Electronic carillon is a blanket term used to refer to an automated system which imitates the sound of a

carillon 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 harmoniou ...

. These systems simulate and amplify

bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...

sounds which are then played from

loudspeaker A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or speaker driver) is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. A ''speaker system'', also often simply referred to as a "speaker" or " ...

s housed in a

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

. Due to the costs associated with installing, maintaining, and operating traditional carillons, many churches and universities now use these types of systems.

Bell Sound Emulation

While a traditional carillon uses actual bells, electronic systems simulate a bell sound in several ways * By striking semantra (rectangular metal bars roughly the diameter of a pencil, but of varying lengths) with an electric

solenoid upright=1.20, An illustration of a solenoid upright=1.20, Magnetic field created by a seven-loop solenoid (cross-sectional view) described using field lines A solenoid () is a type of electromagnet formed by a helix, helical coil of wire whose ...

. * By striking

tubular bells Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillon, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the sound of church bells within a ...

similarly * By playing back a previously recorded bell sound * By striking a small number of actual bells in combination with the methods above

Operation

Electronic carillons use internal electronic clocks to determine when chimes or music will be played. The

Westminster Quarters The Westminster Quarters, from its use at the Palace of Westminster, is a melody used by a set of four quarter bells to mark each quarter-hour. It is also known as the Westminster Chimes, Cambridge Quarters or Cambridge Chimes from its place of ...

are commonly programmed to chime the hour and its divisions, along with musical selections. The musical score is stored on media which can typically be changed or expanded. Systems may also provide a

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

or console. This allows a musician to operate the instrument in a manner similar to the way a traditional carillon is operated. These keyboards are sometimes integrated with or attached to an organist's

console Console may refer to: Computing and video games * System console, a physical device to operate a computer ** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device ** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...

. Early automated carillons used electric timers that simply played selected bell strikes or tunes. Modern computerized carillons can be programmed to play selections for Easter, as well as other fixed and movable holidays. Since these systems use an amplifiers and loudspeakers, many are being expanded to also provide

emergency notification system An emergency notification system is a method of facilitating the one-way dissemination or broadcast of messages to one or many groups of people, alerting them to a pending or existing emergency. The Emergency Notification System (ENS) was created by ...

s to college campuses.

References

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