Hemony.

Dutch family of bronze casters. The family originated in Lorraine and they were outstanding makers of carillons. The brothers François Hemony (b Levécourt, c1609; d Amsterdam, May 1667) and Pieter Hemony (b Levécourt, Jan 1619; d Amsterdam, 17 Feb 1680) may have been the sons of the church bell caster Peter Hemony from Lorraine or of his brother Blaise Hemony. In 1634 François and Pieter left their home because of disturbances caused by war. In 1636 François, in collaboration with Josephus Michelin, cast a church bell for Repelen (Rhineland); in 1638 François cast another for the same place. In 1640 he and his brother delivered several bells for Wankum and in 1641 a set of three for Goor. Shortly before, François had married Marie Michelin.

In 1643 the Hemony brothers were commissioned by the town of Zutphen to build and deliver a carillon which, produced after several years’ detailed study, was of a beauty and purity previously unknown. This immediately brought the Hemonys to the fore among carillon makers in the Netherlands. Later the brothers settled in Zutphen until 1657. Between 1657 and 1664 François was the inspector of bells and guns in Amsterdam, while Pieter had his own workshop in Ghent. From 1664 to 1667 the brothers once more worked together in Amsterdam, where Pieter managed the workshop alone from 1667 to 1680 after François’ death. The craft of the Hemonys was maintained in the work of their best pupil, Claes Noorden (1633–1716).

The number of church bells produced by the Hemonys was probably between 300 and 400, and about 100 are extant, most of them in the Netherlands. They also produced cannon, mortars and statues, for instance those made by François (to designs by Quellinus) for the Amsterdam Town Hall. Of the 51 carillons produced by the Hemonys (catalogued in Lehr, 1959, pp.102–16), about 30 have survived, most of them in part. Among the most beautiful are those in Antwerp Cathedral (1655–8); Nieuwe Kerk, Delft (1659–60); the belfry, Ghent (1659–60); Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk, Amersfoort (1659–63); Utrecht Cathedral (1663–4); Gasthuistoren, Zaltbommel (1654); St Hippolyt, Middelstum (1661–2); and Dromedaris, Enkhuizen (1671).

The lighter Hemony carillons usually had 23 or 28 bells, the heavier ones 32, 35 or 37. The largest bells of the lighter instruments might weigh 570 kgs (g'), 345 kgs (b') or 250 kgs (c''); in heavier instruments the largest bells might weigh 4600 kgs (g), 2750 kgs (b) or 1900 kgs (c'). The largest Hemony bell is the bourdon of the belfry in Ghent (now cracked), weighing 5600 kgs (g); the smallest by François was about 8·5 kgs (c''''), that by Pieter about 7 kgs (f''''). The keyboards of the heavy instruments usually reached from c to a'', c''' or d'''. The keyboards of the light instruments usually had a compass from c to c'' or f''. In both cases, there were occasionally a few additional notes in the bass register. The keys for C and E in the first octave are generally lacking; otherwise the succession is generally chromatic. The Hemonys used a mean-tone temperament of the scale, with the semitones tuned to C, E, F, G and B.

The minimum requirement of 18% tin for good bell metal was always exceeded by the Hemonys. Pieter Hemony declared that he added 28 to 30 units of tin to 100 units of copper according to its quality.

The so-called ‘rib’ section of Hemony bells is fairly constant: the octave below each note has twice the diameter and eight times the weight, except among the highest bells, where the difference is less. Thus, for example, their bell in Gouda (1675) sounding c'''' has a diameter of 221 mm (instead of 185 mm, as one would expect from the size of the lower bells) and a weight of about 7·8 kgs (instead of 3·9). (A similar procedure was then in use for the measuring of organ pipes.) In its absolute strength the Hemony rib oscillates slightly between the light and the normal strength of a middleweight rib from a modern bell foundry. This fluctuation may have been intentional, as an analogous practice can be discerned in organ pipe measurements of the same era.

Of particular significance is the way in which the Hemonys tuned a bell after it was cast. To achieve the proper relation among the main partial tones within the bell timbre and also among melodic intervals between bells, each bell is tuned by removing part of its mass from the inside (see Bell (i)). Previous makers had done this by chipping off appropriate amounts, an inherently inaccurate process resulting in a lack of symmetry in the shape of the bell which consequently impaired the tone. The Hemonys ground the bell on a lathe, thus achieving both a symmetrical structure and a previously unattainable degree of accuracy to about 1/20 of a semitone. They compared the pitches obtained with those of a metallophone (perhaps from Indonesia) made up of a series of metal rods. Each time a partial tone of the bell was tuned to the right pitch, the corresponding rod vibrated sympathetically. This vibration could be observed by the movement of grains of sand spread out on the rod’s surface. The Hemonys tuned the lowest five partial tones on their bells: the fundamental, the nominal, the minor 3rd, the 5th and the octave. They made the rib for the casting thicker than necessary, so that they could take an adequate amount from the mass when tuning. In their tuning and in the casting itself they were extremely careful, and would often redo the casting, sometimes more than once.

To a significant extent the superiority of the Hemonys’ art was due to the pioneering investigations of Jonkheer Jacob van Eyck, municipal carillonneur of Utrecht and the leading campanologist of the day. After he established the best pattern of partial tones and ascertained from which parts of the bell these partials were produced, the Hemonys appropriated his findings and developed a corresponding method of tuning. Thus they learnt to produce musically euphonious bells whereas their predecessors (and most of their successors) produced bells more or less impure in tone. The Hemonys were also the first to make chromatic carillons and to extend the compass to three or more octaves. They thereby developed the carillon into a musically viable instrument.

During the first half of the 20th century many Hemony bells were corroded as a result of air pollution, so that retuning them became necessary. In the 1960s most restorations of Hemony carillons involved replacing the treble bells and retuning the rest. In more recent years restoration projects carried out in the Netherlands have attempted to reconstruct the original condition of the Hemony carillon, including the dimensions of the keyboard, the action between the keyboard and the bells, and the original number of bells (e.g. Zuiderkerk, Amsterdam, 1993; Amersfoort, 1996; and Middelstum, 1997).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

P. Hemony: De on-noodsakelijkheid en ondienstigheid van Cis en Dis in de bassen der klokken (Delft, 1678/R)

P.T.A. Swillens: ‘Jonkheer Jacob van Eyck’, Jaarboekje van Oud-Utrecht (1928), 88–133

E.W. Van Heuven: Acoustical Measurements on Church-Bells and Carillons (The Hague, 1949)

A. Lehr: ‘The System of the Hemony-Carillon Tuning’, Acustica, i (1951), 101–4

A. Lehr: ‘A General Bell-Formula’, Acustica, ii (1952), 35–8

A. Lehr: De klokkengieters François en Pieter Hemony (Asten, 1959)

A. Lehr: Historische en muzikale aspekten van Hemony-beiaarden (Amsterdam, 1960)

A. Lehr: Van paardebel tot speelklok: de geschiedenis van de klokgietkunst in de Lage Landen (Zaltbommel, 1971, 2/1982)

B. Looper: ‘The Hemony’s in Zutphen’, Klok en Klepel, no.45 (1990), 5–7

HANS KLOTZ/LUC ROMBOUTS