KONSTANTIN SARADZEV BELLS

The organ has one characteristic register - so characteristic that in most people
it is its timbre that is associated with the very word "organ". This register
executes, for example, Toccata and Fugue in D minor Bach. It is "arranged" easily:
when an organist presses a key, not one pipe sounds, but several tuned in octaves.
One and the same note in three or four octaves in a row, - the tubes sound
together, are perceived as a single sound of a characteristic tart, "vertical"
timbre. At some desire, in a separately sounding note, however, one can "listen",
isolate by hearing, its individual tones.

In fact, something similar happens every time we call to life a musical sound -
regardless of whether the button is pressed, the horn is trumpeted, whether the
string is pulled. Any sound, a single note of any instrument, "consists" of many
tones. In addition to the main, which, in fact, gives the name of the note, there
are also auxiliary tones, additional, additional, they are overtones, harmonics or
"multiple frequencies". I do not want to describe here where they come from - it's
a long conversation, besides, in the relevant literature all this has been done for
a long time, well and many times explained. It is interesting that they are, it is
interesting that there are a lot of them, and that you can train them to "listen".
Without training, a person usually can catch in the general sound two or three
first overtones. A professional musician is five or six.

There are people whose whole life passes in the space of the vocations, their
mutual flow, interaction, unification. Bell masters. The bell is the most rich
instrument in the sense of timbre, the auxiliary tones in its sound, in fact, can
no longer even be called overtones. And they are not so (as depends on the bell
itself), and their loudness can be very significant, such that they can even
compete with the basic sound for clarity of discrimination. This is due to the fact
that each part of the bell body has its own voice, the blow gives rise to more than
one note, and the most complicated harmony of many and many notes. It is possible
not to be able to hear individual components in the bell ring, but still the
"composition" of the sound will greatly influence the impression. Depending on the
alloy, size, shape, the bell can be bright or deaf, tender or hard, assertive,
deep, caustic, dark, light ... Variety is very large. A bellmaker should be able to
figure out why it is so, which is too much, what is missing. Understand, think, try
to correct ...

But the story will now go not about the bell master, but about the performer and
composer, the unique, fanatic and theorist of bell art Konstantin Konstantinovich
Saradzhev. He lived in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century and entered
the list of many forgotten, strange, ingenious madmen (apparently, just like that -
without a particle "or." Genius, crazy at the same time ...)

Such people were for some reason always born here , we have. All of them dreamed
about something insanely, innovated, invented something strange, unimaginable,
amazed everyone, - and then disappeared into nowhere, leaving a mark only in the
special literature. Is it their fault, is society to blame for what "did not
appreciate," or, perhaps, in this natural development of events ... It is difficult
to say. In this there is a subject for reflection.

Konstantin Saradzhev felt for the bells not even love, but some extraordinary
affinity that needed to be thought only of bells, heard only the bells and lived
only by them. He was, it seems, quite "not of this world," everything that did not
bells, he was not interested. Even in his childhood, from the sound of distant
blagovest, he could lose consciousness during a walk. He attributed, in addition,
all the familiar certain keys, sounds, and had a strange habit of not caring about
remembering names, referring directly to these keys. Is it strange? And called some
tonality of some non-existent, - for example, "up to thirteen sharp major". What is
it? Would you be able to respond to this?

It's all a joke - are there not many strange people in the world. But his
"strangeness" seems to have been determined by the state of literal "devotion" to
music, - his consciousness was like a huge absolute musical ear, there was simply
no other place. He heard the musical harmonies in every subject, in every thing, he
even tried to make correspondence lists. He denoted people with tonalities, as
already said, without even thinking about it, even from photos, children's, adults,
masquerade - no matter, - the same person is always the same sound. He heard the
colors and saw the music - not exactly as Scriabin, by the way, but in general it
is quite similar.

In addition to synesthetic (mixing of sensations of different modalities), his

hearing was distinguished by phenomenal acuity. Within the octave, as he himself
repeatedly pointed out, he distinguished 1701 notes. And "distinguished" in this
case means not "compared and said which is higher" - and usually this is understood
by the acuity of hearing - namely, "learned". That is, at the presentation of the
sound, I could say something like: "Note number 546". We can say boldly: this does
not happen. Scientists, judging by the sources of that time, grabbed the head. The
accuracy of the instruments did not always suffice to keep track of the subtlety of
his perception.

And such a man went mad on bells. He knew the bell of all the bell-towers of
Moscow. He made a list of all the bells in Moscow and the Moscow region, writing
out for each of them on the music lines the tones that make up his sound. Dozens
and dozens of components! This also does not happen, it can not be. And he heard.
Heard, saw, - all together ...

But most importantly, - he himself played, regularly called on the bell towers of
Moscow. He himself invented, developed a system of ropes and chains for control;
composed music, and himself performed in front of the few standing below, under the
bell tower. And everything fought, fought - with unchanged failure - for the
"separation of the bell from the church" and the organization of the concert bell
tower.

