Flemish family of bellfounders, carillon builders and carillonneurs. Willem Van den Ghein (d 1533) from Goorle, near Tilburg, was the ancestor of ten founders who were to produce bells and carillons in Mechelen until 1697. His son Peter (i) (d 1561) was one of the first to make carillons. The bells and original barrel of the one he made for the town hall at Zierikzee (Netherlands) in 1554 were moved to the Zuidhavenpoort (at Zierikzee) in the early 1960s, and is the oldest known carillon still chiming. Although built as an automatic instrument, it was also played manually (although possibly not at first). His grandson Peter (ii) (1553–1618) cast a carillon for Monnickendam (Netherlands), which is now the oldest manually-played carillon in the world. In 1638 Peter (iii) (1607–59), nephew of Peter (ii), cast the 6-tonne ‘Salvator’ bell, which still exists, for Ste Gudule, Brussels, with his nephew Peter De Klerck.
After brief periods in St Truiden and Tienen the family settled in Leuven in 1727. Peter (iv) (b 1698), a monk, built a number of fine carillons, of which the instruments in Veere (Netherlands) and Steenokkerzeel (Belgium) are extant. His nephew and successor Andreas Jozef (1727–93) is regarded as the most gifted bellfounder to have emerged from the southern Low Countries. Of his 23 carillons, parts of nine have survived at St Truiden; Hasselt; St Lambert, Liège; Huy town hall; Notre Dame, Huy; Turnhout; Schoonhoven; the Nijkerk and Gertrudiskerk, Leuven. His carillon bells are accurately tuned and have a clear sonority; in the treble bells he achieved an even higher proficiency than the Hemony brothers.
The latter’s son Andreas Lodewijk was the last bellfounder to bear the Vanden Gheyn name. His business was continued by his grandsons André-Louis (1814–88) and Séverin (1819–85) Van Aerschodt, who separated in 1851. Séverin’s son Félix (1870–1943) closed the foundry just before World War II. Another dynasty with family ties to the Vanden Gheyns, the Sergeys family, continued to cast bells in Leuven until 1980 when the Belgian bellfounding tradition reached its end.
Matthias Vanden Gheyn (b Tienen, 7 April 1721; d Leuven, 22 June 1785), brother of Andreas Jozef, was a bellfounder, carillonneur, organist and composer. He was organist of the Pieterskerk, Leuven, from 1741 and the town’s municipal carillonneur from 1745. Widely regarded as the most gifted carillonneur of his time, he was also an expert restorer of organs and carillons. He published two collections of harpsichord pieces and one set of sonatas for harpsichord and violin. An autograph harmony treatise dates from 1783 (B-LVu 195-29). A number of other works by Matthias, variously for harpsichord, organ and carillon, were discovered in manuscript in about 1861 by Xavier van Elewyck and copied by him (B-Bc ms.6255). The eleven virtuoso preludes for carillon in this collection are the earliest surviving genuine compositions for the instrument, and have formed part of the standard carillon repertory since the beginning of the 20th century. Their strict structure and toccata-like character have earned Vanden Gheyn the nickname ‘Bach of the Carillon’ (for a music example see Carillon, ex.1). The rediscovery of Matthias's autograph of these preludes in 1995 (now B-LVu Van Elewyckfonds P-195) led to substantial improvements to Van Elewyck's transcription. Another carillon manuscript, the Leuvens Beiaardhandschrift (1755–60; now shelved with the preludes autograph), was probably supervised by Vanden Gheyn. It contains 151 pieces, with dance music, marches, music for formal occasions, and two dazzling variation works: Les folies d'Espagne and Cecilia.
X. Van Elewyck: Matthias Van den Gheyn, le plus grand organiste et carillonneur belge du XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1862/R)
X. Van Elewyck: Collection d’oeuvres composées par d’anciens et de célèbres clavecinistes flamands (Brussels, c1877)
G. van Doorslaer: ‘Les van den Ghein, fondeurs de cloches, canons, sonnettes et mortiers à Malines’, Annales de l’Académie royale d’archéologie de Belgique, lxii (1910), 463–666
R. Barnes: ‘Matthias Van den Gheyn’, Bulletin of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, x (1957), 11–20
R. Barnes: Matthias Van den Gheyn and his Preludes for Carillon (thesis, Stanford U. 1961)
R. Barnes, ed.: The Complete Carillon Works of Matthias Van den Gheyn (1721-1785) (Lawrence, KS, 1962)
L. Rombouts and G. Huybens: Het liedeken van de Lovenaers. Een 18de-eeuws Leuvens beiaardhandschrift (Leuven, 1990)
P.F. Vernimmen: ‘De klokkengieters Vanden Gheyn en Van Aerschodt’, Stad met klank: vier eeuwen klokken en klokkengieters te Leuven, Leuven Centrale Bibliotheek, 16 June – 3 Sept 1990 (Leuven, 1990), 43–61 [exhibition catalogue]
G. Huybens: ‘Van Elewyck en zijn twee transcripties van de beiaardwerken van Matthias Vanden Gheyn’, Klok en Klepel, no.50 (1993), 47–57
G. Huybens and L. Rombouts, eds.: Matthias Vanden Gheyn: Preludes for Carillon (Leuven, 1997)
M. and K. van Bets: De Mechelse klokkengieters (14de–18de eeuw) (Mechelen, 1998)
L. Rombouts and G. Huybens: ‘De beiaardpreludia van Matthias Vanden Gheyn’, Musica antiqua, xv/2 (1998), 55–8
LUC ROMBOUTS