What is a carillon? "A Carillon Is..." (2nd edition)

What is a Carillon??? "A Carillon Is..." tries to give you an answer to all your questions about the largest bell instrument on earth. 2nd version. Marc Van Eyck (Leuven) and Jo Haazen (Mechelen) play background carillon music while this video explains basic knowledge about this beautiful, historical and Flemish bell instrument: a carillon.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• carillon
• bells
• tower
• beiaard
• university
• campus
• memorial
• bronze
• keyboard
• jo
• haazen
• belfry
• flanders
• glocken
• glockenspieler
• glockenspiel
• glockenturm
• turm
• campana
• mechelen
• carillonschool
• beiaardschool
• klokkengieter
• eijsbouts

[ANDREWLEONARDSMITH]

The mechanism that operates a carillion is the same as the mechanical tracker action used in some pipe organs.As with the organ do some modern carillions use electric action where the Bells are struck by solonoids operated from a normal keyboard.

[quasimodo2]

@ANDREWLEONARDSMITH This is what Carl S Zimmerman answered: I quote (part I):

There is one instance (that I know of) in North America where a baton keyboard operates an electric action rather than a tracker action. That is one of the two sets of bells in The Tennessee Bicentennial Bells, Nashville, Tennessee. (See gcna.org/data/TNNASHT1.htm)

[quasimodo2]

@ANDREWLEONARDSMITH This is what Carl S Zimmerman answered: I quote (Part II):

Although the electric action is supposed to be velocity-sensitive, experienced carillonneurs who have tried this instrument (following the Guild Congress at Sewanee) could not hear (or make!) any significant difference in the sound of the bells. Our conclusion was that the experiment was interesting but not successful.

[quasimodo2]

@ANDREWLEONARDSMITH This is what Carl S Zimmermann answered: I quote (Part III):

That electric action works well in organs but not with bells should not be surprising. Organ pipes speak only one way, with air at constant pressure, so all volume control must be done with swell boxes. (Tracker action can theoretically yield some very small variation in attack, but has no advantage thereafter.)

[quasimodo2]

@ANDREWLEONARDSMITH This is what Carl S Zimmermann answered: I quote (Part IV):

The volume of sound from a bell is highly variable depending on the velocity with which the clapper strikes, and electric actions have not yet been able to reproduce the full range of that variation, much less provide control of such variation to the player in the manner that the baton + tracker action does.

[quasimodo2]

@ANDREWLEONARDSMITH This is what Jeff Davis answered: I quote:

Grace Cathedral has this Marc. It is played from a small electric keyboard inside the cathedral. I can't imagine that the brutal force with which the solonoids drive the clappers to the bell isn't, over time, damaging to the bells.

Jeff

[SailorBarsoom]

Very cool. The world's first "heavy metal" music!

[quasimodo2]

Thanx four your comment. Imagine you are sick, black, poor, non-european and almost dying, and the carillonneur is playing the song you danced on your wedding day. It might give you 3 minutes of joy, forgetting all your misery and pain... and hours later you still have that song in your mind... That is what we offer your for free... and if you don't give a shit about the carillon, it is OK. Carillonneurs just play 1 hour a week. Busses will make more noice than the carillon in a week's.

[ANDREWLEONARDSMITH]

I assume that carillions that use Pneumatic actions are attached to or form part of the specification of a pipe organ,as it needs wind in order to function As there are examples of pipe organs that incoporate a carillion in their specification but this is usually only 1 or 2 octaves at the most and in most cases use tubular chimes or small brass bells of handbell size size due to space limitations.

[ANDREWLEONARDSMITH]

I assume that carillions that use Pneumatic actions are attached to or form part of the specification of a pipe organ,as it needs wind in order to function As there are examples of pipe organs that incoporate a carillion in their specification but this is usually only 1 or 2 octaves at the most and in most cases use tubular chimes or small brass bells of handbell size due to space limitations.

[quasimodo2]

@ANDREWLEONARDSMITH This is what John Gouwens answered, I quote (Part II):

While a few – really very few – of the electric or pneumatic actions applied to bells are set up to provide some dynamic contrast, none approach the range of dynamics and character of sound that a skilled carillonneur can produce. In that sense, the distinction is very different from an electro-pneumatic organ.

[quasimodo2]

@ANDREWLEONARDSMITH - THis is what John Gouwens answered, I quote (part I):

There are indeed some “carillon-sized bell instruments” that use solenoids (or in a few cases pneumatic actions) to operate the bells, in some cases applied for the automatic action of a traditional carillon, in other cases in lieu of the traditional carillon keyboard.