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Emmanuel Bell

以下資料摘自Catherdale notre-dome de Parish之網站

The South tower is home to Notre-Dame’s largest bell, known as the Emmanuel Bell. It is sounded for major holidays like Christmas, Easter, Whitsunday, or All Saint’s Day, or for important events, for example, the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of his successor Benedict XVI. The Emmanuel Bell was cast over three hundred years ago and was named by its godfather Louis XIV. It weighs 13 tons, and its tongue, the inner part of the bell that strikes its walls to make sounds, weighs 500 kilos.

The North Tower is home to four bells rung daily to indicate the cathedral’s services and the time. They each weigh between 2,000 and 3,000 kilograms. These bells give rhythm to believers’ daily lives, calling them to prayer and indicating a solemn call to services. They were once used to inform people of the time. Today, everyone has a watch, but the bells still continue to ring the hour, showing that the cathedral is a Living place.

The bells, which are amongst the oldest sound instruments,have always been associated with Christianity from the first centuries when its influence began to spread, "proclaiming God to the horizon" (Charles Péguy). While marking out the passage of time since the Middle Ages, their primary function is liturgical: With their ringing and chiming they call the faithful to come together and pray, combining their song with the joy and suffering of the Christian community, and, just as importantly at Notre-Dame de Paris, with the key moments in the history of France.

Since the end of the 12th century, although the construction of the cathedral was then far from complete, references have been made to the ringing of the bells prior to services. This chiming was enhanced over the centuries as the life of the building and its influence developed. With eight bells in the North Tower, two great bells in the South Tower and seven bells in the spire accompanied by three for the chiming of the clock, this grouping and arrangement has formed a real sound landscape in the Paris sky since the end of the 18th century.

The Revolution and its excesses did not spare Notre-Dame’s bells and the great bell Marie, which were taken down, broken and melted in 1791 and 1792. The great bell Emmanuel, the masterpiece of the group, was fortunately spared and still remains one of the most beautiful "sound vessels" in Europe, if not the most remarkable, as bell ringers, musicians and musicologists agree.

It is this same Emmanuel bell which, since 1685, at the top of the South Tower, has constantly rung out for the high points in the life of the cathedral and the main liturgical festivals, such as Christmas, Easter and the Assumption, or for major events such as the Pope’s visit. At the same time, this bell is also intimately associated with the French Nation, whose most important events it has accompanied ever since it was first cast: the Te Deum for the coronation of kings, to mark the ends of conflicts (including the two World Wars in 1918 and 1945), the funerals of French heads of state and the various dramas besetting Humanity, when prayer unites believers and men of good intentions at Notre-Dame, such as on the day after September 11, 2001…

Four bells, placed in 1856 at the top of the North Tower to replace the bells that were destroyed chime on a daily basis for services, the Angelus and the chiming of the hours. Finally, the last, unfortunately mute, element of the current sound landscape is a carillon dating from 1867, consisting of two chimes linked to the monumental clock, one placed in the spire (three bells) and the other in the actual structure of the cathedral so that it can be heard inside (three bells); a project to restore this carillon is currently being studied.

以下資料摘自維基百科

The cathedral has 10 bells. The largest, Emmanuel, original to 1681, is located in the south tower and weighs just over 13 tons and is tolled to mark the hours of the day and for various occasions and services. This bell is always rung first, at least 5 seconds before the rest. Until recently, there were four additional 19th-century bells on wheels in the north tower, which were swing chimed. These bells were meant to replace nine which were removed from the cathedral during the Revolution and were rung for various services and festivals. The bells were once rung by hand before electric motors allowed them to be rung without manual labor. When it was discovered that the size of the bells could cause the entire building to vibrate, threatening its structural integrity, they were taken out of use. The bells also had external hammers for tune playing from a small clavier.

On the night of 24 August 1944 as the Île de la Cité was taken by an advance column of French and Allied armoured troops and elements of the Resistance, it was the tolling of the Emmanuel that announced to the city that its liberation was under way.

In early 2012, as part of a €2 million project, the four old bells in the north tower were deemed unsatisfactory and removed. The plan originally was to melt them down and recast new bells from the material. However, a legal challenge resulted in the bells being saved in extremis at the foundry. As of early 2013, they are still merely set aside until their fate is decided. A set of 8 new bells was cast by the same foundry, Cornille-Havard, in Normandy that had cast the four in 1856. At the same time, a much larger bell called Marie was cast in the Netherlands—it now hangs with Emmanuel in the south tower. The 9 new bells, which were delivered to the cathedral at the same time (31 January 2013), are designed to replicate the quality and tone of the cathedral's original bells.