Story last updated at 8:29 a.m.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Ringers
reunited
Old and
new Rollings students bond as they play bells for Palmetto Bronze
BY
PAUL BOWERS
INK
contributor
Bronze bells
are spread on tables across the stage, shimmering under the lights. As the
ringers take up their instruments and begin to play, they create unified
vibrations that flow from the sheet music to the audience's ears.
|
The ringers
are members of Palmetto Bronze, a newly founded community handbell group led by
Marcia Brantley, handbells director at Rollings Middle School of the Arts and
Summerville Baptist Church.
The group is
composed of former and current Rollings students who have studied handbells at
the arts school. For those not familiar with Rollings, it is a public school in
Summerville where students audition and are placed in a core art area, such as
theater arts, vocal music, dance, visual arts, strings, piano and until
recently, handbells.
Handbell
ringing is not just for Santa Claus impersonators collecting money around
Christmastime, and there's more to playing them than simple swinging motions.
The bells can be damped when slammed on a cushioned table, and the larger ones
can be drummed with mallets to make a more percussive sound. When these and
other techniques are combined, handbell music has a truly distinctive sound.
Much like a rock band, handbell ringers mix up styles and effects to create
their own distinctive sound.
Brantley
started Palmetto Bronze earlier this year when she received an invitation to a
celebration in Norfolk, Va., for the 50th birthday of the American Guild of
English Handbell Ringers. She gladly accepted and asked Rollings alumni and
current students to try out for a new group to play in Norfolk.
The high schoolers
pounced on the opportunity to play handbells again. Kendalyn Paulin, 16, a
junior at Fort Dorchester High, saw it as an opportunity to reconnect with
former Rollings classmates, including some she hadn't seen since eighth grade.
Much like
team sports, handbells can create real, bonding friendships. "After four
years at Rollings," explains Terrilyn Stephens, 17, a senior at
Summerville High, "I just kind of missed it."
So the group
began practicing in the summer, going over their favorite old songs in addition
to more difficult arrangements. Fort Dorchester High sophomore Kelsey Lewis,
15, admitted that, for the high schoolers, "It had been a while, and we
were all a little rusty."
With ringers
in grades 7-12, one of their greatest difficulties was learning to play
together, says Sara Trinkl, 15, a sophomore at Fort Dorchester. "We all
have to stay on the same level."
Scheduling
was difficult, too, since many members had summer jobs, and when four or five
players are missing, the music is incomplete. "Everybody is
essential," Brantley says.
That's part
of what makes handbells a unique conduit for musical creativity: It's not like
a symphony, where each player can play his own instrument separately.
When each
ringer is responsible for playing only a certain set of notes, teamwork plays a
crucial role. "You can't just worry about yourself," Kelsey comments.
"You have to worry about the person next to you."
It took
extensive practice throughout the summer before Palmetto Bronze was ready to
perform in Norfolk at the end of July. "It was a huge honor to be able to
play there," says David Collins, 17, from Fort Dorchester. "Everybody
there was involved with handbells and knew if you were making mistakes."
This was not like the group's local performances, which were attended mainly by
family members and fellow students. In Norfolk, the ringers performed in a
hotel ballroom packed with hundreds of people who eat, sleep and breathe
handbells.
"It was
really intense and nerve-racking," says Spencer Wiesnet, 13, a Rollings
eighth-grader.
The
appearance went extraordinarily well, though, as Palmetto Bronze performed
favorites such as "Tempest," "Carillon" and
"Furioso." One particularly moving song was called "Prayer for
Peace," an arrangement inspired by the events of Sept. 11.
The song
began with four chords, representing the four planes that the terrorists used
as weapons, and the rest of the song reflected the need for peace in the world.
The group was
heavily congratulated afterward, and the ringers met composers who arranged
some of the songs they performed. Summerville High junior Cherie Bennett, 15,
says one composer told them they played his song "better than he could
imagine it."
|
Brantley
hopes to continue Palmetto Bronze and possibly open it to others in the
community. School officials recently announced that Rollings is phasing out
handbells as a core area, which disappoints former students such as Sara.
"It was an amazing program," she says, adding that "not
everybody owns a set of handbells.
With the
middle-school handbells program coming to an end, members of Palmetto Bronze
hope their group can provide the missing venue for student ringers.
HOLIDAY
PERFORMANCE
WHAT: "Holiday Bronze:
An Evening of Holiday Classics." Palmetto Bronze, a newly formed group of
teenage bellringers, will perform secular, sacred, traditional and contemporary
selections.
WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday.
WHERE: Summerville Baptist
Church.
COST: $5. Proceeds will
help fund Rollings Middle School of the Arts and Palmetto Bronze programs.
Paul Bowers,
16, is a sophomore at Summerville High School. E-mail him at
soccerdewd88@sc.rr.com.