Ilya Drozdikhin Biography

In the new issue of the program - the head of the Moscow school of church bells Ilya Drozdikhin. Ilya will talk about his school, about ringing traditions in our country and even teach a master class on roller art, the program leading Alexander Kruze. Ilya Drozdikhin - Ringera, head of the Moscow school of church bells. Born in the year in Moscow, graduated from the Faculty of Economics of the Russian Orthodox University.

Ringear art became interested in his youth.

From the year he worked as a ringing at the Patriarchal Compound in Orekhovo-Borisov. In the year, on the initiative of Ilya Drozdikhin, a festival of bell ringing “Chi -Medvon” was created, whose artistic director he is to this day. In the year, Ilya became the senior bell of the Moscow Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “Sign”. In the year, Ilya opened the "School of Roaders of Ilya Drozdikhin" and a shopping workshop.

Please tell me when you first got to the bell tower? I really liked the bell ringing, the priest gave me a blessing and said: "Here is the door, here is the ring, rise." I saw a bell near the bell, the bell and realized that I liked it, this is what I want to do all my life. Some time has passed since then, and the priest blessed me to study to become a ringleader.

I got some skills from the master, but this was not enough for me. I was an interested person, assertive, persistent, I always wanted to master some new tricks. And I began to walk in neighboring temples, peep there some wisdom and, accumulating these skills, develop something of my own. On Easter, on a bright week, everyone can rise and try themselves in the role of a ringor. Naturally, if you live next to the temple all your life, participate in the life of the church, go up to the bell tower from youthful years, then you know how to call.

In principle, it never occurred to anyone to record a bell ringing on audio because it could stop. Seventy years, we had bell ringing were banned. Therefore, there was not even the need in the schools of bellices. When did this school be born? Now it seems a huge number. When we started, we thought that one or two set, a maximum of three or five, and those who wanted to end.

But the path does not overgrow us. We teach about a hundred people a year - these are those people who come to us for a two -month program. First of all, these are students from Moscow and the Moscow region, who can attend classes twice a week for two months. But it happens that they come from other regions, even from other countries, and then they open the school of bells in our likeness.

People studied from us from the Far East, and from the Urals, and from the Caucasus. They discovered a school of bellows at the St. Nicholas Temple, acquired a set of bells from us and train ringing from the Scandinavian countries. Is there any qualification: men, women, children? Still, we teach bells rings for temples. It is clear that these are those who will carry their obedience further at the temple.

We have so identified those we accept. The floor does not affect. According to our statistics, even more women come. It seems that this is a male profession. There is physics, the rule of the lever, that is, large and heavy bells are facilitated by cutting, and even a heavy bell can be pressed very easily. Suppose drummers or those who worked with percussion tools. After all, the bell is a shock tool.

Here, first of all, the bell rings fades, causes rhythmic drawings. We studied a huge number of people with musical education, those who graduated from a music school or a Gnesinka in a class of percussion instruments, and it was much easier for them to master everything. But there were those that at first picked a little, it was hard in development, and the priest insisted.

Mostly people come to us on a recommendation. The rectors of the temples send to us those who will already work for them, or to advanced training. It happens that there is no one else to send. There is, for example, a watchman - and there is no one else. The priest is here before the choice: either this person, or there will be no bell ringing at all. And it happens that the abbot asks: "Teach, no matter what, close your eyes, which does not work out, it will turn out with time." And in prayers, in labor and practice after some time it turns out.

We have bell ringing festivals, our graduates gather. We have a certain asset of the release of the graduate who participate in the life of our school, do not stop communication with us. It happens that at first people were poking a little, and after a year or two, five to ten years they already stuff their hand, and skill is being developed. And sometimes the opposite situation is when a person comes with a musical education, it seems to be very good at first, but then he throws it.

He has knowledge, strength, soul, but he does not use his skills. It's a pity; There would be a good bell ringing, but a person does not use his skills anywhere. You say they come from other temples. And if there are no bells in that temple, what to do?The fact is that our bells have never been acquired entirely, immediately a large set. This happens, but from history we know very few cases only when there were some big state orders.

Suppose, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, in which the bells were acquired entirely, immediately under the temple under construction. Usually the bells were acquired gradually, after even centuries. A good example is the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. The largest laurel bell, toned, is modern, cast in a year. That is, the age between the bells is about four hundred years.

Naturally, during this time technology has changed, the profile of the bell has evolved. The geometry of the bell itself has changed, as well as the quality of casting. The masters, and some secrets of skill, and the sound of these bells have changed. Therefore, there is such specifics: we learn rhythmic drawings that can be applied to a larger and smaller number of bells.

Our belfry is seven bells. Our visiting portable belfry, exactly the same as it stands in the training center, is designed for seven bells - this is the middle ground. There can be less than four to five bells in the temple, and more than nine to ten, in especially large monasteries, the number of bells reaches fifteen. But, knowing how to call seven bells, the bell rings can easily call both smaller and larger quantities.

Is there any standard? And many priests allow our students to climb the bell tower after the first lesson and to work out there, because practice is also a necessary business. We train for two months. Someone says that this is a lot, someone is not enough. But we believe, having the accumulated experience that two months is enough to master the main rhythmic drawings, and then use them.

And then the issue of developing arises, practice is needed, as in any business. We know the venerable bells who have called throughout their lives. Unfortunately, these are the deceased ringed. Hegumen Michey, with whom you can’t compare in skill, is the ring of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, who was a ringleader all his life. Vladimir Mashkov is a roller of the Novodevichy Monastery. The Rostov old people who climbed the bell tower and were able to preserve this tradition and handed it over to the boys.

The famous Rostov ringing that scattered throughout the Union in the form of the Rostov Ringing gramus records “Melody”. We are only at the beginning of the journey, of course. Can we try now? Is there an improvisation in this work? Or just certain canons? We have traditions on the basis of which we improvise-the traditions of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Rostov the Great, the Moscow tradition is certain techniques.

And on their basis, the ringor makes his own ringing. Master class on the bell ringing-Ilya, can you introduce us to the history of bell art? Where did this tradition come from? Their appearance is associated with the name of St. Peacock, Bishop of Nolan. This is a wonderful saint who is revered in our Russian Orthodox Church, his memory is February 5. The legend says that he saw the bells in a dream: once, returning from the bypass of his diocese, he lay down in the meadow and saw angels who held in his hands flowers-lulls with a melodic sound.

And in the shape of bell flowers, he made bells. It was in Italy, the province of the campaign, now its capital is Naples. And many gardeners, the Ogorodniki, probably know that the campaign is just the name of the bell flowers.