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return to home Hawkeye Valley Bell Project Dubuque Telegraph-Herald article 9-16-04
Des Moines Register, Kyle Munson's front-page story about the Bell Projects, Dec. 21, 2004
"Here's the Church, Here's the Steeple," written by Dr. Norma Everist pat@patrickhazell.com
Iowa City Press Citizen June 21, 2005 by Jean Eckstein
PATRICK HAZELL'S BELL PROJECTS
for release
PATRICK HAZELL'S BELL PROJECTS
Since he was
a young child, Patrick Hazell has always loved the sound of large
church bells ringing in the distance. There is a romantic aspect
to them that created images of foreign countries and enchanted
landscapes in his young imagination. As a teen, one of his favorite
piano recordings was Maurice Ravel's, The Valley of the Bells.
Later, as a professional musician touring in Europe he found such
valleys containing villages with cathedral bells ringing. Almost
everyday at no particular time the bells would ring for a half
hour or longer. It became one of Hazell's great pleasures while
traveling abroad to sit and meditate to sound of these bell ringing.
When back in his native Burlington,
Iowa, which has a downtown area built into the valley formed by
the old Hawkeye Creek as it flowed into the Mississippi River.
The town was built by Europeans and has a very European look that
is known for its picturesque nineteenth century church steeples
in close proximity on either side of the Hawkeye Creek Valley.
They all have big bells that are rarely sounded. Never had Hazell
heard any of these bells ring for the period of time which he
feels is necessary for creating an ambient meditative musical
experience like those he had in Europe.
In late 2002, Hazell decided he
wanted to hear these Hawkeye Valley bells and started contacting
the necessary people to get permission to organize a bell ringing.
Once achieved it was a matter of picking a date, a time, and then
writing a score that would establish the order in which the bells
would sound during a period of one hour. Last, but not least he
then called friends and associates seeking volunteers to ring
the bells. The bell ringers met at the Blue Shop (a small concert
venue owned by the Hazell family) and coordinated wristwatches
were handed to them along with time sheets to indicate when each
bell should be rung. Then the bell ringers went to their sites
and awaited their watches to read 7PM. The ringing then started
and lasted for one hour. Once everything and everyone was in place,
the first Hawkeye Valley Bell Project commenced at 7PM on Sunday,
February 2, 2003.
The Project utilized nine different
bells in seven churches, the Burlington Art Guild (a former church),
and the fire station in the historic Mississippi River town, Burlington,
Iowa. Friends and relatives rang the various bells according to
a score that featured time sheets for the ringing of each bell---sometimes
one bell would ring, then maybe three or four or five, then at
times, all of them, with the tones spontaneously bouncing off
buildings and throughout the Hawkeye Creek Valley. The bells all
had different pitches, so ringing them in various sequences created
tonal shifts and chord changes-- though no song or particular
melody was intended. It was written to be an ambient sound experience.
The first Project was an overwhelming success. Hazell felt like
a kid who had just let a Genii out of a bottle. The experience
was definitely something larger than life; and, by popular demand,
four subsequent rings were orchestrated in 2003 on May 1, August
1, November 1, and March 20, 2004.
Coincidentally, during the week
prior to the first Hawkeye Valley Bell Project, a cultural exchange
group from the Udmurt Republic in Russia was visiting Burlington.
Sponsored by IREX (International Research and Exchange Board),
included in the group were two of Udmurtia's most famous folk
musicians, Nadia Utkina and Sergey Kungurov. During that week,
Hazell was introduced to them and they became quick friends and
even performed together at a local concert hall, the Blue Shop.
The Udmurtians were very interested in this Bell Project of Hazell's
and proposed that sometime in the future he come to Udmurtia and
stage a bell ringing in Izhevsk, a city of 700,000 people and
the capitol of the Udmurt Republic--approximately 600 miles east
from Moscow.
So, over time Hazell kept in contact, and things did manage to
come together to travel to Izhevsk in November 2003, where he
performed in concert with his Udmurtian friends, presented University
workshops and lectures, and did the preliminary work for presenting
a bell project.
Through the winter of 2003-2004,
Hazell read Russian history, politics, and folk tales; listened
to Russian music of all kinds, while he carefully weighed in all
the factors involved in ringing the bells of Izhevsk as well as
recording and video-taping the experience. On May 31, he left
again for Izhevsk, and the Bell ringing was staged on Friday,
June 11, 2004 from 10-10:45 PM as part of the Russian Independence
Day festivities and the Day of the City of Izhevsk.
The ring was highly successful.
Some observers felt it was symbolic of a new age in Udmurt. Hazell,
along with his associates, Nadia and Sergey, were awarded Thankyou Letters
from Victor Balakin, the Mayor of the City of Izhevsk for
their "innovative interactive cultural project." Hazell's
bell ringing score was framed and hung in the state museum. There
was considerable media coverage of all kinds from radio, magazine,
tabloid, and television, including an interview of Hazell with
scenes taken during the bell ringing that was broadcast from Moscow
on television throughout Russia and the former Soviet empire.
In addition to the Bell Project, Hazell was able to experience
Udmurtian Folk music, listening to it, playing and recording it.
Thus helping satisfy a long-time dream of experiencing music traditions
of other cultures. What a journey! And, it all started with simply
wanting to hear the bells ring in Burlington!
On Sunday, September 19, 2004, Hazell
produced yet another Bell Project, this time in the Mississippi
River city of Dubuque, Iowa which is known for its numerous churches
in the downtown area built on the Mississppi lowlands surrounded
on the west by high bluffs with magnificent Victorian homes--with
out a doubt the most architecturally rich city in Iowa. Five out
of seven of the participating churches had multiple bells---one,
Saint Luke's Methodist, having eleven! A front page article
written by Mary Nevans-Petersen appeared in the September
16, edition of the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald which definitely helped
bring out a very large crowd on a beautiful evening.
Other feature articles have appeared
in Iowa papers, most notably a three page (including the front
page plus five pictures) article in the Des Moines Register December
21, 2004, and a story in the Iowa City Press Citizen June 21,
2005. The September 25, 2005 Hawkeye Valley Bell Project in Burlington,
Iowa, was the subject of an Iowa Public Televison filming and
aired on November 17-18, 2005, as part of IPTV's long-running
Living In Iowa series.
With this experience behind him, Patrick Hazell seeks to present
Bell Projects in whatever town or area expresses an interest.
Please call 319-653-4370 or e-mail pat@patrickhazell.com
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