PASIC 2019: Matt Nolan Custom booth tour 

Hi Andrea. Tubular bells produce many tones at once. Within these tones there are three with frequency ratios close to 2:3:4. When human ears hear this pattern, within a fairly small range, the brain imagines the "1" frequency at the base of the harmonic series (i.e 1:2:3:4). Approximately between E3 and G5, this psycho-acoustic illusion holds true. So, even though the bell will measure on certain tuners as E4 to G6, the pitch that is perceived by the human ear/brain combination is the octave below. So, the written note pitch is in the correct octave for what is "heard". For the lower pitches, some bells are better than others at maintaining the illusion.

Bell plates operate differently and can be made from C1 upwards. Though the very low plates are much less clear sounding. For Tosca, most orchestras are using tubular bells at least one octave above Puccini's optimistic written pitches. Tubular bells simply do not work at F2, let alone at E1!

@@MattNolanCustom Thank you for your detailed reply, much appreciated! we can say that, thanks this psyco-acustic illusion, tubular bells are not an transposing instrument (i.e. not as piccolo flute). As you said in the past Campanone St. Peter 9 tonnes = E3; Tsar Moskow 200 tonnes = E2 (not E1! since E2 = 81Hertz); so...for E1 we expect 4,400 tonnes (!?!). The big mistery is: if Puccini heard Campanone E3 (with effect as E3), why he wrote E1 ? a mistery. Yes, I guess that on 7th december we will hear E3 during Tosca at La Scala.

@@MattNolanCustom Just to confirm the theory from a man without any suggestion: on 2th november my father was in Vienna and heared the "fast a bit annoying" sound of Pummerin! On wikipedia I read that Pummerin is C3 (a bit augmented 1/4 tone): surely they meansured the sound with a professional tuner! also C3. On my piano I played today a C3 for my father: he said no, I dont recognize this sound! then I played C2 and....yes that is!!! surely he heard the resonance (in this recording upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Pummerin%2C_St._Stephan%2C_Vienna_-_October_26%2C_2013.ogg I feel that the main strike is really C3). then i played C+C+G+C: even more realistic, he stated.

@@MattNolanCustom Addendum to my just posted comment: conclusions: Puccini simply wanted a E2 (to be played) and he simply wrote the sound perceveid due to psico-acustic (as you said) illusion, therefore he wrote E1: E1 to be heard not to be played. ok? ;) At this point - to be philological scholars - you may want to make a bell plate E2 and the problem is resolved for theatres interested in ;) OR: starting from the E3 of Er Cupolone (St. Peter), this sound is perceived as E2 (as you said *1* :2:3:4 ) and Puccini (exactly as the book about orchestration Casella-Mortari 1945-6, page 124) guessed that the bell must be written one octave lower than the desired sound: therefore E1.

Hi Andrea. Are the La Scala bells anything like those in the illustration from Covent Garden 1914 in my blog post here - www.mattnolancustomcymbals.com/blog/?p=106 ?

@@MattNolanCustom Hi, sorry the late answer but I did not receive the notification, strange. Yes they are similar, but without ropes, just the man above the scale like you, and something like iron support instead of the "wood case" in your photo. If you want tomorrow I will record the beginning of the third act (only) and on sunday I send to you the audio file for tone analysis (the real pitch and the quality), ok? [there will be 8 original "additions" to the opera - deleted by Puccini itself, never played in the world after Rome 1900]. hmmmm even if I am against to record (file too big in size) I think that I will record the whole opera due 1) to the bells (I expect a E2), 2) to the 8 "additions" (with original Finale with a loud and tragic "E lucevan le stelle" for big orchestra without singer, 3) to the new deep manuscipt (and Puccinis correspondence) analysis made by Chailly, 4) to the true scenografy based on the model of the real church in Rome and the change of the rooms of the curch: main room vs. chapel. I am unsure about the audio stream: simply stereo seems better than 5.1, anyway I will record both streams and you can chose between them. Interesting your photo of manuscripted Graal-bells' theme! If in the past it was usual (as the book says) to write bells one octave lower than heared, here Wagner wrote one octave higher and wanted to hear one octave lower: that is a "clear" and deliberate choice, therefore much more embarrassing than Puccini. But please pay attention, Wagner said "Dear Mss. Harpist, I only suggested to you my idea via pentagramm; surely I am not an harpist, therefore if that is not possible with the harp you can change a bit...". The same for horns and its notation: Wagner changed a lot after speeching with hornist Lewy (then conductor of Wagner's operas) in Dresda, in addition Lewy refused W.'s idea about horn notation only via the four C-clefs...perhaps W. never talked with a percussionist ;) :) I hope that YT notifications re-appear.

@@shonnyno I look forward to the recording. I hope I can isolate the sound of the bells from the rest of the orchestra

@@MattNolanCustom OK! just now there was again commercials, I saw better: A)) one set of normal tubular bells (gold colour) in the usual chromatic arrangement + B)) one (not usual, never seen) set of 13 larger and higher in size tubes (gold colour) but NOT in the usual chromatic arrangement, only a "line" of 13 tubes (?!?) + C)) the biggest set (the man on top of the scale) with: 1) one "usual" tube (nothing strange here, perhaps its height but it was unpossible via a 16:9 screen to see the bottom end of the tubes! normal diameter!) 2) one bigger 3) the very biggest and darkest in colour, very big diameter as in your photo 1914 (a tube that remembers to me my tube from the roof of the house until the floor for rainwather). The standard set was very near to the biggest set, both just rear the stage; the 13-bell-set was apart, on the side of backstage. See you on Sunday with the audio of the beginning of III act.

Hi Andrea. How did you send the files? I don't think I received anything. Thanks

@@MattNolanCustom Hi, I think I pasted the link in one of my (random) 10 replies bottom, I resend the links here: drive.google.com/open?id=1LJr3mrE3c1u0P3ebgD3NtPjPUoFi7YO3 that is stereo and drive.google.com/open?id=19Iih1tLc3nCB6FdEXHb_-XVA9ER23fw_ that is 5.1, better.

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@@shonnyno something funny happening with youtube comments and notifications. I don't see your older post, and I did not get a notification about your re-posting of the links 1 week ago. Only today have I received a notification about your post from 3 hours ago. I will download the links and see what I can analyse. Thank you!

@@shonnyno It is quite difficult to analyse the recordings with the bells relatively quiet and the orchestra also playing, but I am able to make out that there are B3, Bb3 and E3 tubular bells being played here using a combination of ears and computer. Each bell is accompanied on a synthesiser bass sound 2 octaves below - i.e. B1, Bb1 and E1. The E3 bell does not sound very good. The Bb is the best sounding I think.

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