Federation Bells

Federation Bells is an installation comprising 39 upturned bells. Located in Birrarung Marr, Melbourne, they were created for celebrations of the centenary of Australia's federation in 2001. They were designed by Anton Hasell and Neil McLachlan in collaboration with Swaney Draper Architects. To achieve the acoustical tuning of the bells, Behzad Keramati Nigjeh, an aerospace engineer also cooperated in this project. The bell's vibration modes were modelled and optimised using a sophisticated Finite Element software developed by Dr Joe Tomas.

Federation Bells.com.au allows the public to compose music for Melbourne's Federation Bells. Using an intuitive drag 'n' drop timeline, use the 39 distinctive bells .

Location

The Federation Bells are located on the middle terrace of Birrarung Marr, Melbourne's newest park. They play 3 times daily between 8am and 5pm.

History

The State Government of Victoria, through the Melbourne festival, commissioned the Federation Bell project in 1998. They were located as a central feature in Birrarung Marr, a new Melbourne parkland located alongside the Yarra River, between Federation Square and Melbourne's sporting precinct. Both the Federation Bells and Birrarung Marr were opened on the 26th of January 2002. Sir Gustav Nossal launched the installation and the Federation Bells played seven Australian pieces commissioned especially for the Federation Bells.

The original composers and the names of their compositions are:

Neil McLachlan - "Opening"

Terry mcDermott - "Rhyme"

Anne Boyd - "St. Donat's Morning Bells"

Brenton Broadstock - "Jagged Tears"

Constantine Koukias - "Prayer Bells within Lamp Lighting"

Anne Norman

Garth Paine

In 2005 the Federation Bells underwent a structural upgrade to ensure the longevity of the poles. In late 2006, the City of Melbourne entered into an agreement with Arts Victoria to manage the Federation Bells for four years. The City of Melbourne plans include expanding the number and range of compositions that are played on the Federation Bells, special events and greater public access.

Federation Bells.com.au

In late 2007 the City of Melbourne launched Federation Bells.com.au, a ground-breaking website that lets you compose music for Melbourne's Federation Bells. Using an intuitive drag 'n' drop timeline, create a virtual multi-track masterpiece using the 39 distinctive bells. Publish your composition and you can hear it played on the Federation Bells installation in Birrarung Marr.

Design

The installation is a set of musical bells like a carillon, but dispersed across a small field rather than hidden in a tower. Our primary impetus is that the bells are also sculptural forms to be seen and approached. Being able to see the different shapes and hear how they sound is fundamental to the aural/visual aesthetic of the project and the underlying concept of integrating the various traditional bell forms. Naturally the bells sound very different when you are standing in the middle of the installation to when you are 100 metres away at the edge of the park.

The installation is a public musical instrument. The bells are struck by computer controlled hammers programmed to play MIDI compositions. On a daily basis (8.00 am and 5.00 pm) sequences composed for the bells by 7 Australian composers play, allowing people to wander amongst the bells for an exhilarating experience or sit nearby and enjoy their clear and gentle musicality. While bells were once amongst the loudest sounds people would normally hear, they are now often drowned out by traffic and amplified music. These bells can usually be heard within about 100 metres in the relatively quiet riverside park. The sequencing of the bells uses standard musical software and the bell sounds can be downloaded from this site, allowing composers from anywhere in the world to write works for the bells and send them as MIDI files over the internet for performance.

References

City of Melbourne, "www.federationbells.com.au", September 2007

City of Melbourne, "Federation Bells Management Agreement", 8 August 2006 (unpublished).

Australian Bell, "Federation Bell Commosions", August 1998

N. McLachlan, B. Keramati Nigjeh and A. Hasell, "The Design of Bells with Harmonic Overtones", accepted for publication in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, April 2002.

N. McLachlan, B. K. Nigjeh, and P. Trivailo, "Application of Modal Analysis to Musical Bell Design", AAS 2002 Conference, Adelaide University, Australia, November 2002.

Georgina Whitehead, "Civilising the City: A History of Melbourne’s Public Gardens". State Library of Victoria, 1997.

External links

* [http://www.federationbells.com.au/ Federation Bells] Compose music for the Federation Bells and find information on the bells and playing times
* [http://www.ausbell.com/Federation%20Bells/FEDBELLS.html Australian Bell Pty Ltd] more information on Federation Bells
* [http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/rsrc/PDFs/Parks/Maps/BirraRungMarr_1.pdf City of Melbourne] Map of Birrarung Marr (pdf, 193 kilobytes)
* [http://www.creativechemists.com/ Creative Chemists] Interactive Designers of Federationbells.com.au