Tag: Music

Time and Tide Bells

Since 2008 artist and bell-maker Marcus Vergette has been developing the multi-site installation series Time and Tide Bells in various coastal spots across the UK. The installations consist of two bells, one upside down on top of the other, set up in tidal zones so that the waves ring the lower bell during high tide. The work references the many legends of sunken cities of which the church bells can allegedly be heard ringing on the coast on certain sundays. (see also the post here)

In 2010 the project installed also a bell in London. Meanwhile there are seven other “Time and Tide Bells”installed across the island. You can check for the locations here.

The first Bell on the coast of Devon, South England.

All images are from the project’s website.

The Bells of Aberdovey

A common theme in Northern European flood myths are the church bells of submerged cities. This motive can be found all along the ccoasts of Brittany, Wales, England, Germany and Poland. The popular folk song “Bells of Aberdovey” relates to the legend of the sunken kingdom Gwydneu (more commonly known as Cantr’er Gwaelod) off the coast of Wales. The song is most likely not an original folksong at all but a composition from 1785 for an English Opera with lyrics in English not Welsh. The today popular Welsh version was first printed in 1905.

About the motif of submerged bells see also the art installation by Marcus Vergette in this post.

Atlantis by Donovan

Edouard Lalo: Le Roi D’Ys

“Le roi d’Ys” is an opera by French composer Édouard Lalo (1823 – 1892), to a libretto by Édouard Blau, based on the old Breton legend of the drowned city of Ys (assumed geographical location).

Benjamin Britten’s Opera about the flood of 1953

“Noye’s Fludde” is an opera by british composer Britten from 1958 based on the Noah myth. It premiered in England just 5 years after the great North Sea Flood of 1953.

UK; 20. Century; Christian; Music, Opera; Noah

Claude Debussy: La Cathédrale Engloutie

Prelude for solo piano written by the French composer Claude Debussy, published in 1910. To quote wikipedia:
“This piece is based on an ancient Breton myth in which a cathedral, submerged underwater off the coast of the Island of Ys, rises up from the sea on clear mornings when the water is transparent. Sounds can be heard of priests chanting, bells chiming, and the organ playing, from across the sea. Accordingly, Debussy uses certain harmonies to allude to the plot of the legend, in the style of musical symbolism.”

The assumed location of Ys can be found in my map.

Ar Roue Gralon ha kear Is

A bretonic folksong about the sinking of the City Ys on the Atlantic Coast of Brittany.
Original Lyrics
French Translation