For many years, Dick Litterst was the Organist/Director at the Second Congregational Church in Rockford, Illinois.  His handbell group, the Martin Ringers, continues his excellent tradition today under the direction of Joseph Caulkins.  Joseph sent photos of the choir and racks.

Dick Litterst writes:  My first rack held five bells: C3 - E3. When we learned that Whitechapel could make a B2, we ordered one. (They never advertised that bell; after ours I believe several others were ordered!) We then extended the rack to six bells.

Our first racks were of wood—not refined pieces of furniture! I had begun to dream of plastic music desks to replace our serviceable but not very beautiful custom-made wooden ones. Since I have always produced our music and printed it, I have been innovative. Our music was/is printed on one side of the page only. If there are, say five pages, pages 1 and 5 are placed side-by-side with 4, 3, & 2 on top of 5; page "turns" are accomplished by moving 2 over on top of 1 at each ringers' convenience—thus avoiding a forced page turn.
 
 
 

Anyhow, the plastic music desk I developed has a clear 1/2" lucite base of three pieces: two ends and a bar that spaces and connects them. Into this the actual music desk (gold color, 1/4" plastic) sits.

The beauty of these stands led me to begin to dream of a lucite hanging rack. I was advised against it for reasons that it would be very heavy (it is!) and that all plastic is scratchable. Nevertheless, I pushed ahead with 1" clear lucite floor-standing endswith supporting cross pieces of 1/2" lucite.

As we got into the use of a long set, the additional duplicates began to take much room on the bass table; hanging the largest bells helped solve the table space problem as well as the problem of who could manage the big bells by hand.

I think that there is nothing more exciting than to see skilled bass players ring by hand. But, with our racks, we could manage a far more rapid and clean technique when desired than any bass players ringing by hand—and any, and all, or our ringers could do it. So we traded one advantage for another.

Our final two racks hold 14 bells in two rows each:

Rack 1, front (upper) row: G2, G#2, A2
Rack 1, back (lower) row: C#3, D3, D#3, E3

Rack 2, front (upper) row: A#2, B2, C3
Rack 2, back (lower) row: F3, F#3, G3, G#3

Placing these racks end-to-end, you had nearly 12' with two rows of bells in the order:
Front (upper) row: G2 - C3
Back (lower) row: C#3 - G#3
                     BASS BELL RACK BASE
 

BASS BELL RACK CLOSEUP

The next octave: A3 - G#4 was completely duplicated, layed out on the table in a planned pattern. (G#3 was also duplicated from the rack and appeared on the table.) Four players were able to manage the bass range of G2 - G#3 with considerable virtuosity.

Jack, I would NEVER train my players to ring undamped! I was, along with Marybelle Nissly, the original director in the Ipswich days to begin experimenting WITH DAMPING! All bell choirs at that time (in the USA) never damped. (As I have said before, we simply did not have contact with the advanced ringing in England. We hadn't heard wide range bell sets; we didn't have a ringer ring more that two bells if we could help it! Therefore, not HAVING TO PUT A BELL DOWN—THUS DAMPING IT!—IN ORDER TO PICK UP ANOTHER, we simply thought that that sound was normal to handbells. In fact, some fallaciously theorized that it was "contrary" to bell sound to damp
it—carillons have no dampers, etc.—and might even damage the bell. Today, with martellato, how far we have come!!!)

One of my ringers might ring a hanging bell, turn and continue ringing from the table, BUT, he, or a neighbor ringer, would reach back and damp that bell at the appropriate musical time. We always strove for a "clean" sound and no one produced a cleaner one.

The clapper springs were intact, and we made no "customized" tension adjustments.

The disadvantages to using a bass rack(s) are several:

1 - It adds to the equipment that must be set up and taken down.

2 - Hanging bells are in a fixed position; unless a ringer(s) is assigned ONLY to the rack, you may have a situation that a bell on the rack needing to be rung is not near any of the bass ringers who are free of other ringing duties on the table to manage it.

3 - Racks tend to be noisy. The "thud" of a heavy clapper striking the bell tends to be picked up by the rack and transmitted to the floor—an undesirable result. We never completely solved this one, though I am convinced that creative acoustic design could manage it. Carillon bells are mounted to a
framework, but I am unaware of this kind of acoustic problem existing.

Our racks simply held the bells by the ringing handles. Alternatively, the handle could be removed and the bell bolted to the support in some manner. This is the way carillon bells are mounted. Even Whitechapel would, on special order, supply bass bells without the tang and with a hole in the
crown.

So, there you have it: our experience with bass bell racks.

Martin Ringers
Second Congregational Church
Rockford, Illinois

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Revised: March 30, 2001.

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