general catalog of Cultural Heritage. For example:
-
All the bells of San Pietro di Sturla, according to their mounting system, can be played “a distesa” (bell moving about 30°), ”a bicchiere” (starting the movement with the bells upside down, at 180°), “a campane ferme” (the bells are not moving, only the clappers will be moved, producing sound).
-
All the bells of San Pietro di Sturla are played both electrically and manually
-
When played manually “a campane ferme”, the bells are played by the use of “cordette” (small chains connected with the arms and the legs of the bell ringers), a “tastiera” (keybords) or manually moving the clappers. This characterizes the “sistema ligure”, toghether with other elements
-
Some repertoires/genres are tipically associated with specific events.
-
One genre is the “Salmo alla Romana”
-
The “Salmo alla Romana” is usually associated with the day of a “Festa Patronale”, or the day before the “Festa Patronale”.
-
Sometimes the repertoire of bell ringers includes pieces taken from contemporary music. The execution of such songs is not connected to any particular event, but it is performed by the bell ringers for exibition and fun.
Data relating to sound recordings
Recordings data can be searched in some portals for example Alphabetica and in Youtube, for audiovisuals containing bell concerts. For example:
-
A concert played in San Pietro di Sturla for exhibition was recorded by ethnomusicologist Mauro Balma in 1994
-
The concert is divided in 6 different “sonate”
-
One sonata is a “Salmo alla Romana”
-
The Salmo alla Romana was performed by Armando Rocca
-
Another sonata is from a contemporary repertoire. It is called “Marina” and it is taken from the song Marina Marina written by Rocco Granata in 1959
Bibliographic data
The Bibliographic data can be searched by keywords in : Opac, Alphabetica, campanology Websites For example:
- The Sistema Ligure is described in the text “Campanari, campane e campanili di Liguria” By Mauro Balma, 1996
Competency questions
- CQ1: Where is the building?
- CQ2: When (what year) was the building built?
- CQ3: In which context is the building located (urban, periurban…)?
- CQ4: Are there bells in a church?
- CQ5: Which is the mounting system of the bell?
- CQ6: Which is the material of the bell?
- CQ7: By whom (by which foundry) were they cast?
- CQ8: In which year were they cast?
- CQ9: Which is the nominal/fundamental note of the bell?
- CQ10: Which is the extension of the whole set of bells in a bell tower?
- CQ11: Which is the weight of the bell?
- CQ12: Which are the measures of the bell?
- CQ13: What kind of execution techniques are possible to perform according to a specific mounting system?
- CQ14: Can a set of bells be played electrically, manually, or both?
- CQ15: How/Using which tools is the set of bells played, when played manually?
- CQ16: Where is the church/bell tower?
- CQ17: How many bells are in the church?
- CQ18: Which is the mouth diameter of the bell?
- CQ19: Which is the sound bow of the bell?
- CQ20: Using which execution technique(s) is the set of bells played, when played manually?
old
CQ2: What kind of repertoire is traditionally performed in that specific location?
CQ3: What is the dating that accompanies this repertoire?
CQ4: Is it a repertoire performed in the contemporary world?
CQ5: Is it a repertoire in that place currently performed by hand or by electric means?
CQ6: How many people are generally employed for the performance of these sound practices?
CQ7: Are there significant variations in the frequencies between the manually produced sound and the electric sound, such as to have repercussions on the soundscape?
CQ8: Are there historical evidences of the presence of that sound in the surrounding area?
Resources
- General Catalog of Cultural Heritage: https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/
- WikiPedia: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagina_principale
- BeWeb: https://beweb.chiesacattolica.it/?l=it_IT
- Opac-SBN: https://opac.sbn.it/
- Alphabetica: https://alphabetica.it/web/alphabetica/
- Campanology websites: https://campanologia.org/ ; https://www.campanologia.it/; https://www.campanariliguri.it/;