Playing the Carillon: An Introductory Method

by

John Gouwens

Carillonneur, The Culver Academies; Culver, Indiana

Visiting Lecturer in Carillon, Ball State University; Muncie, Indiana

Published by The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America

Minor revisions to the text and music were made from June 2003 through March 2004. In July through October of 2010, further minor revisions were made to the main text, Appendix A (history of carillon music) was greatly expanded, composer biographies were updated, and the repertoire section of the book was greatly expanded.

Table of Contents

I. Introduction                                                                                                                                             1

II. Position – Before You Play                                                                                                                     2

III. Very Basic Playing – Striving for a Beautiful Tone                                                                                  3

IV. Handling and Other Considerations for Controlled, Relaxed Playing                                                       4
      Musical Selections:    Sonata for a Musical Clock, by George Frideric Handel                                       7
                                        Étude, by Gary White                                                                                         8
                                        Three pieces for musical clocks, by Handel                                                       9
(continued)

V. Pedals                                                                                                                                                  12
      Musical Selections:    Scherzetto, by John Gouwens                                                                             13
                                        Prelude No. 2, by Theophil Rusterholz                                                               14
                                        Art Song, by John Gouwens                                                                              16
                                        Prelude, by John Gouwens                                                                                17
                                        Polonaise, by John Gouwens                                                                             18

VI. Chords                                                                                                                                                19
      Musical Selections:    Pedal Aria, by John Gouwens                                                                             20
                                        Sarabande, by Ronald Barnes                                                                            22
                                        Slow Dance, by Roy Hamlin Johnson                                                                  24

VII. The Price/Gerken Approach to Notation                                                                                              26
      Musical Selections: Four pieces for musical clocks, by Franz Joseph Haydn (transc. Albert Gerken)    27

VIII. Shaping a Phrase; Introduction to Trills                                                                                             32
      Musical Selections:    Air, by John Gouwens                                                                                       33
                                        Ceciliana, by Joannes De Gruÿtters (arr. Albert Gerken)                                  34

IX. Pianissimo Dynamics; Rhythmic Freedom; Arpeggios                                                                         36
X. Tremolandi                                                                                                                                          37
      Musical Selections:    Pastel in Bronze, by Albert Gerken                                                                  38
                                        Preludium in the Flemish Style, by John Gouwens                                         42

XI. Additional Advice, for When You Are Further Along                                                                          44

XII. Repertoire                                                                                                                                     45
      John Gouwens: “Toccata No. 2” & “Waltz for Tim” (from Three Short Pieces)                                 46
      Jean Miller: “Air” & “Lullaby” (from Three Short Pieces)                                                                  50
      Leen ’t Hart: “Prayer” (from Five Short Pieces)                                                                               52
      Roy Hamlin Johnson: In dulci jubilo (Three Settings)                                                                        54
      (Roy Hamlin Johnson: Cradle Song – inserted here to place In dulci jubilo III on facing pages)         57
      Dieudonné Raijck: Andante (trans. Albert Gerken)                                                                            60
      Joseph-Hector Fiocco: “Andante,” from Suite No. 1 for harpsichord (trans. Albert Gerken)               62
      John Courter: “Sonorities” (from Suite No. 1)                                                                                    64
      John Courter: “In paradisum” (from Gregorian Triptych)                                                                  66
      John Courter: “The Mushroom Chimneys of Park Güell” (from Gaudí’s Chimneys)                           68
      John Courter: “Seven Modal Pieces” (three selections)                                                                       70
      François Couperin: “Giga” (arr. Joannes De Gruÿtters)                                                                       76
      John Pozdro: “Intermezzo” (from Triptych)                                                                                        78
      John Pozdro: “Slavic Dance” (from Triptych)                                                                                     80
      Emilien Allard: Arabesque                                                                                                                  83
      Robert Moore: “Toccata for 42 Bells”                                                                                                87
      Matthias van den Gheyn: Preludio No. 5                                                                                             91
      Joannes De Gruÿtters: “Andante”                                                                                                       96
      Willem De Fesch: “Gavotte et double”                                                                                               99
      Anonymous (De Gruÿtters): “Allegro”                                                                                               103
      Jacob van Eyck: “Een kindeken is ons gebooren” (arr. John Gouwens)                                              106

XIII. Notes on the Composers and the Music                                                                                         110

Appendix A: A Succinct History of the Carillon and its Music                                                                 117

Appendix B: Writing for the Carillon                                                                                                       135

Samples of the Text

The following are excerpts from the larger book.

All text and photographs are copyrighted by John Gouwens, 2002 and 2010.

I. Introduction

(Technique)

The carillon is an interesting hybrid. It is a keyboard instrument, though the keyboard is of a larger scale than any other modern keyboard instrument. (Some early forms of the pipe organ are believed to have had a keyboard not too dissimilar to the carillon keyboard in terms of the manner of playing and key size.) It is also a percussion instrument, even more so than the piano, since its action does not involve an escapement coming between the keys and the clappers. It is a given that a good keyboard back­ground (piano definitely – organ background is also a plus but not nec­essarily essential) is a pre-requisite for learning the carillon. An instrument that the whole neighborhood is going to hear is not the place to learn basic musicianship, after all. This book is intended to guide the student with a good key­board background toward learning to play the carillon musically, with skill and control.

A good carillon technique should be efficient, producing excellent results without unnecessary exer­tion by the player. A good carillon technique should also be directed toward producing a beautiful sound from the bells, with a broad dynamic range, and precise control of trills, tremolos, and other decorative figures.
It is important to be aware that carillon mechanisms can behave so differently from one instrument to another that it is often necessary to modify one’s technique to get the best results out of a given instrument. However, the techniques covered in this book will generally work well on most carillons.

There certainly is more than one way to play the carillon well. Each individual student will eventually develop his or her own way of playing. This book is designed to teach a basic technique that will provide a solid foundation for playing. IT IS STILL JUST AS IMPORTANT AS EVER TO HAVE THE GUIDANCE OF A GOOD TEACHER. Once one has learned the rules, one may feel free to break them, or at least adjust them to one’s own needs and to the instruments encountered.

