Bell: 1.f. Metallic instrument, generally in the shape of an inverted cup, which sounds when struck by a clapper or by an external hammer.
Here is what the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) says in its first meaning when looking for the term “bell”. As often happens, from theory to practice, from instrument to use, however, there is a long, very long stretch, rich in nuances and meanings, which in this case has meant recognize with all its letters —and sounds— UNESCO itself.
Its Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee has just declared the manual ringing of Spanish bells a treasure important enough to value it and, what is even more interesting, to safeguard it to avoid, as far as possible, ending up being lost.
Of course, the focus of the UNESCO experts is not centered on the instrument, but on its management as a mediathe benefit that we have taken from it over generations to communicate long before we walked with smartphones in your pockets or a couple of clicks into Google to keep up to date with what has happened in the town, the next city, the country or the other end of the globe. Of course, without words. All with a clapper.
A “media of mass communication”
“Bell tolls were surely the most important means of mass communication in traditional society. They reported important events for the group, issuing messages with spatial, temporal and social representation connotations —Françesc Llop i Bayo explained more than four decades ago—. They were not just reporting: they were simultaneously reinforcing a way of seeing the world, organizing time and space, and structuring society.”
Llop i Bayo, anthropologist and bell ringer, also recalls that although there were certain cultural traditions “of more or less regional scope”, much of its transfer to practice, such as messages or techniques, used to stick to “forms little more than regional”.
To understand the importance they had in their day, it is also good to remember two keys, beyond technological advances: first, that the bell towers used to mark the skyline of the villas as the highest point; and, second, and just as important, that when playing in small towns and without a high volume of traffic, its sound reached almost all corners.
🔴 BREAKING
New registration on the #IntangibleHeritage List: Manual bell ringing.
👏Congratulations #Spain 🇪🇸!
ℹ️ https://t.co/n5nd2IfvLJ #LivingHeritage pic.twitter.com/5lK5k5oEow
— UNESCO 🏛️ #Education #Sciences #Culture 🇺🇳 (@UNESCO) November 30, 2022
At the gates of 2023, with many motorized or even disassembled bells and the figure of bell ringers in decline, UNESCO has wanted move tab to include that language, the manual ringing of Spanish bells, in the Intangible Cultural Representative List of Humanity.
To this day, more than thirty different modes of manual touch survive in Spain, “a sound language that has been maintained over the centuries as a means of community communication.” “With a wide repertoire of forms and techniques, both in the religious and civil spheres, the bell tolls have regulated many aspects of festive, ritual, work and daily life throughout the Spanish territory”, notes the department of iceta.
“There is a great variety of sounds determined by the techniques – toll, turn or half turn – combined with the skill of the bell ringers and the physical characteristics and acoustic properties of the bells, towers and steeples. The elements converge to create a deep and rich repertoire. rich”, agrees UNESCO, which emphasizes its use also outside the religious sphere: “The touch has served as a means of expression and communication in Spain, fulfilling a series of social functions, from the exchange of information, to coordination, protection and cohesion”.
For practical purposes, Culture emphasizes that the step that the UNESCO committee has just taken will make it possible to defend the language, putting it in value, and “ensure the continuity” of the tradition. “It contributes to protecting communication systems, almost always unique, on the verge of extinction due to the lack of bell ringers, a fundamental figure in safeguarding this ancestral practice,” he underlines.
The decision has been applauded by the experts themselves, who receive it as “a before and after”. This has been defended in an interview on Channel 24 hours by Antonio Berenguer, from the Valencian association Campaners d’Albaida, one of the promoters of the candidacy. The decision has been made in Rabat, where some representatives of the sector have traveled to speak before the committee.
The ringing of the bell is not the only signing of the intangible heritage endorsed by UNESCO. Its experts have decided to value another of the probably least valued treasures of European culture, in this gastronomic case: the French bread baguette. The objective, “honor the know-how” of the artisans and “celebrate an entire culture” created around his figure.
Cover image: Ministry of Culture