Bellophone will see visitors to Notte Bianca choosing what music to play on a number of Valletta church bells, using a central console to control the notes. Ramona Depares asks Mario Sammut, who originated the concept, to explain more.
On Saturday bells across the capital city will be ringing joyfully – but with a difference.
This time around, it will be visitors to Notte Bianca who will decide what and when they peal, choosing the music that will set the sound drop to the night when Valletta doesn’t sleep. Titled Bellophone, the event is the brainchild of Mario Sammut, better known in music circles as Cygna. I caught up with him to find out how I, too, can get the bells to chime for me.
How was the idea for Bello-phone born?
It all started with a brainstorming session with Sean Buhagiar more than two years ago, at a morning meeting in Valletta to come up with new ideas for cool and interesting projects for Notte Bianca.
After the second coffee and a few more mind-blowingly impossible concepts, we ended up pondering again on the idea of somehow playing church bells.
The bells of the Anglican and Carmelite churches will be the ones used to form this large-scale, carillon-like instrument
We have a lot of churches, hence tons of bells ... we kept recalling our little escapes from Mass, when we’d run up the bell tower and stay staring at the great views that pigeons enjoy everyday. So we decided to stick with this concept.
Bells are so much part of the sounds we have been accustomed to since childhood, but for most people playing them was not an option – let alone playng them from a dedicated device that allows you to play the bells from the square, looking at the bell-tower from a 200-metre distance. And then you have to add the fact that we will be playing the bells of more than one church at once.
What, exactly, will happen during the event?
The console, which is the device from which you play church bells wirelessly, is almost like a piano keyboard, but with round big buttons. This will be placed in Independence Square in Valletta. The bells of the Anglican and Carmelite churches will be the ones used to form this large-scale, carillon-like instrument, but with few notes as we are using only the available bells inside the bell towers. Eight to 10 bells will be used and other little gadgets will be incorporated within the console.
Will the music being played on the night be specially developed for this event?
The user is the one who will make the music. People will play what they want onto the button console. Having few notes to one’s finger tips is a somewhat limiting factor, of course. Also since bells detune with time, some of them could not be used, as they would interfere with one another. A few musical pieces will be played by the console itself if the device is not touched for a few minutes.
What were the biggest challenges to put the concept together?
There were various challenges to put up such project, starting from the actual bells. We had to find churches that allowed us to use their bell towers.
Preferably, they needed to be somewhat close to each other, so that both can be observed from one location. This part alone was a long journey.
The next challenge was to set up the perfect team to work on the project. Noel D’Amato was on the first line hunting for churches; Matthew Micallef designed the controller desk; William Farrugia was programming and doing communication protocols; Joe Galea designed the pneumatic system; Keith Mangion Livori did the work on the website; and Mirjana Batinic was responsible for branding and illustrations related to the event. During prototyping you encounter thousands of problems and troubleshooting eats all up your time. To cut the story short, we have a working prototype and this week more testing will be done before we start to install the systems in place.
One will be at St Paul’s Anglican Pro-Cathedral, the other at the Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and finally there will be the controller desk in Independence Square.
And challenges on the day?
The biggest of all would be that everything works fine till the last toll.
Bellophone takes place in Independence Square, Valletta, on Saturday as part of Notte Bianca.
http://nottebianca.org.mt
Facebook: Notte Bianca Valletta