(Fr.; Dutch carillon, klokkenspel, beiaard; Ger. Carillon, Glockenspiel).
A set of stationary, tuned bronze bells played by a carillonneur or carillonist (Fr. carillonneur; Dutch beiaardier; Ger. Glockenspieler) using a baton keyboard (stokkenklavier). According to the definition of the World Carillon Federation the term is restricted to sets containing at least 23 bronze bells, which, apart from the lowest three bells, must form a fully chromatic scale; the term is also sometimes applied to smaller, diatonic or automatic Chimes. A modern concert carillon encompasses at least four chromatic octaves; a large number of instruments also feature an automatic playing mechanism which is controlled by clockwork (see Musical clock). Most carillons are located in a tower or on a high outdoor frame, and are managed by a civic authority or by a religious or educational institution.
See also Organ stop and Change ringing.
LUC ROMBOUTS
The carillon is among the largest and heaviest musical instruments in the world. A set of carillon bells may weigh from less than two tonnes to more than 40, depending both upon the dimensions and height of the host bell-chamber and upon the musical taste and financial resources of the owner. The weight of individual bells may range from several tonnes for the lowest bass bell to 8 to 12 kg for the smallest treble bell. A heavy carillon (lowest C key linked to a c' bell weighing about 2200 kg or more) has a broad spectrum of volume and a long average reverberation time, resulting in an expressive and melodious overall effect. A light carillon (lowest C key linked to a g' bell weighing about 650 kg or less) compensates for a loss of expressiveness with greater freshness and transparency. A bell series can begin on any pitch, and most carillons are consequently transposing instruments. The height and the structure of the bell-chamber are determining factors for the sound of a carillon. Heavy carillons sound more homogeneous and melodious when placed in a closed bell-chamber. A closed bell-chamber has a ratio of openings to surface of 30% or less and consequently serves as an ideal resonator-box.
A
typical European carillon has 49 bells which are linked to the keyboard as: B
cd–c''''. The
pedal runs from B
to g'. In North America the bass bell is connected to G on the
keyboard, and the pedal compass is G–c''. The series is often
completely chromatic and the number of bells is usually 55 or more and is then
known as a Grand Carillon. Many recent North American carillons have
been built as ‘non-transposing’ instruments, with the lowest note G
linked to a G bell weighing approximately 6000 kg.
The baton keyboard (fig.1) has the same structure as a piano keyboard, with short chromatic keys above the diatonic ones. The rounded keys are made of ash and are depressed by the carillonneur's clenched fist. Intervals of up to a 4th are played with a flat hand, using the right-hand thumb for the lower note and the index and middle fingers together for the higher note (and the reverse in the left hand). The pedals are played with the front of the foot. Two types of carillon keyboard are common, differing widely in their dimensions. The North American standard keyboard offers a number of ergonomic advantages over the European keyboard, such as a concave, radiating pedal board and a lower keystroke. No uniform world standard has yet been established.
Each key on the keyboard is attached to a flexible steel wire (the ‘keyboard wire’) which is pulled down when the key is struck. A lever rotating about its axis converts the vertical motion of the keyboard wire into the horizontal motion of a second wire, known as the clapper wire. This wire pulls the clapper to the inner wall of the bell, which is chimed. The force with which the key is struck affects the speed of the clapper, determining the attack and volume of sound produced. Heavier clappers are normally fitted with springs which pull in the same direction as the motion in order to lighten the key action; the lighter clappers have springs that pull in the opposite direction to the motion to make the key action in the treble somewhat heavier and to force the clapper to release the bell immediately, so that the bell continues to ring. These springs also make rapid repetitions of notes possible. Using turnbuckles (wire adjusters) above the keyboard the carillonneur can neutralize the expansion and contraction effects of changing air temperature on the wires. Clappers are made of wrought iron, cast iron or manganese brass. Their weight and the materials used to make them partly determine the timbre of the carillon. The clapper generally accounts for about 3% of the overall bell weight, going up to 6% or more in treble bells.
Automatic chiming mechanisms generally use hammers to strike the bell on the outside. The earliest examples employed barrel mechanisms, where a large metal cylinder was fitted with pegs which operated a series of levers during its rotation (see Mechanical instruments, fig.2). The pegs raise the chiming hammers which then drop onto the bells. Since 1950 new methods of automation have been introduced, all based on the principle of a hammer being attracted by an electromagnet. This technology assures more accurate playing than the mechanical barrel, but generally results in a more aggressive sound. Until the development of MIDI systems the musical information was most often programmed by means of perforated plastic tapes, comparable to the music rolls on a player piano; today the music is programmed in MIDI format and stored in an electronic tower-clock. In Belgium and the Netherlands there is a tradition of frequently changing the automatic programme, whereas in Britain and France the same melodies often play unchanged for many years. In the USA most carillons are not provided with an automatic chiming device.
