Description
VOCES8 and Ringmasters perform 'The Bells of Notre Dame & Out There' by Alan Menken in an arrangement by Aaron Dale, adapted by Rasmus Krigström
Released as a single on 22nd May 2026, ahead of the album SHALL WE GATHER, released on 24th July 2026.
The Bells of Notre Dame
Olim, olim, Deus accelere,
hoc sæculum splendidum,
accelere fiat venire olim
Morning in Paris, the city awakes
To the bells of Notre Dame
The fisherman fishes, the bakerman bakes
To the bells of Notre Dame
To the big bells as loud as the thunder
To the little bells soft as a psalm
And some say the soul of the city’s
The toll of the bells
The bells of Notre Dame
Listen, they are beautiful
But they do not ring by themselves; no, no, no
High in the tower is the bell ringer
Why is he there? It is the tale of a man and a monster
Judge Claude Frollo longed to purge the world
Of vice and sin
Kyrie Eleison
But he felt fear for his soul
And took in this young child, deformed from birth
Calling him, Quasimodo
Dies Irae, Dies Illa
I must keep him locked away where no one else can see
No one will behold him
Even this foul creature may yet prove one day to be
Of use to me
Now here is a riddle to guess if you can
To the bells of Notre Dame
Tell me who is the monster and who is the man…?
Safe behind these windows and these parapets of stone
Gazing at the people down below me
All my life I watch them as I hide up here alone
Hungry for the histories they show me
All my life I memorize their faces
Knowing them as they will never know me
All my life I wonder how it feels to pass a day
Not above them
But part of them
And out there
Living in the sun
Give me one day out there
All I ask is one
To hold forever
Out there
Where they all live unaware
What I’d give
What I’d dare
Just to live one day out there
Out there among the millers and the weavers and their wives
Through the roofs and gables I can see them
Every day they shout and scold and go about their lives
Heedless of the gift it is to be them
If I was in their skin
I’d treasure every instant
Out there
Strolling by the Seine
Taste a morning out there
Like ordinary men
Who freely walk about there
Just one day and then
I swear I’ll be content
With my share
Won’t resent
Won’t despair
Old and bent
I won’t care
I’ll have spent
One day
Out there
And I will live to tell the tale
When I found a day to bid farewell
So that is the riddle to guess if you can
To the bells of Notre Dame
What makes a monster and what makes a man…?
To the bells, bells, bells, bells
Bells, bells, bells, bells
Bells of Notre Dame
You hear them, and feel them!
They’re ringing, calling now!
The bells of Notre Dame
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