(The Bells)
The tuning of the carillon bell as we know it today was the result of work by master bellfounders in the 17th century. Specifically, the brothers François and Pieter Hemony, who originally were from Levé­court, in Lorraine (today part of the east of France), but settled in Zutphen (The Netherlands) and later in Amsterdam, were the first to work out the secret of tuning truly harmonious bells. Their inno­vations in tuning were partly the result of a collaboration between the Hemonys and Jacob van Eyck, a blind carillonneur from Utrecht, who was renowned for his excellent ear. (See page 115 for more about van Eyck. The Hemonys ultimately installed three carillons in Utrecht, two of which are still there today.) It was found that the series of partials (overtones) shown on the next page produced the best results in a set of bells. Other tuning methods have been tried, and variations on the profile (the shape of the bell as designed before the casting is done) have been developed, but this unique series of partials remains the standard, having withstood the test of centuries! The illustration on the following page shows the traditional partials of string and wind instruments (the frequencies of which are mathematically related) and contrasts it with the partials found in well-tuned bells. Note that the main pitch in the “natural harmonic series” example is an octave lower than the bell example. Several partials in a bell are very close to the prime tone, which imparts the richness we hear in its sound. For that reason, on many carillons, piano pieces can be effective played an octave higher on the carillon. The hum tone gives more gravity to the sound, and the higher register reduces the “clutter” that comes from the close-spaced partials.

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III. Very Basic Playing – Striving for a Beautiful Tone

For most playing, the hands should be positioned in a loose fist, with the thumb positioned above the index finger. The hand should be relaxed. The purpose of the fist position is that the other fingers sup­port the fifth finger, which is the finger usually contacting the key. The knuckles should be more or less aligned, so that none of the fingers protrude. A finger that sticks out can create the risk of accidentally hitting a neighboring key (which can be painful as well as being a musical problem). On some hands, the arrangement of the knuckles may be best staggered slightly, since the knuckle is often the thickest part of the finger. A thumb pointing up in the air is a sign of tension. A player will have better control and better stamina if his or her thumb is relaxed, resting over the index finger. Different carillonneurs can quite successfully use slightly different contact points on the hand, so again there isn’t just one way, but contacting the key top with the second (middle) knuckle of the fifth finger probably provides the best control. Since it is often necessary to move rapidly from one note to another, it makes sense to lead with the “point” of that knuckle, and get there rapidly. (See Figure 1, on Page 4.) As much as possible, the hands should be prepared and at rest atop the keys before commencing the stroke.  For playing at mezzo piano or louder, one should begin the stroke with just a slight “forward” motion, mostly meeting the weight of the action and clapper with the weight of one’s arms. Since the player normally sits at an incline, the weight of the arms will naturally tend to move forward. The key and the hand must start in motion together. Players who come crashing down on the keys subject the instrument and their hands to considerable punishment, and the resulting sound is often harsh and ugly. It is worth understanding why. Between the key and the clapper are several components of the mechanism. Several feet of wire (or, in a few newer instruments, carbon fibre rods) make most of the connec­tions, and along the way there is usually either a roller-bar or a “directed quadrant.” (See the next paragraph for an explanation about that.) If a key is suddenly jarred into motion, that action invariably causes a reaction, as the shock wave is tele­graphed through the rest of the mechanism. The resulting vibration effectively short­ens the length of the wire (or rod – it happens with those as well), causing the clapper to dwell on the bell too long and to create a harsh, metallic effect as the clapper bounces on the side of the bell. It also interferes with the continued ringing of the bell after it has been played. As several carillonneurs have said, you should “imagine you have the hammer in your hand.” On percussion instruments, good players make a point of “drawing the tone out of the instrument” by getting the mallets or sticks off the instru­ment immediately after playing a note; the same principle applies just as well to the carillon. (Unlike playing the organ, one should NOT hold the key down longer on longer note values; once a note is sounded, the player should immediately prepare the next one.)

To explain the transmission in a little more detail, in general, most carillon transmissions are one of two types. In the roller-bar system, the vertical wire (coming up from the key) connects to an arm, which is mounted on a horizontal roller-bar – essentially an axle – which rotates when the note is played. The roller bar transfers the movement closer to the bell; another arm, on the other end of the roller-bar, makes the connection to the clapper via a short horizontal wire. (See Figures 2 and 3 below.) The transmission bar system works especially well with bells hung in straight rows and has the advantage of being potentially easier to serv­ice, with all the wires being parallel. (Note access platform in Figure 2.)

Figure 1: Basic Hand Position                          Figures 2& 3: Roller-Bar Transmission (Culver)

Figure 4: Directed Quadrant (Ball State)                               Figure 5: Radial Transmission (Ball State)

The “directed quadrant” (or “directed square”) is used in the “radial transmission” system, and elimi­nates the roller-bar. The vertical wire connects to an arm that is welded to a center pivot, which is also welded to another lever; it functions as one piece. (See Figure 4.) The horizontal wire com­ing from the upper lever goes in whatever direction is necessary to reach the clapper of its bell. If the bells are arranged in circles, so that the bells in a given range are equidistant, such an arrangement can work very well. (See Figure 5.) When a radial transmission is misapplied to a carillon where the bells are still hung in long, straight rows, much sloppiness is introduced due to long wires (covering distances a roller-bar would do more solidly) and to the irregularities resulting from some bells being much closer to their quadrants than others. With wires going in all directions, maintenance access can also be a chal­lenge in a radial transmission system. Thus, the layout of the bells is an important factor in determining which system should be used. If the design is right, the radial transmission is superior, in that it eliminates the sluggishness introduced by the mass of roller-bars. Some players prefer the “feel” of one type of transmission over the other. Both systems have their advantages and disadvantages. (Some carillons use a hybrid of the two systems.)