The carillon arose out of the urban culture of the southern Low Countries during the late medieval period, and was a corollary of the use of bells as clock chimes (see Chimes, §2; also Musical clock). From the 12th century important events in the towns of this region were marked by beyaerders, who struck a set of bells by pulling rhythmically on ropes that were connected to the clappers. Mechanical systems gradually developed which enabled one person to play several bells, culminating in the baton keyboard, the first recorded use of which took place in Oudenaarde in 1510.
A combination of civic rivalry and technological innovation encouraged the carillon to spread throughout the Low Countries (fig.2a). Most of the instruments were cast in Mechelen by the bell founding families of Waghevens and Van den Ghein (later Vanden Gheyn). The tower clock and the automatic playing system were manufactured by a clockmaker, although the barrel itself was often cast by the bellfounder; the keyboard and the connections with the clappers were mostly constructed by local craftsmen. Compasses on early carillons were usually no greater than two diatonic octaves, held back by limited knowledge of bell-tuning techniques. A breakthrough was achieved in this respect during the 17th century by François and Pieter Hemony, bell founders of Zutphen and Amsterdam, working in collaboration with the carillonneur Jacob van Eyck. In about 1640 they developed a technique for accurately tuning the most important partial notes by turning the bell on a lathe and chiselling small amounts of metal away from the inner surface. The Hemony brothers cast 51 carillons; intact examples survive in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Antwerp, Ghent and elsewhere. The most important carillon founder of the 18th century was Andreas Jozef Vanden Gheyn of Leuven. Outside of the Netherlands carillons were rather a curiosity; the few examples in Denmark, France, Germany, Portugal, Russia and Spain came about through political or trade contacts with the Low Countries.
17th- and 18th-century carillons were tuned in mean-tone temperament or a variant of it. The average number of bells in a set increased during this period to 32–40, permitting the use of approximately three chromatic octaves. Chiming barrel mechanisms became larger and more complex so that they could reproduce longer melodies. It was common for these to play four or eight times an hour. Larger towns had, in addition to the official city carillon, several instruments belonging to churches or abbeys. In contrast to the beyaerders of previous centuries, the carillonneurs of the 17th and 18th centuries were often trained all-round musicians, chosen by competitive examination. The carillonneur was expected to play several times each week and to re-peg the barrel a few times a year.
The close of the 18th century saw an end to the golden age of carillon culture in the Low Countries; many instruments disappeared after they were requisitioned by the French occupying forces. Moreover, there was significant deterioration in the ability of bellfounders to produce the extended series of finely tuned bells necessary for making new carillons of musical worth. This skill, which had been achieved by very few individual founders and was always kept a closely guarded secret, died out with the last members of the families who knew it. In addition, the carillon declined in importance in the face of the developing bourgeois musical culture, which took place in concert halls and salons; its time-keeping function had also been superseded by private indoor clocks and pocket watches. Nevertheless, the post of municipal carillonneur was retained by most towns. During the second half of the 19th century attempts were made to replace the baton keyboard with one akin to a piano keyboard that struck the clappers using an electrical or pneumatic mechanism. These experiments proved unsuccessful, principally because of the inability of these systems to produce variations in dynamics.
At the end of the 19th century the Mechelen municipal carillonneur Jef Denyn (1862–1941; see fig.1b) contributed to a lasting revival in the art of the carillon. He gave popular weekly evening concerts on the carillon of St Rombouts; he also made a number of improvements to the action of the instrument, making it easier to play in a virtuoso and subtle manner. In 1922 a carillon school was set up in Mechelen to perpetuate Denyn's achievement.
In 1896 the English canon Arthur Simpson rediscovered the art of bell tuning (see Bell (i), §2). The English bellfounders John Taylor & co of Loughborough and Gillett & Johnston of Croydon adopted his innovations and produced heavy instruments of excellent quality. Taylor made a carillon in equal temperament in 1904 and was soon receiving orders from the Netherlands for new and replacement bells. After World War I the work of these English founders was exported to the USA, where a new carillon culture developed. In contrast to the European tradition of the carillon as an expression of civic pride, American carillons have tended to be built as memorials. Most exist through private initiative and are located on university campuses, in churches or in public parks (see fig.2b).
During World War II, 46 of the 213 carillons in Europe were destroyed or the bells requisitioned; some were made available to acoustic physicists for scientific research. As a result the Dutch founders Eijsbouts of Asten and Petit & Fritsen of Aarle-Rixtel were able to supply finely-tuned carillons, and there has been a great increase in the number of instruments, particularly in the Netherlands. In 1998 the number of carillons totalled about 600 worldwide, with 177 in the Netherlands, 150 in the USA, 88 in Belgium, 52 in France, 32 in Germany and 21 in Denmark. Only a handful of founders are capable of producing the necessary purity of tone: the leading firms today include Eijsbouts and Petit & Fritsen in the Netherlands, Paccard in France, Taylor & Co. and the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in England and Olsen-Nauen in Norway.
