Researchers are trying to re-create music from Crusader-era bells and organ pipes reserved in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Efforts to find out what it may have sounded in the birthplace of Jesus during almost 800 years ago, is a long and enduring process.
The 13 bronze bells were buried by mid-13th century Crusaders near the church on the eve of an offensive, inorder to protect them from destruction. The bells were smeared in animal fat to protect them from rust.
Catalunya, a researcher from the universities of Oxford and Wuerzburg, Germany said the process is long, not only in terms of constructing the materiality of the instruments but also its cultural context and its intellectual context. It can take at least five years to cast fully functioning copies.
A knock of the knuckles is enough to bring a clear, high-pitched chime from the originals. The clappers have since rotted away as demonstrated to Reuters at the Custody of the Holy Land for the Roman Catholic church, which holds the unique collection.
"It's half of the original sound, which was much richer and louder and a little bit lower," Catalunya said. The bells were part of a carillon that accompanied chants inside the church, said Franciscan friar Father Stephane, the Custody's liturgist.
Father Stephane said, “They were discovered in the early 20th century, along with 222 Mediaeval copper pipes from the Church of the Nativity's organ, during construction at the church's Franciscan compound. These bells are very significant for us because they are the bells of Bethlehem and a symbol of Nativity in the Christian world”
The collection also includes the sceptre of the Bishop of Bethlehem and candlesticks from the 12th century which, according to Catalunya, were made in France, suggesting a shared provenance with the bells and organ pipes, which Father Stephane says are the oldest in Christendom.
Father Stephane said he hoped the collection would be displayed, and played, at a Jerusalem Museum the Custody plans to open by 2024.
Source:Reuters