Carillon
There is convincing evidence that the term referred initially to the medieval custom of chiming on sets of four church bells by pulling the clappers by means of ropes.
It and carillon were adopted by English speakers after the introduction of the instrument to British troops following the War of the Spanish Succession in the 18th century.
Another common term is carillonist, which some players of the carillon have wished to replace carillonneur because of the former's gender inclusivity, simple spelling, and unambiguous pronunciation.
[13] The carillon's cast bronze, cup-shaped bells are housed at the top of a tower in a structure typically made of steel or wooden beams.
When the clock mechanism sets the drum in motion, the pegs catch onto levers, connected to hammers that rest just a short distance from the outside of the bell.
In the Middle Ages, bellringers attached ropes to the clappers of swinging bells and rung them while stationary in a technique called chiming.
A 1478 chronicle recounts a man in Dunkirk having made a "great innovation in honor of God" by playing melodies on bells.
Eventually, these striking clocks were modified to make a warning signal just before the hour count to draw the attention of listeners to the incoming announcement.
[57] Moreover, the political situation under Margaret of Austria and Holy Roman emperor Charles V brought relative wealth and power to cities.
[61] A critical development for the modern carillon occurred in the 17th century, which involved a partnership between Pieter and François Hemony and Jacob van Eyck.
Van Eyck was a renowned blind carillonneur of Utrecht, who was commissioned by several Dutch cities to maintain and make improvements to their clock chimes and carillons.
[67] Carillon owners resisted by, for example, petitioning the new governments to declare their instruments as "culturally significant"[68] or by disconnecting the bells and burying them in secret.
An increasing number of households had access to grandfather clocks and pocket watches, which eroded the carillon's monopoly on announcing the time.
[74] Also, with a reduced demand for new carillons, the tuning techniques developed by the Hemony brothers, but not Van Eyck's underlying theory, were forgotten.
John William Taylor, who had been trying to replicate the tuning techniques of the Hemony brothers and the Vanden Gheyns at his foundry, began working with Simpson.
Tremolos offered a solution to a Romantic-era limitation of the carillon: its inability to expressively sustain the sound of individual notes.
[80] Because of his concerts, Denyn met William Gorham Rice, an American state and federal government official from Albany, New York, US.
After Denyn's 18 August 1913 evening concert, he and Rice exchanged ideas about the societal and educational value of carillon performances for large audiences.
[84] Rice became an authority on carillons in the United States; besides his books, he gave 35 lectures in several cities, published articles in magazines, spoke on radio programs, and presented exhibition material on the subject between 1912 and 1922.
[85] In 1922, Rice garnered financial support from Herbert Hoover and John D. Rockefeller Jr. to establish a carillon school in Mechelen with Denyn as its first director.
The flood of carillons onto the continent is attributed to Rice's widely popular books and persistent education in the United States.
His romanticized depiction of the cultural instrument prompted wealthy donors to purchase carillons for their own civil and religious communities.
Following the deaths of Denyn in 1941 and Rice in 1945, North American carillonneurs, through their new organization, sought to develop their own authority on education and performance.
[update][98] In 2019, playing the carillon of St. Coleman's Cathedral in Cobh, Ireland, was recognized by the Irish government as key element of the country's living cultural heritage.
[102] Baroque keyboard music is well suited for carillon transcription,[103] particularly the works of Bach, Corelli, Couperin, Handel, Mozart, and Vivaldi.
[106] Through his school, Denyn was the early proponent of the "Mechelen style"[107] of carillon music, which consists of virtuosic flourishes, tremolos, and other Baroque and Romantic elements.
[93] Barnes' campaign was most successful with Roy Hamlin Johnson, a piano professor who introduced a whole category of music exclusively native to the carillon featuring the octatonic scale.
"[116] In a second bibliography with Emmet Lewis focusing on women, transgender, and non-binary composers, they assert that while many works have been written by these groups, they are often not published through traditional means, and "gender inequality remains systemic and common practice in carillon concerts.
[119] The lack of consistent interest in traditional performances among the general public has caused carillonneurs to engage in musical collaborations and experiments, collectively referred to as "Carillon Plus".
The congresses host lectures, workshops, and committee meetings about the topics related to the carillon, for example: news, tutorials and demos, and research developments.
