The bells ring out for London

Composer Benjamin Till captures the essence of London through its bells.

A new piece of choral music has been created to celebrate London's great history of bell-making, bell-ringing and singing - and it chimes in with the 150th anniversary of Big Ben.

It's the work of composer Benjamin Till, who has been working with BBC London and members of the public to create a unique sound, using samples from all the bells mentioned in the Oranges and Lemons nursery rhyme.

Collected sounds

The 150th anniversary of Big Ben's first bong falls on July 11 2009, but for several months now, Benjamin Till has been clambering in and out of belfries, taking recordings of all the bells in the City of London churches which get a mention in the famous rhyme.

Working with his collected sounds he composed his music and then set to work to recruit a truly Cockney choir of people who live or work within the sound of the bells.

Some people he found were accomplished singers taking part in one of the several amateur choirs already established in the City, while others were complete novices.

Christina Dunphy is in the novice category. She heard about the project through her local residents' committee in Shoreditch, and partly because she is interested in local history, decided to give it a try.

Since Benjamin has included the historical context of the nursery rhyme in his music, she found herself learning as much about the significance of the bells in the City as she has about singing.

The Bells of Old Bailey, for example, are from St Sepulchre's Church. The night before an execution a bellman from the church would go to Newgate Prison and toll the bell outside the condemned cell.

"It brings it all home into a slightly more eerie sense than you had as a child", says Christina.

Choir members take a break outside St Helen's Church

The final composition explores some of the darker meanings in Oranges and Lemons, but doesn't ignore the fact that London's bells have tolled at the city's most jubilant, joyful moments too.

"uplifting"

There are uplifting musical sections to reflect those great occasions, and another chorister, Jack Dixon, who also sings with Lloyds Choir and the London Philharmonic, calls the work "uplifting".

Like many of the singers, he's found the piece challenging in places but a refreshing change from the usual choral repertoire of Handel's Messiah and Carmina Burana.