Sunday, February 22, 2009

The Bells (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

"Then, all at once, behold!--for it seems at times, as though the ear also possessed a sight of its own,--behold, rising from each bell tower, something like a column of sound, a cloud of harmony."



[ Link ] to The Bells.

For the opening of the Hunchback of Notre Dame Leah, the director, wanted to have the house lights up. The cast would wander onto the stage as music would be playing on the sound system.

"First, the vibration of each bell mounts straight upwards, pure and, so to speak, isolated from the others, into the splendid morning sky; then, little by little, as they swell they melt together, mingle, are lost in each other, and amalgamate in a magnificent concert."

I used the chant Ubi Caritas as the basis for the bell peel. “Where charity and love are, God is there.” This summarizes the time that Quasimodo and Esmeralda will spend together at the top of Notre Dame.

When the bell peel is done, one of the cast members would have a guitar and they would start playing along with the song.

"It is no longer anything but a mass of sonorous vibrations incessantly sent forth from the numerous belfries; floats, undulates, bounds, whirls over the city, and prolongs far beyond the horizon the deafening circle of its oscillations."

Italics text is a quote from The Hunchback of Notre Dame

No comments: