Ringing Bells in Malta

<p>A musical scholar is challenged to find and explore an area different from<br /> his colleagues. <br /> <br />       During the summer of 1972 Dr. Otto Henry a musicologist in his third<br />year at East Carolina University accepts an invitation on the spur of the moment<br />to accompany some old anthropologist  friends from Tulane University to the <br />amazing little Mediterranean island of Malta. His friends have just completed<br />a definitive study of Maltese folk music.  However he is encouraged to find an <br />area of his own. And to stay out of the library!<br /> <br />      After a few false starts Henry accidently discovers the significance of the <br />ubiquitous church bells that ring from their stone towers all day long and part<br />of the night. Bells that celebrate the time of day the season religious services and occasions; bells that with their individual tones rhythms and colors musically <br />mark off and enhance the times the days and the seasons of Maltese life. <br /> <br />     And then as it turns out their passing.  Henry’s daily field notes capture <br />the wonder and majesty of these huge bronze implements some of which have<br />been melted and re-cast as cannons and then back into bells. <br /> <br />      Then there are those who ring the bells a special lot sometimes a little apart<br />and distant from ordinary folk but people who are always glad to help explain <br />their lives and duties to a strange inglese with a beard.</p>