The hammers are attached to arms 22 inches (56 cm) long, which are screwed to a strong wooden span bridge placed horizontally above the strings at about two-fifths of the length from the front.
[3] Difficulties arise whenever a composer writes a piece for orchestra in which he calls for reproducing the effect of church bells.
The most serious difficulty of all arose in Parsifal, where the bells are called for in an extremely solemn scene with deep religious significance.
If real church bells were used for the notes Wagner wrote, they would overpower the orchestra and ruin the solemn atmosphere on the stage.
[citation needed] Modern productions of Parsifal typically use a synthesized, or electronically recorded, church bell sound.