Carillon

A carillon (/kaʁijɔ̃/, /ˈkærɪljɒn/ or /kəˈrɪljən/) is a musical instrument consisting of from 23 to 50 or more cast bronze cup-shaped bells which are played one after the other (to play a melody) or sounded together (to play a chord). A carillon is played by striking a "baton" keyboard with the fists and by pressing the keys of a pedal keyboard with the feet. The keys activate levers and wires that connect to the metal clappers that strike the bells, which allows the performer (called a "carillonneur") to vary the intensity of the note according to the force applied to the key.

Carillon bells are usually housed in the bell towers of church towers, belfries, or in municipal buildings. The carillon is the heaviest of all musical instruments; the total weight of bells alone can be 100 tons in the largest instruments. The greatest concentration of carillons is still found in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Northern France, where they were symbols of civic pride and status. A local bell in England is situated in the Birmingham area of Bournville. It is a tradition that the bell is rung at Christmas time and people gather on the local green and sing Christmas songs.

History

In medieval times, bells were first used as a way of notify people of fires, storms, wars and other events. The great bell Rowland announced births, deaths, fires, and military attacks. A ringing of bells rung from the lowest note to the highest note indicated that an attack had taken place. The use of bells in a musical fashion originated in the 14th century in the Low Countries.

In the 17th century, François and Pieter Hemony developed the art of bell-founding and -designing, and tuning, which they passed on to Antwerp bellfounder Melchior de Haze. In the 18th century, several members of the Van den Gheyn bellfounders dynasty also mastered the skill of bell tuning, such as Andreas Joseph Van den Gheyn. Unfortunately his techniques also passed away with him. It was not until the 19th century in England under the Taylor bellfoundry at Loughborough, England, that bell tuning was re-invented.

The greatest concentration of carillons is still found in The Netherlands, Belgium, and in (the North of) France, where they were mounted in the grand towers of rich cities as tokens of civic pride and status. Carillons were usually housed in church towers, belfries, or in municipal buildings. In Germany, a carillon is also called a glockenspiel.

Musical characteristics

Since each separate note is produced by an individual bell, a carillon's musical range is determined by the number of bells it has. Different names are assigned to instruments based on the number of bells they comprise:

The Riverside Carillon in New York City has (or did have—there may be other instruments with larger bourdons) the largest tuned bell in the world, which sounds the C two octaves below middle C on the piano.

The carillonneur is the title of the musician who plays the carillon. The carillonneur usually sits in a cabin beneath the bells and presses down, with a loosely closed fist, on a series of baton-like keys arranged in the same pattern as a piano keyboard. The batons are almost never played with the fingers as one does a piano, though this is sometimes used as a special carillon playing technique. The keys activate levers and wires that connect directly to the bells' clappers; thus, as with a piano, the carillonneur can vary the intensity of the note according to the force applied to the key. In addition to the manual keys, the heavier bells are also played with a pedal keyboard. These notes can either be played with the hands or the feet.

To a musician's ear, a carillon can sound "out of tune." Poorly tuned bells often give this impression and also can be out of tune with themselves. This is due to the unusual harmonic characteristics of foundry bells, which have a strong overtones above and below the fundamental frequency. Foundry bells are tuned to have the following set of partials (overtones):

Additionally, there is a major 10th, 12th, and 15th which are not typically individually tuned, but are usually present anyway. They all combine to create a "resultant" pitch, which is in unison with prime on a well-tuned bell. Properly tuned bells emphasize the fundamental frequency of the bell.

Music

There is no standard pitch range carillon as of 2007 (although the implied world standard pitch range for the average carillon is 48 bells, which gives good upper range and good lower range). The minimum and maximum range of an instrument generally depend on the money available to pay for the instrument: more money provides for more bells and a larger range, with the most expensive bells in the lower range of the baton console. When writing for this instrument one should make clear the required range.

As they do not have a standardised pitch range, Carillons tend to be transposing instruments- particularly in older instruments. Many of these are being re-worked as C instruments so that the bells can not only be played solo but with other instruments without transposing. In these instruments the baton C sounds as written; that is a C baton sounds a C at concert pitch. It is still a part of a Carillonneur's training to be able to transpose music in any key for his or her instrument, however.

Carillon music is typically written on two or three staves. The pedal staff used to play the heavier, larger bells which are connected to the lower portion of the baton clavier and also help form chords and thirds and other intervals with the middle and upper baton bells. Pedal may range up to 32 notes, usually beginning on C in modern octave transposing and non-transposing carillons or more duplicating the batons. In most carillons the pedal is not independent and sounds the same baton bells to which they are coupled. Complicated music maybe written on four staves with the staves labeled High bells, Mid Bells, Tenor Bells and Bourdons(Bass bells)

Music written for the piano, organ, or other keyboard may be played or arranged to be played on Carillon. One should not expect, however, that chords can be played with one's fingers as on the piano- this can be done on upper bells where trills, tremolo, and as rapid runs are effective. The carillon is ideal for playing polyphonic music with florid counterpoint.

Arrangements and original compositions for Carillon should focus on the middle and upper bells because their sounds die out quicker than the bourdons. While Carillon music can be written on standard 9.5x12 inches paper, the preference is for folding landscape format which reduces the frequency of page turns. Carillon music is effective when combined with orchestra in concertos and orchestral works. It has also proven effective when used in film scores and in chamber music. To record carillon music, the microphones should be some distance from the bells lest they pick up the softer lingering of tones and frequencies that are not intended to be heard.