The hand and the key should build up momentum together. What happens next depends on which notes are needed next. If the same bell is to be played again immediately, the hand should follow the key down, giving a “tap” at the bot­tom of the stroke, controlling the return of the key and “catching” it, either for a shorter stroke the next time or to prevent the key bouncing at the top. If a different note is needed, the hand should give the necessary push and use that key as a “diving board” to get to the next one. If the same note will not be repeated immediately, it is preferable NOT to keep the hand on the key all the way to the bottom of the stroke. Once the action is in motion, inertia will finish the stroke. This allows the clapper to rebound off the bell more cleanly, and it also frees the hand to move to the next note. In general, the louder the note, the less you have to follow the key down. For very soft playing, a slower stroke is involved, and it is therefore necessary to follow the key the whole way down, exercising special care to get off the key and to allow it to come back up immediately.

The wrist is involved throughout, but most of the effort should consist of directing the weight of the arm through the wrist and hands to the keys. In louder playing, where the stroke must ultimately be rapid, it is often effective to begin the stroke with a more conspicuous forward motion, which will cause a more gradual acceleration at the beginning. It is much like the advice many piano teachers have given (not the least of whom was Rachmaninoff) in telling the student to “play into the piano.” On either instru­ment, the goal is a warm, resonant tone. As with piano technique there are occasions when a snappier “staccato” touch, with more emphasis on the wrist, is used, but on carillon in particular, it is more of a special effect: the resulting sound, particularly in the treble range, leads to a shorter decay time in the bells. The latter touch would be used when a more crisp effect is sought, particularly in music involving harmonic changes that would otherwise sound cloudy. Staccato touch is also often necessary for very rapid playing, especially at soft dynamic levels. The difference in the sound between the “staccato” touch and the more conventional arm-weight touch is often subtle. There are three examples in this book in which a staccato touch is useful: the Scherzetto (page 13), Polonaise (page 18), and the second In dulci jubilo setting (page 56).

* * * * * * * *

V. Pedals

It is certainly an adjustment for anybody (perhaps especially for organists) to learn to play expressively on the pedals, but it is absolutely essential for playing the carillon musically. Usually, in a scalewise passage of all “white key” notes, it works best to have each foot play several notes in a row rather than to try to alternate feet. In cases where there are some “black key” notes, someone with smaller feet may be inclined to alternate feet more often, whereas someone with larger feet may still be more likely to play several consecutive notes with one foot. (It is simply more awkward for someone with larger feet to alternate frequently.) In the older European tradition, the tendency was to play notes from “a”  below “middle c” with the left foot, and “a#” on up with the right; on a North American console, the pedal range is two octaves or more (rather than 1½ octaves, as in the European keyboards for so many years). More to the point, the choice of which foot to use is largely a matter of where the feet are most active in a given piece (or passage). Both feet can and should be used in any area of the pedal range, depending on the piece. Also, if there is a passage in which it is desirable to use both feet in either the higher or lower range of the pedalboard, one should feel free to slide up or down the bench. A player will defi­nitely have better control if his or her body is relatively centered around the range of notes being played, especially since leg weight should be used in playing the pedals. The examples on the next few pages provide a sim­ple intro­duction to using the pedals.

With the pedals, the weight of the leg is used to meet the weight of the clappers and action. The ankle is more of a shock absorber in this case. As with the hands, meeting weight with weight (primarily, at least) will produce the best tone. Unlike organ technique (particularly as taught in the French tradition – Lemmens, Widor, Vierne, Guilmant, Bonnet, Dupré, and on to Harold Gleason, Mildred Andrews, and their students), carillon pedal technique does not involve keeping the knees together and angling the toes outward to reach the various notes. Carillon pedal technique never involves use of the heel (except for special tone cluster effects). The knee should be essentially straight above the pedals, so that the leg weight moves in the same direction as the pedal travels. (Note that on AGO-standard organ pedalboards, the highest and lowest pedals themselves actually travel outward when depressed. Carillon pedals in almost all cases travel straight down – a very important difference.) An organist has the advantage in approaching the carillon of having developed good foot coordination, but the manner of playing car­il­lon pedals is totally different, as the player is responsible for tone and dynamics (unlike organ pedalling). One must always listen for tone, balance, and phrasing.

In approaching the carillon pedals for the first time, as with organ study, you should at first try playing with the pedals alone, then hands alone, and finally together. (As with any rudimentary note-learning practice, it should be done on the practice console, not broadcast throughout the neighborhood.) It usually works best to take just a line or two at a time. The key is to learn to prepare your feet (as with your hands) in advance. DO NOT hold the pedals down! As with the manual, if you are going to re-strike a note immedi­ately, it may be useful to “catch” it on the way up to arrest the tendency for the action to “bounce” at the top. Otherwise, as soon as you have played a note, you should move your foot to the next note it is to play. Practical handling and pedalling have been provided in the following pieces; you may amend them if you wish, but be sure you write in those amendments and FOLLOW them. If you don’t use consistent handling and pedalling, you have no way of preparing notes in advance, and the result considerably compromises your control.

VI. Chords

Playing chords in the manuals on the carillon usually involves opening one or both hands, playing one note with the thumb and the other with the remaining fingers. It is generally agreed that the usual limit for one hand to reach is a perfect fourth; but inevitably there are a few examples where a larger reach is desirable, if the player can manage it. When both notes to be played in one hand are “black” keys or “white” keys, it is usually easiest to “reach around” both keys (if possible), assuming a flatter position for wider intervals. (See Figure 6.) In cases where the thumb plays a black key and the remaining fingers play a white key, the white key note is best approached at an oblique angle by the fin­gers. (See Figure 7.) If the thumb is playing a white key and the other fingers a black key, the hand essentially “stands” on the thumb. (See Figure 8.)

Figure 6: Hand position for chords where all notes are “black” or all are “white”

Figures 7 & 8: Hand positions for “black and white” key chords

For players whose hand size prohibits simultaneous sounding of the notes of a given chord, there are various broken chord patterns that may be used to sound all the notes. (See Section IX, page 37.) Com­posers and editors sometimes will indicate which combinations of notes should be played together by one hand with a left or right hand bracket. Unfortunately, it has not yet become a consistent practice in published carillon music to place the bracket on the left side of the chord for left hand notes and on the right side for right hand notes. Normally, the intended handling is obvious, but the player may often want to make adjustments to those indications.

