Carillon Music

A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniously together. They are struck with clappers connected to a keyboard of wooden batons played with the hands and pedals played with the feet. Often housed in bell towers, carillons are usually owned by churches, universities, or municipalities. They can include an automatic system through which the time is announced and simple tunes are played throughout the day.

Carillons come in many designs, weights, sizes, and sounds. They are among the world's heaviest instruments, and the heaviest carillon weighs over . Most weigh between . To be considered a carillon, a minimum of 23 bells are needed; otherwise, it is called a chime. Standard-sized instruments have about 50, and the world's largest has 77 bells. The appearance of a carillon depends on the number and weight of the bells and the tower in which it is housed. They may be found in towers which are free-standing or connected to a building. The bells of a carillon may be directly exposed to the elements or hidden inside the structure of their tower.

The origins of the carillon can be traced to the Low Countries—present-day Belgium, the Netherlands, and the French Netherlands—in the 16th century. The modern carillon was invented in 1644 when Jacob van Eyck and the Hemony brothers cast the first tuned carillon. The instrument experienced a peak until the late-18th century, a decline during the French Revolution, a revival in the late 19th century, a second decline during the First and Second World Wars, and a second revival thereafter. UNESCO has designated 56 belfries in Belgium and France as a World Heritage Site and recognized the carillon culture of Belgium as an intangible cultural heritage.

According to counts by various registries, there are about 700 carillons worldwide. Most are in and around the Low Countries, though nearly 200 have been constructed in North America. Almost all extant carillons were constructed in the 20th century. Additionally, there are about 500 "non-traditional" carillons, which due to some component of its action being electrified or computerized, most registries do not consider to be carillons. A plurality are located in the United States, and most of the others in Western Europe. A few "traveling" or "mobile" carillons are fixed to a frame that enables them to be transported.

Etymology and terminology

The word ''carillon'' is a loanword from the French language dating to the late 18th century. It is derived from the Old French (an alteration of ) . The word originates from the Latin ; from . It is often stated that ''carillon'' may have referred originally to a set of four forestrike bells whose melodies announced the time signal of public hour bells, but this is not confirmed by archival sources. There is convincing evidence that the term referred initially to the medieval custom of chiming on sets of four church bells by pulling the clappers by means of ropes. In German, as well as using the French term, a carillon is sometimes called a (), which should not be confused with the identically named glockenspiel. Dutch speakers use the word , which has an uncertain etymology.

A musician who plays the carillon is commonly called a carillonneur ( , ), also loaned from French. It and ''carillon'' were adopted by English speakers after the introduction of the instrument to British troops following the War of the Spanish Succession in the 18th century. Though the word ''carillonneur'' literally refers to carillon players that are men, the French to denote women is not used in English. Another common term is ''carillonist'', which some players of the carillon have wished to replace ''carillonneur'' because of the former's gender inclusivity, simple spelling, and unambiguous pronunciation. In 2018, the World Carillon Federation adopted ''carillonist'' as the preferred term for its communications.

Characteristics

Construction

The carillon is a keyboard instrument. Though it shares similarities with other instruments in this category, such as the organ or pedal piano, its playing console is unique. Playing is done with the hands on a manual keyboard composed of rounded, wooden batons. The manual has short chromatic keys (i.e. "black keys") raised above the diatonic keys ("white keys") and arranged like a piano; however, they are spaced far apart, and the chromatic keys are raised above the rest, about . To operate, the keys are depressed with a closed fist. The lowest 1.5 to 2.5 octaves of the manual are connected to a pedal keyboard played with the feet. The connection is direct, meaning that when a pedal is pressed, its corresponding key on the manual is pulled down with it. Since the mid-20th century, there have been two competing keyboard design standards for a carillon's console: the North American standard and the North European standard. They differ over several design elements, such as whether the outer pedals curve toward the center or the specific distance a key is depressed. In 2006, the World Carillon Federation developed the WCF Keyboard 2006, which is a compromise between the two standards. The organization recommends that its keyboard standard be used as a guideline when constructing new carillons or renovating existing keyboards.

Each key is connected to a transmission system via a wire, usually made of stainless steel. When a particular key is depressed, it pulls on the wire which, after interacting with other wires and pulleys, causes a clapper to swing towards the inner wall of the key's corresponding bell. At rest, these clappers are about away from the bell wall. Small bells are fitted with springs to pull their clappers back immediately after the stroke, so that the bell is not sounded more than once with each keystroke. This is not necessary for large bells, which have sufficiently heavy clappers. Immediately above each key is a wire adjuster called a turnbuckle. These allow the performer to adjust the length of the wire, which often changes with temperature fluctuations.

The carillon's cast bronze, cup-shaped bells are housed at the top of a tower in a structure typically made of steel or wooden beams. The arrangement of the bells depends on the space, height and construction of the tower, and the number and size of bells. When the heaviest bells are especially large, they are usually placed below the playing cabin to achieve a better tonal distribution. The bells themselves do not move during operation, only the clappers. With some instruments, the heaviest bells may be outfitted with a mechanism enabling them to swing.

