Колокольный звон в Рождественно. My peal at Christmas cathedral (Rozhdestvenno village).

Мой звон в церкви Рождества Христова (село Рождественно истринского района московской области) The bells in Russian tradition are rung exclusively by tolling and never by pealing. For tolling bells a special complicated system of ropes is developed and used individually for every belltower. All the ropes are gathered in approximately one point, where the bell-ringer stands. Some ropes (the smaller ones) are played by hands, the bigger ropes are played by legs. The major part of the ropes (usually - all ropes) are not actually pulled, but rather pressed. Since one end of every rope is fixed, and the ropes are kept in tension, a press or even a punch on a rope makes a clapper move. It's also important that no melody be rung, but rather a complicated polyrhythmical sequence of sounds. These sequences have a very special harmony, since Russian bells (unlike Western European ones) are not tuned into single note. Western bells usually have an octave between the loudest upper tone (ring) and the loudest lower tone (hum). Russian bells have a seventh between these sounds. Generally, a good Russian bell is tuned to produce a whole scale of sounds (up to several tens of them).