The Gruppo Campanari of Barga – the bell ringers of Barga were in action this evening in the Duomo high above the city for the “doppio dell’immacolata” The three bells are rung for an hour.
….. the bell ringers did their thing high in the tower. And this wasn’t just ding-dong, ding-dong. Rhythmic patterns rose and fell and weaved around each other. It turns out there’s a “Gruppo Campanari,” a bell-ringers club, in Barga, and it takes skill and practice to earn this duty ….
The three bell ringers themselves stood directly under the bells, with their backs to us and their arms stretched above their heads, tapping and knocking the clappers against the bells to make their music. The bell ringers turned to face us, grabbed the thick ropes hanging from the bells and put their backs into it.
Soon enough, the bells were swinging around their axles, up to the nearly vertical, pausing, then flashing down and around again. And yes, it was deafening, but the tones were pure and clean.
It makes a difference. I was starting to get a grasp of the bell ringer’s challenge. He may be tugging and sweating to make an impossibly heavy bell do his will, but it’s really a job of finesse. Pull a little too hard or not hard enough, just one time, and his note will sound early, or late. And there’s a delay – at least, it seemed this way to me – between the moment he pulls on the rope and the moment the clapper strikes the bell.
Oh, and he’s part of a bell combo. It’s like three guitarists playing a song, but with each playing only every third note. No wonder the bell-ringers stare into space, lost in concentration. Their ears are working as hard as their muscles. – text from an article by Dan Montgomery – Bel Canto di Barga published on the dailypress.com site
There is also a youth section of the Gruppo Campanari of Barga. They were in the Chiesa di San Francesco last summer ringing the bells for the annual “Perdono di Assisi” procession – video here