Both of the next two musical examples involve harmonic intervals within one hand. The first of these, the Pedal Aria, is a piece where the top voice of the manual part is melodic, but there is also an independent melody in the pedals; one should listen to BOTH melodies, and shape them accordingly. The third musical example, Slow Dance, is a simple piece, inspired by the piano Gymnopédies of Erik Satie. The pedal part defines the downbeat (which should be more a matter of rhythmic weight than dynamic emphasis); the melody is in the top voice. The balance must be maintained throughout the crescendi and diminuendi (both written and implied). As with good organ and piano technique, one should pre­pare hands and feet on the keys of the next notes as soon as possible. In this case, it is probably best to prepare both feet at the same time, right after the second of each pair of notes.

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Excerpt from the Notes on the Composers and Music:

JACOB VAN EYCK (1589/1590–1657) was the renowned blind carillonneur of Utrecht, The Netherlands. He was born in Heusden, The Netherlands (today in the province of North Brabant); both parents were of noble birth. In 1620, he became involved in making improvements to the chime in the Heusden City Hall, becoming its player officially in 1621 (upon the death of his predecessor). In 1623, he traveled to Utrecht to make some improvements to the chime in the Dom (Cathedral) tower. After some negotiations, and after proposing to make improvements to the other chimes in Utrecht, he was appointed the player there. Over the years, he undertook expanding and improving the chimes at the Dom Church, Saint Nicholas Church, Saint Jacob’s Church, Saint John’s Church, and the City Hall, and his title was augmented to “Director of the Bell Works,” with playing responsibilities on four of the instruments. None of the five chimes have survived, but the Hemony carillons of the Dom tower and of Saint Nicholas Church, both installed after van Eyck’s death, are preserved and in regular use.

He continued to be active as a player and also as a consultant, on the tuning of bells as well as on installation and mechanical matters. Over the years, all the chimes in Utrecht had consoles installed or replaced, intermediate mechanisms improved, and bells added and re-tuned. (He also carried out ser­vice on organs in Utrecht and elsewhere.) By 1633, he had developed the ability to isolate and describe the five partials in bells (see page 2), and the way in which the shape of the bells influenced them. His discovery attracted the notice of French mathematician René Descartes, who lived in Utrecht at the time, and also attracted the interest of influential politician Constantijn Huygens and his son, the brilliant scientist Christiaan Huygens. The latter two were distant relatives of van Eyck. (Christiaan Huygens is particularly remembered today for applying the pendulum to a clockwork in 1656 – far more accurate than the foliot principle in use up to that time.) Van Eyck’s acquaintance with the best intellectual minds of his time, along with his working relationship with the more working-class bellfounders, helps to explain how he was able to guide the Hemony brothers to their glorious achievements.

Van Eyck’s only extant compositions are found in his collection of pieces for recorder, Der Fluyten Lust-hof (The Pleasure Garden of Flutes). “Een kindiken is ons gebooren” (“A Child is Born unto Us”) was a favorite Christmas song in The Netherlands; it predates the Reformation, and was initially in the Catholic repertoire only. The version of the song van Eyck used as a source is found in a Protestant hymnbook dating from 1615. This song seems to have been particularly favored by carillonneurs: arrangements of it turn up in the De Sany collection of 1648 as well as in the 1728 Beyaert collection (see page 121), and there are records of it being used as a clock chime tune in tower clocks at Ghent (Belgium) and Alkmaar (The Netherlands) as well. Van Eyck’s variations on the tune are not as flamboyantly vir­tuosic as some of his other compositions (such as the brilliant “English Nightingale”), and as such it is a particularly strong candidate as a piece van Eyck would have played on the chimes as well as the recorder.  Many of the pieces in the collection still present formidable challenges to the skills of recorder players today, as well as to carillonneurs who undertake to play them.

One may play “Een kindiken is ons gebooren” in its original form (deleting all the smaller notes and ottava markings provided here) on a light two-octave carillon. However, on the harmonious carillons we know today, with their greater range and more sophisticated mechanisms, the effect is arguably thin; so, suggested harmonies are added, all in smaller notes, so that the performer still has the option of only playing the original, or of improvising an entirely different harmonization.

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– [Page] 117 –

Appendix A: A Succinct History of the Carillon and its Music

A Carillon is a musical instrument consisting of at least two octaves of carillon bells arranged in chromatic series and played from a keyboard permitting control of expression through variation of touch. A carillon bell is a cast bronze cup-shaped bell whose partial tones are in such harmonious relationship to each other as to permit many such bells to be sounded together in varied chords with harmonious and concordant effect. 
                                              – from the Articles of Incorporation of The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America

Early History of Chiming Clocks

The carillon is unique, in that it began as an automatic instrument. Its history is intertwined with the evolution of the clock. By 200 B.C., in Byzantium, a form of “water clock” (where time was measured through a controlled flowing of water out of, or into, a vessel) was designed to sound a bird whistle at intervals to signal the time. (The cuckoo clock, naturally, is a mechanically-operated example of the same idea, many centuries later.) Over the centuries that followed, water clocks were made to signal the time by various means, including bells, whistles, and by dropping small metal balls into a metal dish. Not surprisingly, water clocks had less of a following in Northern Europe, where the water could freeze in the winter. Late in the 13th century, in England, a weight-driven clock mechanism was invented. The earliest examples in Northern Europe sounded the time on a bell, and often lacked dials and hands alto­gether. (It is worth noting that the French “cloche,” the Dutch “klok,” and the German “glocke” all mean bell. In a sense, it is a misnomer to call a timepiece which doesn’t operate a bell a “clock.”) Throughout the 14th century, public clocks (sometimes in municipal buildings, sometimes in churches) gradually appeared throughout The Netherlands (which at the time encompassed what is now Northern France, Belgium, the present-day Netherlands, and Luxembourg) as well as the rest of Europe.