Carillons may also feature an automatic mechanism by which simple tunes or the Westminster Quarters are played on the lower bells. The mechanism on European carillons is often a playing drum, which is a large metal cylinder connected to a clock mechanism. Metal pegs are screwed onto the outside of the drum. When the clock mechanism sets the drum in motion, the pegs catch onto levers, connected to hammers that rest just a short distance from the outside of the bell. The hammers are briefly raised, and then fall onto the bell as the peg continues to rotate away from the lever. The pegs are arranged such that simple tunes can be programmed to play at specific quarter hours. In North America, automatic playing drum systems are not common; instead, carillons may have pneumatic systems which ring the instrument.

Sound

Carillons produce sound by striking stationary bells, categorizing them as percussion idiophones in the Hornbostel–Sachs classification of musical instruments (111.242.222 – sets of bells with internal strikers). Carillon bells are made of bell bronze, a specialized copper–tin alloy used for its above-average rigidity and resonance. A bell's profile (shape) and weight determine its note and the quality of its tone. Therefore, apart from changes in its profile, such as chipping or corrosion, a bell will never lose its original sound. It produces a sound with overtones, also known as partial tones, which are not necessarily harmonically related. To produce a pleasing, harmonically related series of tones, the bell's profile must be carefully adjusted. Bellfounders typically focus on five principal tones when tuning, most notably the minor third overtone called the tierce, which gives rise to the unique sound of carillons and has been the subject of further research, such as the major third bell. Since the casting process does not reliably produce perfectly tuned bells, they are cast slightly thicker and metal is shaved off with a lathe. On older European carillons, bells were tuned with each other by using the meantone temperament tuning system. Modern carillons, particularly those in North America, are tuned to equal temperament.

The carillon has a dynamic range similar to a piano, if not more versatile. Through variation of touch, performers can express many volumes. The larger the bell, the larger its dynamic range. Bigger bells will also sound naturally louder than smaller, higher-pitched bells.

Along with pipe organs, carillons are one of the world's heaviest musical instruments. Most carillons weigh (counting only the weight of the bells) between , with extremes ranging from very light instruments to the world's heaviest at over —the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Carillon of the Riverside Church in New York City, US. Its bourdon, or largest bell, is the largest tuned bell ever cast for a carillon. It sounds a full octave below most other bourdons. The entire ensemble of fixed and swinging bells, clappers, and steel framework weighs more than .

Range

A carillon's range is directly proportional to the number of bells it has. The number of bells usually depends on funds available for the creation of the instrument: more money allows more bells to be cast, especially the larger, more costly ones. It is generally accepted that a carillon must have a minimum of 23 bells, or else it is called a chime. There is no standard pitch range for the carillon, so several subcategories are used to categorize them:

* Carillons with 23 to 27 bells and 35 to 39 bells are classified as two-octave and three-octave carillons, respectively. Players of these instruments often use music written specifically for the limited ranges.
* A "concert" or "standard" carillon typically has 45 to 50 bells, or a range of about four octaves.
* Carillons with more than 50 bells are often referred to as "great" or "grand" carillons.
* Carillons of 15 to 22 bells which were built before 1940 may be classified as "historical carillons" by the World Carillon Federation.

The title of "world's largest carillon by number of bells" is shared between two instruments: the carillon of the Kirk in the Hills Presbyterian Church in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, US, and the carillon at Daejeon Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon, South Korea; both have 77 bells.

Since a carillon is seldom played in concert with other instruments, its bourdon may be any pitch—whichever is advantageous for the location and funds available; to simplify the writing and playing of music, keyboards often have a C-compass. As a result, many carillons are transposing instruments, especially those that are small, have many bells, or were constructed on limited funds. The transposition can be anywhere from down a perfect fourth to up an octave. In North America, an increasing number of new carillons have been installed in concert pitch as a result of the desire to establish the carillon as a full-fledged concert instrument.

Many carillons, according to a C-compass, are missing the lowest C and E bells (equating to the second- and fourth-largest bells if they were included). The reason is often financial: by omitting these bells, the construction of a carillon can be reduced significantly, sometimes by 20 percent for large installations. Since the early 1900s, European installations will often reintroduce the E bell, and instead of adding the C bell, they will include a B bell (which is a major second below the C-compass bell).

History

Origins

The carillon originated from two earlier functions of bells: ringing bells to send messages and ringing bells to indicate the time of day.

In the Middle Ages, bellringers attached ropes to the clappers of swinging bells and rung them while stationary in a technique called chiming. Chiming bells gave the ringer more control compared to swinging bells, and so was used to send messages to those within earshot. For example, sounding bells was often used to warn of a fire or impending attack. At celebratory events, a bellringer could gather ropes together to chime multiple bells in rhythmic patterns. By the end of the 15th century, chimers are recorded to have used their technique to play music on bells. A 1478 chronicle recounts a man in Dunkirk

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