Cloches

As Printed on a Score

French for bells: in an orchestral part, tubular bells or actual church bells, written in treble clef at the pitches wanted. The word is printed in full; do not confuse it with clochettes (small bells) or jeu de timbres (glockenspiel). Each stroke is a written note, and laissez vibrer or a tie to nothing lets it ring.

How Composers Use It

Bells carry ceremony, alarm or the church: Berlioz has them toll in the witches’ sabbath that ends the Symphonie fantastique, and Tchaikovsky rings them in the 1812 Overture. Tubular bells have a strong, slightly ambiguous pitch and a long ring, so write sparing, widely spaced strokes and let each one decay; rapid figures blur, and the deepest church-bell pitches need substitutes.

Example

Tchaikovsky, 1812 Overture, Op. 49: the bell part is labelled “Cloches” — a French label among the score’s Italian ones such as “Gran Cassa”, “Piatti” and “Triangolo”.

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