Most people did not have clocks in their homes, and the public clocks were therefore critical in helping people organize their lives. A signal was needed to announce that the hour strike was about to begin, so that townspeople could accurately tell the time from the striking of the hour. (The Westminster chime tune serves the same purpose in many clocks today.) That need led to a signal, the “voorslag” (Dutch for “fore-strike”). At first it involved a single bell signaling the quarter-hours (with a second bell used for the hour strike), but later in the 14th century, it evolved to the “ting-tang” or “ding-dong” quarters. Usually, it involved a pair of bells, sounding a descending third, sounding one “ding-dong” at the first quarter, “ding-dong ding-dong” at the half hour, “ding-dong ding-dong ding-dong” at the third quarter, and four “ding-dongs” at the hour, following by counting the hour. Some clocks in Europe sound the “ting-tang” quarters to this day, some with ascending thirds, some descending.

The next few stages of development took place in the Southern Netherlands, specifically in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking portion of present-day Belgium. The earliest record of a melody being used as a voorslag on tower bells dates from 1479, at Park Abbey at Heverlee (near Leuven – also known as Louvain), where the clockwork played the plainchant “Inviolata, integra, et casta es Maria,” the first two phrases of which could be rendered on four bells. The mechanism involved disks, locked together, with fixed cams moving the levers that in turn worked the hammers on the outside of the bells. When so few bells were involved, there was no need to adjust the melody or figuration that sounded the time. Eventually, larger sets of bells were installed; and more complex tunes were rendered on them as towns competed with one another to have the largest, heaviest, or the most elaborate clock chimes. As more and more bells were used, the clock­work sounding them developed accordingly. The automatic playing of bells became considerably more versatile when drums with movable pins were introduced, around 1530.

Playing the Bells Manually

The limitations of the fixed disks and early drums, and of swinging the bells, led to manual “chiming” almost from the beginning. Some would chime bells working the clappers by hand, with others using ropes to pull on clappers. The chiming wasn’t always melodic – sometimes it was just for a joyous, random ringing effect. As larger sets of bells were installed, people devised improved ways to play them manually. The earliest written record of bells being played by just one person from some crude form of keyboard is found in the archives of Antwerp Cathedral (Flanders) where, in 1482, a small set of bells (8-10) was connected to “an arrangement of ropes and sticks,” and a wide variety of tunes was played on these bells by a man named Eliseus. The term keyboard was first used in this sense for a clock chime in Oudenaarde (nine bells) in 1510. These two instruments are the earliest documented examples of bells played manually from what could loosely be termed a keyboard – the first step in the development of carillons. The popularity of small sets of bells (chimes), played by the clockwork but often played manually as well, spread throughout The Netherlands. By the early 16th century, the Waghevens family (several generations of them) began casting bells for these chimes, soon followed by the van den Ghein fam­ily. Both were active in Mechelen (Flanders) at the time, and the two foundries were the major suppliers of chimes in the region. The sound of the 16th-century bells was generally quite “rough,” as little was known about how to tune bells effectively. By the middle of the 16th century, Flemish founders were regularly making chimes of 18 bells, making a partially-chromatic two octaves. (The usual arrangement was a b-flat in both octaves and an f-sharp in the upper octave.) At least 50 such instruments were cast. Little survives today of the early van den Ghein chimes and even less of the work of Waghevens. The oldest extant instrument is the 18-bell chime in Monnickendam, in the Northern Netherlands (present-day Netherlands); 15 of its bells were cast in 1596 by Peter (II) van den Ghein (1553–1618). In 1602, a chime installed in Mechelen was the first to include pedals in its console. Bellfounders were producing chimes of increasing size, culminating in the instrument in the tower of St. Nicholas Church in Brussels, with 38 bells spread out over 3½ octaves, installed in 1642. There were several missing chromatics in the bottom octave of the Brussels instrument, it wouldn’t have been tuned, and in fact it is uncertain whether it was equipped for manual playing at all; thus, “chime” is still the appropriate term, even with so many bells. It was for this instrument that Theodoor De Sany wrote his book of music for setting on the automatic playing drum. (See pages 120–1.)

While bellfounders gradually improved the quality of their bells, their attempts at tuning – when they attempted at all – were crude efforts with hammer and chisel. Certainly, the demand was there, particularly as larger instruments were being built; many town records from the period document that the bells they ordered were to be well enough in tune to allow playing in harmony. The examples that sur­vive today show that bellfounders rarely came close (at least by today’s standards).

The First True Carillon

A dramatic change occurred in the 17th century with the work of François and Pieter Hemony (1609–1667 and 1619–1680, respectively), many of whose carillons survive today, in various states of preservation. (See page 1 for more about the Hemony brothers.) With the collaboration of consultant Jacob van Eyck (1589/90–1657, see page 115) of Utrecht (Northern Netherlands), the Hemony brothers cast and tuned the bells for the Wijnhuis (Wine House) tower in Zutphen, Northern Netherlands. They cast metal bars to use as a tuning reference, and set up the equipment to lathe metal away from the edges of the bells in an even, controlled way. Rather than attempt to cast bells perfectly in tune, they cast them with extra thickness, which would then be cut away as needed to bring all the partials into accord. After much experimenta­tion and development over a three-year period, the Zutphen carillon was completed in 1646. It was immediately recognized that this instrument was musically superior to any set of bells previously attempted; here, at last, were bells that were truly harmonious! The original order was for nineteen bells, but upon the recommendation of van Eyck, the instrument installed was a full two octaves (23 bells).

It was with the Zutphen bells of 1643–46 that the term carillon as we understand it today was first appli­cable. It is noteworthy that even with this, the first true carillon, the minimum range of 23 bells was established. In view of the size of chimes being cast by other founders by that time, the timing for the Hemony brothers couldn’t have been better; people were ready for well-tuned, mostly-chromatic carillons.  The Zutphen carillon and those that followed were chromatic instruments (usually minus low C# and D#), with two or more often three octaves. Typically, the two-octave carillons were higher-pitched, essentially the equivalent of the second and third octave of a modern carillon. The three-octave carillons were the equivalent of the bottom three octaves. As with carillons today, the transposition varied, and some of the more prestigious carillons (Mechelen, Antwerp, Utrecht, Oude Kerk in Amsterdam) were pitched lower than the prevailing “concert pitch.” The Hemonys generally avoided casting bells above c3, noting that higher bells were often ineffective and that much re-casting was needed to achieve any success with them.

