Is anyone here a carillonneur?
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,464
    This from this week at Our Lady of Good Voyage (Nossa Senhora de Boa Viagem), Gloucester, Massachusetts:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK3bSJN0__I&list=RDkK3bSJN0__I&start_radio=1
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,193
    "only traditionally played (non-automated) carillon in Massachusetts". Guys, we have more than that in Cleveland.

    I don't play, but I wrote a (not very good) piece for one. It's notoriously hard to record, and here we were getting bounce back from a building
    Thanked by 1Don9of11
  • Many years ago I attended a carillon workshop at the Westminster Choir School at Princeton, New Jersey, and played the carillon (Petit & Fritsen) at the church at which I worked, and taught boys from the school to play (they loved it!). Because of the prominent overtones (a major third on continental instruments [carillons] as opposed to a minor third on English peals) there are specific rules surrounding which bells should be used in harmony. The feminine carillonneur is a carillonneuse. Hence the lady in the above recording.

    We have three carillons in Houston - Trinity Lutheran and St Mary's Seminary (twin instruments both built by Petit & Fritsen at the same time), and St John the Divine.
    We have several peals of bells - Walsingham, Christ the King Lutheran, and maybe one or two others.
    Thanked by 2Liam CHGiffen
  • francis
    Posts: 11,175
    I’m sure I could be one, but never had the interest or the opportunity. By the way, after watching her play, I would never want to cross Cindy…
    Thanked by 2Liam Roborgelmeister
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,464
    "only traditionally played (non-automated) carillon in Massachusetts". Guys, we have more than that in Cleveland.

    On the regular working tower bell front, Massachusetts does quite well for such a small area. Old Cambridge (Harvard Square) alone has quite the array of working tower bells, not sure any place in the USA can match it. I don't know if it's still the case, but midday on Easter Sunday was long a special time to hear all the bells in the area being rung.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Diapason84
    Posts: 140
    I studied it for a couple of months, decades ago. At the time it didn't hold my interest, so I just went back to the organ. I would be open to trying it again.
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 3,181
    I would gleefully be one if there were instruments around where I live. I studied it a bit in college and played a few and find it great fun. A man can dream.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,464
    For the tuning, this might be illuminatingly disorienting (Bach Toccata in d) - while made at the Westerkerk in Amsterdam, it was filmed by the (very fabulous) Peabody Essex Museum of Salem, south of Gloucester on the North Shore of Massachusetts:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VSUuTABb3U&list=RD3VSUuTABb3U&start_radio=1
  • francis
    Posts: 11,175
    Wow. I didn’t know they were so responsive. Are they all like that?
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,464
    I have no clue. I just love carillons and pealing bells and thought this thread might be a place with those with more experience could chime (pun intended) in. IMNSHO a Catholic church (and esp a Catholic cathedral) without working bell(s) is at the very least a bit ... lacking in something it ought to have.
  • ...so responsive...
    Yes -
    as with all instruments it all depends on who is playing them, who made them, and how they have been cared for.
    Thanked by 1ServiamScores
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,961
    Jumping off from this question - do we have any change ringers on the forum?
    Thanked by 1ServiamScores
  • AnimaVocis
    Posts: 196
    I loved studying Carillon at KU. I wish I would have finished pursuing a double major in Organ and Carillon there....

    There's plenty of time to do so in my future!
    Thanked by 1tandrews
  • Jumping off...
    Steve Collins, who is an on and off participant in our Forum, is an avid change ringer, and is a scholar of the art of change ringing.
    He lives in the east, one of the Carolinas, I believe.
    He served as organist for a number of years at Walsingham.
    Thanked by 1WGS
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 3,181
    Stimson: I did a January term on it when we were at DPU. We would practice the patterns with handbells in Gobin’s basement. It was good fun. Sadly, 15 years later, the details on the mechanics are a little fuzzy.
    Thanked by 1StimsonInRehab

  • IMNSHO a Catholic church (and esp a Catholic cathedral) without working bell(s) is at the very least a bit ... lacking in something it ought to have.

    Yeah, the ability to harass the demons roaming the earth with the bells' sound waves. Traditionally, bells on Catholic Churches weren't just consecrated, but they were named and baptized. To find out what we're missing with our electronic "bells" or no bells, here's the English translation of the prayer that's prayed by the bishop when baptizing bells:
    “Bless, O Lord, this water with a heavenly benediction, and may the power of the Holy Ghost come upon it, so that when this vessel, prepared to call together the children of the Holy Church, has been washed with it, there may be kept far away from wheresoever this bell may sound, the power of those lying in wait, the shadow of spectres, the ravages of whirlwinds, the stroke of lightning, the damage of thunder, the disaster of tempests, and every breath of storm; and when the sons of Christians shall hear its ringing, may their devotion increase, so that hastening to the bosom of their loving mother the Church, they may sing to Thee, in the Church of the Saints, a new canticle, bringing therein to play the proud sounding of the trumpet, the melody of the harp, the sweetness of the organ, the joyous exultation of the drum, and the rejoicing of the cymbal; and so, in the holy temple of Thy glory by their service and their prayers, may they bid come the multitude of the angelic hosts. Through our Lord...”


    And:
    “O God, who through the blessed Moses, the law giver, Thy servant, didst command that silver trumpets should be made, through which when sounded by the priests at the time of sacrifice, the people, reminded by their sweet strains, would make ready to worship Thee, and assemble to offer sacrifices, and encouraged to battle by their sounding, would overcome the onslaughts of their enemies; grant, we beseech Thee, that this vessel, prepared for Thy Holy Church, may be sancti+fied by the Holy Spirit, so that, through its touch, the faithful may be invited to their reward. And when its melody shall sound in the ears of the peoples, may the devotion of their faith increase; may all the snares of the enemy, the crash of hail-storms and hurricanes, the violence of tempests be driven far away; may the deadly thunder be weakened, may the winds become salubrious, and be kept in check; may the right hand of Thy strength lay low the powers of the air, so that hearing this bell they may tremble and flee before the standard of the holy cross of Thy Son depicted upon it, to Whom every knee bows of those that are in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confesses that the same our Lord Jesus Christ, swallowing up death upon the gibbet of the cross, reigneth in the glory of God the Father, (Philippians 2, 10), with the same Father and the Holy Spirit, world without end. R. Amen.”
  • francis
    Posts: 11,175
    An aside to carillon…

    I am prepping to start a choirchime ensemble to accompany a string/wood orchestra and SATB choir. Does anybody use choirchimes?
  • Does anybody use....

    Do you really mean 'chimes', or the sets of handbells that are used in many churches in the US.
    These were originally made for the indoors practice of change ringing teams.
    It is curious that they now have become used for music making in churches. All kinds of literature is published for them. I would recommend handbells over chimes, but have a very lukewarm opinion about them.
  • francis
    Posts: 11,175
    Hi MJO

    choirchimes are quite popular with younger budding ringers. Much less expensive, very durable, and easy for children to play. They would be ornamenting a string orch and SATB choir, so basically adding a sparkling effect to my comps.

    https://youtu.be/wI9iZTdzqp4?si=0AY35g2GMIWQrG9W

    The Malmark factory is about 4 miles from my house.

    https://youtu.be/Waa7K5gJR5Y?si=RuSSCXJ8-LpcJQNq
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen irishtenor
  • I love carillon and deeply desire to learn. Sadly I don't have much more time to learn yet another instrument right now so I am putting it off until I get into college.