The Score | Bring on the Berlioz

In December, the Delaware Symphony Orchestra received an unusual gift: seven pitched church bells, donated by the friars at the Franciscan Center in Wilmington. The bells—part of a set known as The Bells of Remembrance that have been featured at 9/11 commemorative events—are being renamed the William Kerrigan Symphony Bells of Remembrance, after the orchestra’s principal percussionist, who “really got the relationship going between the Symphony and the Bells of Remembrance,” says Brother David Schlatter. Each bell has a pitch that corresponds to requirements in certain musical works of the symphonic canon. The two largest bells—a 1,200-pound, 42-inch-diameter bell pitched at G, and a 550-pound, 30-1/2-inch-diameter bell pitched at C—are nicknamed the Berlioz bells, since they are used in the composer’s Symphonie fantastique. This winter, while the DSO looked for a permanent space for the bells, they were stored in the garage of David Amado’s home in Wilmington. The bells will be featured during indoor DSO performances and at outdoor concerts such as the City of Wilmington’s July Fourth concert.