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Raise the instrument’s bell.
Printed over brass or woodwind parts (bell up, bells up, bells in the air) at the passage to be played with the instrument raised; it is cancelled by bells down or normal. In late-Romantic scores the German Schalltrichter auf and the French pavillon en l’air are the usual forms.
Also spelled: bells up, bells in the air
Raising the bell projects the sound straight at the audience, adding brilliance and a visual flourish; Mahler asked for it at climaxes in horns, clarinets and oboes. It suits loud, short passages, since the posture is tiring and makes reading awkward. Place it where the players have time to raise and lower the instrument.
Bell up is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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