The brothers cast fourteen carillons together in Zutphen. In 1657, François accepted an offer to set up his operation in Amsterdam; anticipating the order of several carillons for the city, officials offered foundry facilities at no charge, as an incentive. Meanwhile, Pieter Hemony moved to Flanders, notably to Ghent, rejoining his brother in Amsterdam in 1664. Ultimately, they produced a total of 51 carillons.

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Early Carillon Music

Remarkably little carillon music for live performance has been preserved from the first 250 years of the existence of the instrument. As with the early history of the pipe organ, the early carillon­neurs relied mostly on improvisation in their performances. The skill needed to play the instrument well was taken seriously, however. Archival evidence shows that many city carillonneurs were required to instruct others, particularly when the incumbent was nearing retirement. In the 1630s, Jacob van Eyck, in response to such a request, had the city of Utrecht order a set of 30 small bells to be used in a practice console, so that his students would not continue “to fumble on the public bells to their and the city’s disgrace.” At that time, the largest of the chimes in Utrecht possessed no more than 21 bells (Dom Church); clearly, van Eyck was looking ahead to the future development of the carillon in ordering 30 bells for the practice console. There were earlier records of practice consoles, using small bells (in one case made of pottery) or metal bars; early examples were found in Antwerp (around 1600) and Haarlem (present-day Netherlands, in 1625).

Van Eyck was a virtuoso performer on the recorder, and a collection of his recorder pieces, Der Fluyten Lust-hof (The Pleas­ure Garden of Flutes), was published in three different editions during his lifetime. (An example is included on page 106.) Most of the pieces were sets of variations (based on folk songs, plain chant, and Psalm tunes of the Reformed Church), beginning with an unadorned presentation of the melody, followed by two or more variations, each more ornate (or employing more rapid figurations) than those that preceded it. The two-octave range of the recorder placed a limitation on its music that was compatible with the range of most of the chimes van Eyck was playing (at the Dom Church, Saint John’s Church, Saint Jacob’s Church, and the Town Hall, all in Utrecht, Northern Netherlands). It is likely that van Eyck would have played some of these pieces on the bells as well. It seems improbable that the rather primitive mechanism would have allowed the playing of 16th notes at the tempo one would expect on the recorder; however, van Eyck oversaw the installation of new consoles on all the Utrecht chimes, along with improvements to the mechanisms, re-tuning of existing bells, and adding new bells to expand their range. It may well be that the Utrecht instruments were exceptionally responsive, due to his own ministrations. That said, it is purely speculation that van Eyck played selections from Der Fluyten Lust-hof on the bells. (See page 115 for more information about Jacob van Eyck.)

There were several collections of music for the carillon from the Baroque period which are believed to be collections of “versteek” music. The Dutch verb “versteken” means to re-pin the playing drum (literally, “re-stick” [the pins]), but its usage has evolved to a broader definition, which also refers to the music written for an automatic sys­tem. Many clocks were made to play shorter tunes or excerpts on the quarter-hours, with more time allotted on the half hour, and more time yet on the hour. In some cases, a very short figure (one or two meas­ures) was played halfway between the quarter hours. Such is still the case in Antwerp and Bruges, both in Belgium, where the ancient mechanism still plays the tunes and strikes the hour. (Today the timekeeping in Antwerp is done by modern electronic equipment, however.) As a representative example, at Saint Rombouts Cathedral in Mechelen, a clock drum made in 1736 (preserved, but no longer in use today) played on the Hemony carillon as follows:

So, in all, the drum played 180 measures of music every hour. Usually, the chiming continued through the night as well. 

Since it required two or more people to accomplish re-pinning the drum, the music for the versteek had to be written out in advance. Several collections of versteek music were assembled into notebooks which have been preserved for posterity. They include: a book by Theodoor De Sany (1648, Brussels, present-day Belgium); a book by Phillip Wyckaert (dated 1681, Ghent, Flanders); a collection of book­lets by Johannes and Frederik Berghuis (father and son, Delft, Northern Netherlands, mid 18th through early 19th centu­ries); and a book by Johann-Epraim Eggert (Danzig, East Prussia; now Gdansk, Poland, 1784). A few of the selections in these collections, particularly in the Berghuis repertoire, were intended for manual performance, but most were clearly for the versteek. Many selections were so short as to be more appropriate for sounding the quarter-hour or half-hour than for a live performance.  Also, quite a few of the selections, particularly in the Wyckaert and De Sany collections, were awkward, and in some cases impossible, to perform manually. (Wyckaert was not a carillonneur, but attended to the versteek because the Ghent City Carillonneur did not wish to be involved with it.)

Theodorus Everaerts (1690–1740), Carillonneur of Antwerp Cathedral from 1720 to 1739, compiled a little book of simple pieces into a collection called Beyaert 1728 (an older spelling of beiaard, the Dutch word for carillon). Most of the selections in Beyaert 1728 are very short, often of just eight measures. Their brevity may suggest that the collection was intended for automatic, rather than manual, playing; however, some technical details in the music support the argument that it was indeed a collection of music for manual performance. This collection is interesting for its historical aspects rather than for its musical content. In 1780, André Jean Baptiste Bonaventure Dupont, carillonneur of St. Bertin Abbey, in Saint Omer (now part of Northern France), assembled a collection of melodies to play on the carillon. The bass and harmony were left for the performer to improvise. All of the above collections contain settings – a few of them rather sophisticated – of church music (hymns, plainchants), folk songs, and of instrumental or vocal music. Only the Berghuis collection includes some free compositions conceived originally for the bells.

