91Èȱ¬

The music writer Laura Barton presents a seasonal edition of her series of meditations on different aspects of music.

Today it's the turn of bells and the change-ringing that is particularly English in its origins and feels at one, according to the poet John Betjeman and the musician Virgina Astley, with the landscape of this island.

Laura visits All Hallows in Twickenham, Surrey where Stephen Mitchell and his bellringers demonstrate what's possible with a peal of ten bells. She even has a go. And she relates the timbre of the bells to the music of Jonathan Harvey whose Mortuos Plango Vivos Voco is drawn from samples of his son's treble voice and the largest bell at Winchester Cathedral.

Music:
Virginia Astley – From Gardens Where We Feel Secure
Purcell – Rejoice in the Lord always (Brandenburg Consort)
Jonathan Harvey – Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco
John Betjeman – Myfanwy at Oxford
Virginia Astley – From Gardens Where We Feel Secure

(Including a recording of St Paul's Cathedral's muffled bells on the day of the Queen's funeral, courtesy of Joe Harvey-Whyte.)

Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for 91Èȱ¬ Radio 4