Bells ring in praise

WELS handbell

festival today

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM--According to Jan Kieselhorst, most of the bellringers ringing bells in the handbell festival today practice at least one hour per week to learn their parts.

Ringers from seven different Lutheran churches--mostly in Minnesota but also one from South Dakota--are going to present a concert at Minnesota Valley Lutheran High School today.

The concert is part of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod's annual handbell festival, which pools bell choirs together from Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas.

The point, as Gwen Tjernagel pointed out, is Christian fellowship.

"The goal is to get everybody together to ring praises to the Lord," said Tjernagel, who directs the handbell choir at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Mankato.

The combined choir has upwards of 100 ringers that are responsible for playing several separate notes by ringing a different bell. Bell choirs are usually associated with church music and much of what the WELS bunch plans to present are familiar Christian hymns adapted for several different bells.

Handbells are thought to have started in England by several different teams of people who rung larger bells in church towers. Legend supposedly has it that their practicing was too much for the local citizens to take, so the teams invented the English handbell so they could practice without bothering their neighbors.

The festival is now in its 25th year and has been in New Ulm before, said Kieselhorst. It travels throughout the WELS synod area and does concerts every other year.

Ideal conditions for handbell ringing are a large room with a tall ceiling and a carpeted floor. The handbells are kept on a table with a cloth over it until their ringers pick them up. Bell ringers usually wear white gloves while ringing and ring the bells by thrusting them forward.

The WELS group is divided into three different parts. There's the mass choir, which includes all the ringers at the festival and there are the exult and laud choirs, who are separated based on their skill level.

Any church in the synod that has a handbells choir can participate in the festival, said Tjernagel.