Joannes de Gruÿtters (1709–1772), carillonneur at Antwerp Cathedral, compiled a Beÿaert­boek (Carillon Book) in 1746, a collection of 194 pieces. Some selections are quite simple, but many require a rather advanced technique. The Carillon Book is the earliest collection of music for the carillon that most experts in the field agree was intended for live performance by a carillon­neur. Many of the pieces are anonymous (unidentified, at least so far), some being settings of folk songs. Of the selections in which the composers are identified, several of them were arrangements of instrumental music by colleagues de Gruÿtters knew in Antwerp (violinist Henri-Jacques de Croes, cathedral choir director Joseph-Hector Fiocco, cathedral music director Willem De Fesch, cathedral organist Dieudonné Raijck). The collection also includes arrangements of compositions by internationally-known composers from the Baroque era (Corelli, Couperin, Locatelli, Vivaldi). De Gruÿtters signed five pieces as his own. These, plus pieces in the collection by Boudewijn Schepers, caril­lonneur of Aalst (Flanders) and by Jan Jozef Colfs, carillonneur of Mechelen, stand out as the earliest extant compositions written specifically for manual performance on the carillon. Several selections from that collection are included in this book, some in Albert Gerken’s transcriptions (pages 34, 60, and 62) and some in an urtext edition  (pages 76, 96, 99, and 103). Joannes was succeeded by his son, Amandus de Gruÿtters (1736–1805), but apparently he also used his father’s collection as his main source of written music when he played. (Amandus made no contribution of his own to the caril­lon repertoire.)

Another manuscript of music for the carillon, dating from 1756, was assembled in Leuven by J. F. de Tiege, probably under the supervision of city carillonneur Matthias van den Gheyn (see below). This collection includes some extensive sets of variations on familiar tunes of the day, such as Cecilia and the 17th-century Spanish tune La Folia de España.

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The Nineteenth Century

The 19th century was a “dark age” for the carillon in many ways. The death of the best founders, the Napoleonic wars, and the gradual move away from meantone temperament all were probably contributing factors to the decline. In times of war, bellfounders were called upon to apply their skills to making cannons and other implements of war. The bronze in existing bells became a valuable commod­ity during military conflicts. Since the beginning of the 15th century, rulers confiscated bells from the cities they conquered, but the larger-scale wars of the early 19th century had a larger impact on bells throughout Europe. There were also cases in which a country’s own government requisitioned bells for the military use of the copper. In Napoleon’s time, a monetary value was calculated for the bells, and some cities were able to save their carillons and swinging bells by paying the required amount; however, many carillons and many individual bells were consigned to the melting pot. Since the middle of the 18th century, various tuning temperaments were being tried (and debated), gradually displacing the well-established meantone tuning. Retuning an organ, a harpsichord, or a piano was not a difficult proposition. Re-tuning a carillon was a major project that would entail removing the bells from the tower to do the work. Also, of course, the retuning of bells would be essentially irreversible. Above all, there were no founders left who had the skills and the knowledge to tune their bells properly. The casting of acceptably tuned bells became a lost art. Attempts to make new carillons were rare in any country.

In Leuven, Matthias Jozef van den Gheyn (1753–1807), older son of Andreas Jozef, briefly took over the foundry, and successfully cast two carillons. Soon thereafter, he left, and his brother, Andreas Lodewijk van den Gheyn (1758–1833), took over, but no carillons were made at that time. Andreas Lodewijk’s daughter, Anna Maximiliana, married Thomas Guillaume van Aerschodt (1769–1831). The foundry continued under the management of generations of van Aerschodts until 1943, with several carillon-sized sets of bells along the way. Their attempts to tune their bells were never successful, however. For almost the entire 19th century, there simply were no well-tuned carillons made. Still, it is remarkable that the same bellfounding enterprise was run by members of the same family for twelve generations.
Compositions for the carillon during this period were few indeed. Joannes Franciscus Volckerick (1815–1897) was carillonneur of Antwerp Cathedral from 1834 to 1863. In 1841, he composed a set of twelve Préludes mélodiques, really the only known carillon compositions extant from the middle of the 19th century. They are peculiar, improvisatory, thoroughly romantic pieces, but awkwardly writ­ten for the instrument. Their modulations and occasional chromatic figurations are not well suited for carillons tuned in meantone (such as the fine Hemony carillons of Antwerp). Volckerick also made many arrangements of music from the orchestral repertoire and from theatrical works. Later in the 19th century, Johan A.H. Wagenaar I, carillonneur of Utrecht from 1869–1894, wrote six compositions. His son and grandson succeeded him, and each also did some composing for carillon. (The Wagenaar “dynasty” of Utrecht carillonneurs lasted until 1954!)

The Chime in America

Much like the evolution that had happened earlier in Europe, the forerunner of the carillon in North America was the chime. The term “chime” again refers to a set of bells smaller than the 23-bell minimum required by the formal definition of a carillon; usually, a chime has eight to fifteen bells in a diatonic series. As with the 16th-century European chimes, American chimes might include a b-flat or an f-sharp, so that a wider range of melodies could be played. In many respects, the American chime was similar to the 16th-century European chime, though the great popularity of the chime in America led to a somewhat more standardized mechanical design and way of playing it.

These instruments are generally used for playing melodies only, and are played from a “chimestand,” a console somewhat resembling a carillon console, but with much larger keys (more like pump handles), and a key travel of 10 inches or more. In the 19th-century chimes, the action usually consisted of chains and pulleys, with an adjustable leather strap as a crude substitute for a turnbuckle. (Note that the chime action was still not far removed from the 1482 description of “an arrangement of ropes and sticks” in Antwerp.) In most cases, little or no effort was made to tune chime bells, so the pitches (to say nothing of the partials!) were often rough and approximate. Most chimes were made in America.

The chime market was dominated by two bellfoundries in upstate New York. Andrew Meneely founded what eventually came to be called Meneely & Company in 1826 in Watervliet, New York (which was at one time called West Troy). The other company was founded by Clinton Meneely (of the same family) in 1870, situated in Troy, New York, directly across the Hudson river from the older foundry, eventually called Meneely Bell Company. Several hundred chimes were made and installed in churches, universities, and civic buildings. Many are still in existence. Unlike their European predecessors, in most American chimes, the bellfounder built the framework, mechanism, and chimestand. The tower clock­works were typically made by specialized companies such as Emmons Howard and Seth Thomas. A few chimes were later incorporated as part of new carillons, with varying degrees of success. Meneely of Watervliet, meeting the challenge presented by the English-made carillons and chimes flowing into the country, did tune some of their bells by the second quarter of the 20th century, and also built four carillons. Meneely of Troy made no effort to tune their bells. Both companies closed their doors in 1952. Other American bellfounders that made chimes included McShane of Baltimore, Maryland; van Duzen of Cincinnati, Ohio; Jones of Troy, New York; and Stuckstede of Saint Louis, Missouri. A few chimes were also imported from English bell­founders Mears & Stainbank (later Whitechapel), Taylor, and Gillett & Johnston.

