Sound in the palm of your hand:

For me, a ringeon is a long -story, the times of Andrei Rublev, feuds and tags of the Tatars. The enemy at the gate, the horses hit their hooves, the wind blows the rings of the chain mail - and here a person appears, runs along the stone steps up, the outbuilding bell swings, the arrow falls into his back, he falls from the bell tower, but a loud, alarming nabita is already spreading around the district, preventing the neighbors.

With such a dangerous work, it seemed to me that there were almost no bells left, it simply could not remain in many, especially to our days. But here he is in front of me - Nikolai Zavyalov, the real professional roller of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Strong, ruddy, in a cornflower cobber -cutter, he decorously drinks tea with the petals of Egyptian roses that contribute to longevity.

Almost the hero of the Shmelevsky "summer of the Lord", where frosty salty redders and spring bathing of indoor nightingale - "or even they will not sing" - everything is united and folding, like an Easter, diverse sober with subtiting and teasing other bells.

I listen to him and understand: a sonorous life is happy. The bell rings plays by blessing, according to the canon, but fills the given rhythm with the blows of his heart.

“Trizon is like a necklace from beads,” says Nikolai. - Blows go after equal intervals and filled with the same force. An uneven, more quiet, or, conversely, loud blow becomes convex, falls out of the necklace.

The fact that for us is just a ringing is a whole story for a trained ear, filled with events, conversations, fate.

By ringing, you can determine everything: where who married, where someone was born, where the lord went, and even, if you really listen, how much in the cod market. It was in Arkhangelsk that they came up with such a chant under the ringing: “How much is a cod? - Two kopecks and a half. - No, you're lying, one and a half ...” - and so on.

“To whom did you call?” The old rolleries asked each other. “Tsar, Patriarch? ..“ But in fact, and any ringer knows this, he, besides us, has another very attentive listener who orders this music, breathing in the bells of voice.

About the voices - and Nicholas is not only a bell -up, but also a regent of the church choir - he speaks with even greater tenderness, calling every bell by name. Only the bells with particularly successful voices deserved names: swan, bear, revenge, wide, ram, goat ...

Equipment of the temple with bells - as a choice of sails for swimming the ship: I would not forget the foc, and the grotto, and the bizan, and the middle bell, and the large, and the "trifle". The sails catch the wind, and the rhinar, like an experienced captain, then drives, then holds the “tongue” of the bell.

“Kiev ringing,” says Nikolai, “cheerful, in circles, with flowers on windows; Moscow - restrained, strong; Rostov - Steeper; northern - mournful ...

Charges of passing - snowstorm and drill - always indicated the road to the man's road along the way.

“I tame the storms, humble the winds” - Catholics wrote on the bells.

The bells were cast for several years, reading without a break of prayer.

The skill of the foundry and bellows was transmitted not by books, but from the teacher to the student. The clay from which was sculpted for the bell was remembered to the touch.

Remember in the "Andrei Rublev" Tarkovsky episode with casting a bell in a deep pit? The strength, reliability of the form on which the metal will flush, depends on how it will creak and champion in her hands. When the bell begins to "sit down", it is necessary that clay burst on time, no earlier, no later. It is important to give the bell calmly cool in order to subside, as Nikolai explained, inner tension - this softens the voice.

At all times, the names of foundry and bells were written on the bells. Among many others, the name of Nikolai is on the bell of the Temple of Ilya ordinary. While he is alive, the bell will call for health, and after death - for the rest.

“After the blow, the ringing lives for another ten minutes,” says Nikolai, “and, if you put your palm under the bell, you can feel it.”