HANDBELL

small bellusually of brass or bronze but sometimes of copper, clay, porcelain, glass, or other hard materialwith an attached stem, loop, or leather strap for a handle. The earliest handbells were probably of beaten copper, but since the Bronze Age most metal bells have been cast. Throughout ancient Asia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, handbells played an important role in religious rituals; their ringing called to prayer and was thought to exorcise demons and heal the sick. They have also had extensive liturgical and utilitarian functions in the monasteries of Asia and Europe. To signal and to attract attention, handbells have served street vendors, town criers, and night watchmen in the West. In ancient Greece they announced the opening of the fish market, and in Rome, that of the public baths. The common practice of ringing handbells during funeral processions (often to ward off demons) was recorded on the 11th-century Bayeux Tapestry. Medieval European peasants rang handbells in the fields as fertility charms. Secular and religious handbells in the East and West have often been works of art, made of precious metals, with elaborate ornamentation in relief. Among the earliest handbells extant (from c. 655 BC) are 80 of cast bronze from Nineveh (in modern Iraq). About 40 old Irish bells, made of iron plates, hammered square and riveted, are preserved, the most famous being the Clog-an-Eadhacta Phatraic (Bell of St. Patrick's Will) of about AD 552. Sets of handbells tuned diatonically (i.e., to a seven-note scale) first appeared in England in the 17th century for practicing the mathematical permutations of change ringing. By the 18th century, groups of ringers had branched out into tune playing, with the bells' range expanded to several chromatic (12-note) octaves. In 1847 the American showman P.T. Barnum brought to the United States the Lancashire Bell Ringers under the pseudonym Swiss Bell Ringers, a label retained by all subsequent professional handbell groups. Most bands in the United States consist of 8 to 12 players, each of whom may control from 2 to 12 bells spread out on a table.