Four early sets of bells in chromatic series were installed in the United States, all of which in one way or another fell short of the formal definition of a carillon, but which do represent historic precursors of the carillon in North America. The first two instruments were cast by the Bollée foundry, of Le Mans, France. Their largest effort was a 56-bell “carillon” (very poorly tuned) in Chalons-sur-Marne, France, dating from around 1860, which still exists. The priests who founded the University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, Indiana) were from Le Mans, and they ordered a 23-bell carillon from Bollée, installed in 1856. The tuning of the Notre Dame instrument (still extant) is certainly not to the standards expected in a proper carillon, but it is an important instrument in that it was the first set of bells in a chromatic series to be installed in the Western Hemisphere. However, until the middle of the 20th century, this instru­ment was playable only from an automatic drum or, awkwardly, by pulling on pegs protruding from the levers worked by the drum of the automatic mechanism. Bollée installed a 43-bell instrument at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Buffalo, New York in 1870, with a playing arrangement similar to that at Notre Dame. Judging from the quality of some later Bollée instruments in Europe, the Buffalo instrument probably had fairly well-tuned bells; sadly, that instrument no longer exists. The third was a 25-bell instrument installed in 1882 by van Aerschodt of Leuven, Belgium for Holy Trinity Church (Episcopal), in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was played from a crudely con­structed carillon console – the first example of a carillon console in North America – the remains of which are now preserved in the Verdin Clock and Bell Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio. Subsequently, it was played for many years from an electric keyboard, but has recently been connected to a new, tradi­tional carillon console. Though van Aerschodt endeavored to tune their bells, they weren’t very successful.

The last such installation was a 26-bell instrument by the Paccard Bellfoundry of Annecy, France, at the Miraculous Medal Shrine, Saint Vincent’s Seminary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Though superior to the Bollée and van Aerschodt instruments, the tuning of the instrument at Saint Vincent’s originally fell short of the standard required of a carillon; furthermore, it was played from a “Maisonnave” machine, a large and noisy apparatus involving a revolving drum, heavy springs and pegs that made it possible to play the bells from a piano-type keyboard, albeit with no dynamic control. (A slightly older Paccard instrument with a “Maisonnave” playing system still exists, and is still in use, at the church of Notre-Dame in Buglose, France.) In the 1950s, the Paccard instrument was renovated and enlarged to its present 47-bell size, and is played from a traditional carillon console today.

The Rediscovery of the Secrets of Bell Tuning and the Modern Carillon

A catalyst for the modern development of bell tuning was the work of an English clergyman, Canon A.B. Simpson. Unhappy with the poor tuning he heard in church bells in England (change-ringing peals and other swinging applications – the carillon was almost non-existent in Great Britain at the time), Simpson wrote in 1894 to the John Taylor Bellfoundry (Loughborough, Leicestershire) explaining his ideas about bell tuning. He found a receptive audience in the Taylors, as the company had already begun studying representative European bells, and they had already been developing their tuning skills since the 1870s. The Taylor company began to maintain tuning records for the hum, prime, tierce, and nomi­nal of their bells in 1895. Simpson published two articles on the subject of bell tuning, which were published in Pall Mall Magazine in 1895 and 1896. He described in detail the tuning qualities found in the best European bells, including those by the Hemonys, outlining the five principal partials (see page 2). Simpson issued a challenge to English bellfounders to produce bells in which at least the octaves (hum tone, prime, and nominal) were in tune with each other. Concurrently, the Taylor Bellfoundry acquired new (and better) tuning forks and a tuning lathe for bells, and put these theories into practice; arriving at their “five tone tuning” in 1896. For the first time in nearly a century, new bells were being made in which all five partials were fully in accord.

The Taylor company was the successor to a foundry begun in the 14th century; members of the Taylor family had been in charge since 1784. The tuning activity was a new development, however. The first set of these scientifically-tuned bells in the United States was a ten-bell chime cast by Taylor, installed in 1899 at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. The Iowa State instrument was gradually enlarged to its present size, a carillon of 50 bells (all of them by Taylor). The first “modern” carillon, tuned in equal temperament, was a 40-bell instrument the Taylor company built and installed in a tower at their works in 1904. (Later, that instrument was removed, and its bells dispersed.)

Taylor’s chief rival was Gillett & Johnston, of Croydon, England, who began tuning their bells in the first decade of the 20th century. The Gillett & Johnston company began as a manufacturer of tower clocks in 1844 (under the name Gillett & Bland), and originally ordered bells for their installations from other companies, particularly from van Aerschodt in Belgium. In 1877, Arthur Johnston joined the firm and expanded the business to include its own bellfoundry. It was Arthur Johnston’s son Cyril (1884–1950), who brought their bell tuning to a high level of quality. He was the key figure in the creation of that firm’s many carillons. Though the Gillett & Johnston bellfoundry closed in 1957, the company continues its activity today as a maker of tower and commercial clocks and clock dials. It is noteworthy that Gillett & Johnston was apparently the first company to provide all the components – bells frame, mechanism, console, and the clockwork – for its carillons.

The first two carillons in North America to meet present-day standards for tuning were installed, respectively, by Gillett & Johnston (Metropolitan United Church, Toronto) and Taylor (Our Lady of Good Voyage Catholic Church, Gloucester, Massachusetts), both in 1922.  These two firms dominated the market until World War II, particularly since none of the continental founders were capable of matching their tuning at the time. Between them, Taylor and Gillett & Johnston cast twenty-one carillons for the European market. In those cases, the bells were supplied to European companies, who then built the rest of the instrument. For the North American and British markets, both companies designed and built the entire instrument; also, both companies consulted with performers in an ongoing effort to build instruments that would respond to their musical needs. As a result, the carillon underwent a considerable evolution during the 20th century, particularly in North America, emerging as a sensitive, responsive concert instrument.

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