Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how a stochastic disruptive event can dramatically alter community soundscapes. Whilst religious bells have symbolism in many worldwide faiths, the sound emanating from church bells can be considered public domain and therefore, is not exclusive to the church. Pandemic-related interruption of these sounds impacts not only the church involved, but both the surrounding soundscape and any members of the community who ascribe value to these sounds. This paper examines the soundscape of Christian churches in the states of New South Wales and Victoria, to give an Australian perspective one year after the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. It provides an update of the situation in Australia, building on our previous work from August of that year. In doing so, it explores the activity of church tower bell ringing, and how this “non-essential” activity has been affected, both during and subsequent to the heavy community restrictions applied in Australia. The paper also explores what lengths bellringers have undertaken to be permitted to conduct such activities, such as the use of adaptive measures due to “social distancing”, and considers what implications this enforced silence has in similar soundscapes elsewhere in the world.
Highlights
This paper examines the soundscape of Christian churches in the states of New South Wales and Victoria, to give an Australian perspective one year after the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020
In 2018–2019, the authors undertook a study examining church bell ringing in the state of New South Wales, Australia, with research questions investigating the extent of church bell ringing still practiced, what factors may determine this differentiation, and what values and significances were attributed to the bell ringing sounds by the practitioners themselves
Over the entire annual period from late March 2020 to April 2021, we found that tower bell ringing in both NSW and Victorian churches was highly correlated with governmental-imposed restrictions which stipulated actions allowable by the community
Summary
In 2018–2019, the authors undertook a study examining church bell ringing in the state of New South Wales, Australia, with research questions investigating the extent of church bell ringing still practiced, what factors may determine this differentiation, and what values and significances were attributed to the bell ringing sounds by the practitioners themselves. In August 2020, the authors investigated the effects of COVID-19 on a sub-set of the initial cohort, with specific interests in how bell ringing sounds had changed over six months in NSW (Parker and Spennemann, 2020a). This time a)This paper is part of a special issue on COVID-19 Pandemic Acoustic Effects. It was originally presented in the session “Pandemic Noise Reduction/Impact” of Acoustics in Focus, the 180th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (Virtual Meeting), June 8–10, 2021
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