Moscow, Russia - "Wonderful, wonderful!" exclaimed Alexander Prakov, punching the air in delight after student Margarita Krupka performed a rhythmically perfect ringing of Russian Orthodox church bells.
Krupka, a 25-year-old psychologist, stood before a head-high wooden frame from which nine bells and a bilo, a piece of flat metal, were hung. She held short ropes connected to the bell tongues and began to pull. First came one lonely bell, and then, as she deftly worked the ropes and a foot pedal, others joined to achieve a peak of controlled percussive sound.
Eyes shut, she gently rocked with the chimes. And as quietly as she had begun, she eased out of the short movement.
"I have a feeling my soul is singing," said Krupka, who lives in a small town near Moscow.
And indeed Krupka's chimes are not just a call to service but a binding link between the church and Heaven, according to Orthodox belief.
For three months, Krupka and a small group of other students, from schoolboys to pensioners, have been studying the theory and practice of bell-ringing. It is an integral and affecting part of Orthodox worship but one often missing from services here because of a chronic shortage of skilled bell-ringers.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, thousands of Orthodox churches have been built or refurbished, but only a small percentage have ringers, according to Viktor Sharikov, head of the Moscow Bell Center, which turns out about 800 graduates a year.
During communist times, he said, "we lost many things, and our task is to revive our traditions."
Students such as Krupka must be Orthodox faithful and regular churchgoers, and they are selected by their local clergy to attend class. The three-month course involves two hours of theory and three hours of practice each week.
The most recent course ended Thursday night with a short concert punctuated by applause and accolades. "It's a pleasure to see what they achieved in three months," Sharikov said.
Each bell-ringer must also have a prayer read over him or her and be blessed by a priest before ringing at church can begin.
For most of the Soviet period, Sharikov said, church bells were silent, except at famous monasteries, such as Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra in the town of Sergiev Posad near Moscow. And even those famous sites went through periods of silence on the orders of Soviet authorities.
In the 1990s, with communism gone, the Russian Orthodox Church began to again teach bell-ringing, reaching back to czarist times to re-create its curriculum. Today all of the instructors are seasoned bell-ringers from some of Russia's holiest places. Prakov, for instance, a novice priest, is an assistant bell-ringer in Sergiev Posad.
Unlike Western bells, whose chimes follow musical notes, Orthodox bell-ringing is purely rhythmic. Each bell-ringer can, within limits, also improvise and develop a signature style.
Dmitri Kuznetsov, a 27-year-old computer specialist from Moscow, said bell-ringing was a natural leap from his avocation as a drummer. "On one hand I'm a believer, and on the other hand I'm a drummer, and for me these two things are connected in bell-ringing, he said. "I've always loved the sound of the bells, and I decided to try."
Western bells swing as they ring; Orthodox bells remain stationary and their tongues, connected by short ropes to the hands of the ringer, do all the work. Unlike in the West, where a bell-ringer often stands at the bottom of a long rope that reaches into a belfry, a Russian bell-ringer usually stands right in front of the bells.
"For us the most important thing is the sense of rhythm," Sharikov said. "If your ear is tuned, great, but it is not the most important thing. Our bell-ringer is not ringing music. He is ringing a rhythm, and sometimes it's very difficult to catch any melody in it. This is our tradition.
"For Catholics, for instance, how well the bell corresponds with a note is very important," he continued. "But what is most valuable for us is how rich the timbre is and how long the sound lasts."
Students at the Moscow school are also taught how to use bilos, flat pieces of metal or wood that are struck with a hammer. These instruments can be played alone or in conjunction with the bells, and are the most ancient form of percussion in the Orthodox Church.
Bells were introduced to Russia in the 15th century, but bilos were used for 500 years before that, according to Sharikov.
"I first heard bells when I visited the Kremlin, and I thought I would love to be able to do that," said Timofey Kukuladze, a 15-year-old who lives in the Moscow suburbs. "My church had bells but no one to ring them, so they sent me here. It's a great honor."