In addition to the Royal Carillon School in Mechelen, carillon schools have also been established in Amersfoort (Netherlands), Douai (France) and Løgumkloster (Denmark). At some American universities, including Ann Arbor and Berkeley, carillon is taught by the university carillonneur. Carillon-playing competitions are held, such as the International Queen Fabiola Competition in Mechelen. There are active carillon associations in most of the countries in which carillons are found.
Until the end of the 17th century the carillon repertory was chiefly religious in origin. Church hymns were played both manually and automatically in settings for one, two or three parts. Only two sources survive from this period, the Brussels barrel-pegging book of Theodoor de Sany (1648) and the Ghent barrel-pegging book of Philippus Wyckaert (1681). During the 18th century secular music was preferred. In Protestant areas religious music remained in favour for a longer period than it did in the Catholic southern Low Countries.
18th-century collections of carillon music survive from the towns of Antwerp (1728 and 1746), Leuven (1756), Saint-Omer (1780–85) and Delft (1775–1816). These consist mainly of dance music, along with Christmas carols, civic music for formal occasions and arrangements of harpsichord music. Generally, carillonneurs filled out their programmes with popular songs and dances, often in variation form preceded by a prelude. The oldest examples of idiomatic carillon music are the eleven preludes composed by the Leuven municipal carillonneur Matthias Vanden Gheyn (1721–85; see ex.1).
During the 19th century carillon performances were dominated by arrangements of opera tunes. Not until the 20th century did an idiomatic carillon repertory develop which took account of the two significant acoustic characteristics of a bell: its reverberation and its specific series of overtones, including a prominent minor third. After 1920, under the influence of the Mechelen carillon school, a romantic idiom developed with tremolo playing, virtuoso passages and strong contrasts of sound (exponents included Jef van Hoof, Jef Rottiers, Jos Lerinckx, Benoit Franssen and Staf Nees; see ex.2). In the Netherlands a more rational approach to the instrument predominated, which after 1950 produced an interesting repertory, often characterized by tonal innovations such as modal and octotonic scales (notable figures include Leen't Hart and Henk Badings; see ex.3). In the USA Ronald Barnes developed a style of writing in response to the naturally melodious character of the heavy English carillons, using impressionistic sound effects, minimalism and a polyphonic style of writing (other practitioners included Albert Gerken, Roy Hamlin Johnson, John Pozdro, Gary White and John Courter; see ex.4). An atonal style of writing has also been successfully applied to the carillon by composers including John Cage, Daan Manneke (see ex.5) and Frans Geysen; four-handed carillon works have also been written, alongside four-handed arrangements of classical symphonic works. The playing of the carillon together with other instruments (especially brass) is also finding increasing favour. Mobile carillons are often used for this purpose. Since the carillon is by its very nature a public instrument, the tasteful arrangement of well-known music remains one of the basic skills of a carillonneur.
J.P.A. Fischer: Verhandelong van de klokken en het klokke-spel (Utrecht, 1738/R)
W.G. Rice: Carillons of Belgium and Holland (New York, 1915)
A. Loosjes: De torenmuziek in de Nederlanden [Tower music in the Low Countries] (Amsterdam, 1916)
D.J. van der Ven: De torens zingen! [The towers sing!] (Amsterdam, 1916)
Beiaardkunst I: Mechelen 1922 [Art of the Carillon: Proceedings of the First Congress: Mechelen 1922] (Mechelen, 1922)
Beiaardkunst II: ’s-Hertogenbosch 1925 (Mechelen, 1925)
P. Verheyden: Beiaarden in Frankrijk [Carillons in France] (Antwerp, 1926)
W.G. Rice: Carillon Music and Singing Towers of the Old World and the New (New York, 1930)
P. Price: The Carillon (London, 1933)
F. Timmermans: Luidklokken en beiaarden in Nederland [Swinging bells and carillons in the Netherlands] (Amsterdam, 1944, 2/1950)
A.L. Bigelow: Carillon: an Account of the Class of 1892 Bells at Princeton, with Notes on Bells and Carillons in General (Princeton, NJ, 1948)
J. Rottiers: Beiaarden in België [Carillons in Belgium] (Mechelen, 1952)
A. Lehr: Van paardebel tot speelklok [From horse bell to carillon bell] (Zaltbommel, 1971, 2/1981)
H. Garnier: Les carillons de France (Dijon, 1985)
J. Bossin: Die Carillons von Berlin und Potsdam: Fünf Jahrhunderte Turmglockenspiel in der Alten und Neuen Welt (Berlin, 1991)
A. Lehr, W. Truyen and G. Huybens: The Art of the Carillon in the Low Countries (Tielt, 1991)
L. Boogert, A. Lehr and J. Maassen: 45 Years of Dutch Carillons, 1945–1990 (Asten, 1992)
G. Huybens, ed.: Beiaarden en torens in België [Carillons and towers in Belgium] (Ghent, 1994)
K. and L. Keldermans: Carillon: the Evolution of a Concert Instrument in North America (Springfield, IL, 1996)