Here you, finally, and the tragedy. If it were not for these living bells, nothing
would have left of it. The unrevealed phenomenon, the unique for the Kunstkammer, a
short note for the heading "Your Opportunities, Man" - this can not be helped, it
would be of no interest to anyone. And so - many are interested, but "do" still can
not do anything. The manuscript of the "List of the Individualities of the
Voices ..." is still a manuscript, because it is not for anyone to publish this
work. These sounds no one hears, or rather hear, but do not distinguish ... The
concept of writing "new, real" bell music remains, but this concept can not be used
either, because its main idea is the interaction of the individualities of
individual bells. Each bell has its own, not like a sound field, these fields can
complement each other to new sounds, contradict, communicate, flirt, interrupt,
build something ... Sarajev's listeners, of course, were not able to understand
what "really" is happening in this music, but judging by the reviews, one could not
doubt that something very fantastic was happening. They say (or rather write) that
the bells of Saradzhev from the bell tower were not similar to anything else and
produced a completely exceptional impression on people. Hundreds of listeners
gathered downstairs every time, - a crowd in front of the church, - half of the
Moscow Conservatory attended these concerts. In order to understand the genius of
music, there was no need for a phenomenal rumor. But the records, again, did not
survive - and it would not "take" this record ... build something ... Saradzhev's
listeners, of course, were not able to understand what "really" is happening in
this music, but judging by the reviews, one could not doubt that something very
fantastic was happening. They say (or rather write) that the bells of Saradzhev
from the bell tower were not similar to anything else and produced a completely
exceptional impression on people. Hundreds of listeners gathered downstairs every
time, - a crowd in front of the church, - half of the Moscow Conservatory attended
these concerts. In order to understand the genius of music, there was no need for a
phenomenal rumor. But the records, again, did not survive - and it would not "take"
this record ... build something ... Saradzhev's listeners, of course, were not able
to understand what "really" is happening in this music, but judging by the reviews,
one could not doubt that something very fantastic was happening. They say (or
rather write) that the bells of Saradzhev from the bell tower were not similar to
anything else and produced a completely exceptional impression on people. Hundreds
of listeners gathered downstairs every time, - a crowd in front of the church, -
half of the Moscow Conservatory attended these concerts. In order to understand the
genius of music, there was no need for a phenomenal rumor. But the records, again,
did not survive - and it would not "take" this record ... that something very
fantastic is happening. They say (or rather write) that the bells of Saradzhev from
the bell tower were not similar to anything else and produced a completely
exceptional impression on people. Hundreds of listeners gathered downstairs every
time, - a crowd in front of the church, - half of the Moscow Conservatory attended
these concerts. In order to understand the genius of music, there was no need for a
phenomenal rumor. But the records, again, did not survive - and it would not "take"
this record ... that something very fantastic is happening. They say (or rather
write) that the bells of Saradzhev from the bell tower were not similar to anything
else and produced a completely exceptional impression on people. Hundreds of
listeners gathered downstairs every time, - a crowd in front of the church, - half
of the Moscow Conservatory attended these concerts. In order to understand the
genius of music, there was no need for a phenomenal rumor. But the records, again,
did not survive - and it would not "take" this record ... to understand the genius
of music, did not need a phenomenal rumor. But the records, again, did not survive
- and it would not "take" this record ... to understand the genius of music, did
not need a phenomenal rumor. But the records, again, did not survive - and it would
not "take" this record ...

Remained, however, the notes of his ringing, they themselves recorded, - but notes
are also almost impossible. Firstly, his music is good only if you perform it on
the set of bells for which it is written - this is the essence, meaning, the main
feature of it. And there are no sets of these for a long time ... Secondly, even if
we managed to find a miraculously preserved set, we would have to remember that
when the force of impact on the bell changes, not only does the volume change, but
also the "composition" of the sound. And since all the music of Saradjev is built
on these "compositions", the nuances of loudness must be highly verified. And in
order to fulfill it, therefore, you need or the same rumor, or at least some genius
"flair". The feeling, apparently, is found on the Earth, - for someone, some
unknown bell-ringer, picked up the bells for the bell tower, which Saradzhev so
admired in his time! Someone cast these bells! .. But such people are very, very
rare, so the only thing that remains for us is to wait for the second Saradzhev. To
wait and believe that he will decipher for us those mysterious runes with which the
notes of Konstantin Konstantinovich became instantly after his death.

This is such a sad story. Sarajev himself believed in the future of his music. He
hoped, mainly, that someday all people of the Earth will have an absolute hearing,
and maybe even such as he has. And then the triumph of his "music-bell" will come,
as he called it ...

And until then - it remains only to wait for a new single prophet. And still you
can listen to the poems of Scriabin - almost no single composer, in which
Saradzhev, as you might guess, was not a big fan of "tempered music" - found his
favorite, unique, eternal, unique, beautiful "bell" ...