The bells of Notre Dame do more than ring out. They are always alive, responding to life around them. “It’s a physical fact that these bells are actually vibrating all the time; it’s like a spirit that’s living inside of Notre Dame,” sound artist Bill Fontana told The Art Newspaper.
How does he know? After the 2019 fire, Fontana recorded harmonic pitches that the metal creates when not in motion. Check out this clip from his sonic installation, Silent Echoes: Notre-Dame (2 min):
Fontana recorded and mixed the “still sound” of the 10 bells and adjusted the levels to human hearing. He described the sound of the bells as acting like acoustic mirrors:
“They’re reacting to life around Notre Dame. The slow and prominent hum of the massive bells rings in the foreground, and ambient sounds of the surrounding area flitter in the background — the noise of construction in the cathedral, a musician’s melody from the street below, birds singing in the bell tower.”
That’s a startling discovery. Are we also acoustic mirrors that react to ambient sounds, barely aware of the vibrational impact?
An example. If my husband turns on the nightly news, he keeps the volume low. He’s very considerate of my sensitivity to the sound of reporters. Their cadence (let alone the content) makes my skin crawl, and I don’t want to be the effect or the reflection of that frequency.
Gratefully, we humans have more choice than bells. The words we speak and emotional tenor we carry can uplift our environment, if we’re mindful of our impact.
At the deepest level, our unique vibration identifies us. When we’re conscious of our signature sound, we’re truer to ourselves and to the sounds we express.
That is living as music.
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Comments:
Emma, this is astounding! So incredibly beautiful and soothing. It's like the HUUUUU.... that sings in my heart always. I could listen to this all day and night. Yes, I do believe each of us carries a unique frequency sound inaudible to most human ears. Yet I know the sound that some high Spiritual Beings carry actually IS AUDIBLE to those whom they visit. We are tuning forks! Transformers of Divine Energy.
Tuning forks, indeed, Terry! And I have no doubt that if we tune in, we can hear the audible sound of one another. Thank you for your comment. 💛
Wow. So spot on as always Emma. We are indeed vibration, and or are always vibrating with a certain resonance. Are we in tune with it, and aware of the effect other vibrations in our world have on our own vibration? What a wonderful question to consider - how can we learn to hear our own signature sound - our own truth and essence?
That tuning is a daily, if not moment-to-moment practice, right? I believe silence is the beginning of hearing our signature sound. We can certainly see its effects in the world as a mirror, yet the purity of sound (as you call it, truth and essence) can be known or sensed. Thank you for your comment and question to consider, Tim!