St. James the Apostle Parish
Betis Church, Guagua, Pampanga
The only modern volteo de campana in the Philippines.
Volteo is the traditional Spanish way of bell ringing, wherein a bell is rotated full circle (360 degrees). More commonly known in the Philippines as “Eskila”, volteo ringing is achieved through the use of a wooden yoke, which acts as a counterwight for the bell when it is rotated.
Sagrado Corazon de Maria
There are currently five bells installed in the bell tower of Betis. During our assessment, we learned that the bells have steel* clappers and until recently, four of these bells were still being rung the traditional volteo way. Because of this one of the bells, Sagrado Corazon de Maria, developed a crack and had to be retired.
In February 2022, a new bell was commissioned by the parish as replacement for the broken bell.
*Steel is not a recommended material for bell clappers due to it being a harder material than bell bronze. Most modern bell systems make use of Manganese-bronze clappers.
Since the bell tower already had an existing provision for the bell, there were certain considerations that had to be taken into account.
First and foremost was that the new bell needed to fit the existing infrastructure of the bell tower. This meant that the new bell’s measurements had to be patterned on the existing bell’s, with only a few centimeters of deviation allowed.
The existing bell’s sound was also an important factor. Most bells cast during the late 1800s were untuned and did not have a consistent range of notes like modern bells. A recording of the bell’s sound was sent to the foundry for analysis and used by the campanologist during the design process of the new bell.
Making use of modern technology to preserve tradition
One of the most distinct features of a bell is its sound.
Because of the measurement constraints presented by the existing tower’s provisions, computer analysis was done on the sound recording in order to produce a G#1/Ab1 tuned bell with the dimensions of the old bell.
Since the dimensions of the new bell were customized based on the existing bell, the size of clapper also needed to be customized.
To produce the rings where the wooden yoke will attach, a 3D printer was used.