BELGIUM’S BELLS

Hokitika Guardian, 9 May 1931, Page 6

BELGIUM’S BELLS

CARILLON-PLAYER’S ART CHOICE OF MUSIC. WELLINGTON, May 2. “Cap-illon playing is entirely different in technique from any other instrument/’ said Miss Gladys W ntkins. “When I say carillon playing, 1 mean playing by hand, for by modern electric and clockwork devices the catriiion may be played mechanically, as is the case with those which chime the hours, half-hours, and quarters in some towns in Belgium. Indeed, the clangour of the bells, so often in action, is something to avoid. I had had an early experience of that when I went, to study at M alines under M. Jeff Deuyn. At first I lived in a pension some distance away from the tower; then thinking I should be nearer my work, 1 shifted my quarters to a position near the town, but within three days I was back again in the old quarters the bells had driven me away! And do you know my old landlady still had my room waiting for me. She said she knew 1 would return sooner or later. So the bells have their terror: Of course, out of Belgium the carillon is never played with such frequency as to make it anything else but a new and charming form of percussive music.

WELLINGTON’S BELLS. “The Wellington carillon, which I played on so often when it was in liyde Park in London, is a very beautiful one of forty-nine bells, ranging fi'om in tbe bass “G” to the treble G, Miss Watkins continued. “The tone is very pleasing —light, of course, in the case of the treble hells, but wonderfully sonorous down below—and the range of music which can be played on them is practically inexhaustible. One must always be careful, however, as it does not always do to have the harmony in too close a relation, as the blurring of the floating tones might produce a dissonance, particularly to ears unaccustomed to carillon music. Slow music finds a truer expression on the carillon than does that which requires velocity in execution. You see the keyboard of the carillon is not like tliat oi an organ or .pianofortt; it is a range of wooden -levers (which are . pressed downwards, by Mfe padded ball of the hands, and it is-, the mitvnner of the ‘touch which gives expression.” Expression is possible then ?

“Indeed it is! That is one of the subtle beauties of carillon music. You should hear Jeff Denvn play! There is non one that I know or have heard j who can play with anything like his powers Of' L*S’i«'eSSittiff -Buf^yoTfmay 4 ' understand from this that a certain discretion has to he exercised in the clioise of music, not only on account ot ' the difficulties in playing with the pad- 1 lied side of the hand, and the pedal , range with the feet, but because of the ! lingering nature of the vibrations given forth by the bells. .

, : ' ’ ;■ 45,000 CHILDREN. ’ - l, i iiever~ heard such beautiful music, as was played, iu Malines last year on the occasion of a Catholic congress held there for the first time in the history of Malines. It was an amazing series of enchanting sights to see 45,000 flower-wreathed children in a nunibber of'amusing processions and tableaux and really thrilling to hear them singing some sacred measures, to the accompaniment of the carillon. Alternating with the sound of a mighty organ and a choir of i 'o men and boys, the music was carried from the interior of the cathedral to the great mass of the people by means of loudspeakers placed in four different positions in the Square: “You must necessarily have fairly quiet, calm weather conditions to hear carillon music in perfection,” said Miss Watkins, “tinder such conditions, on fine summer evenings, with all trafficstopped, it is very charming to see the peop’e in the square listening to the chimes. They have probably beard them a thousand times, but they never seem to tire of bell music. It is part of their lives. , “You must understand that even when the air is still you have to be close to the tower to hear the more delicate ‘nuances’ of the music. The idea that it can be heard miles away is quite erroneous. The village square beneath the hell tower is the popular place to hear carillon music.”

‘Miss Watkins was very pleased to hear that,a small electric lift is to he provided in the carillon tower in Wellington. She had to walk up and crown over 400 steps in the Malines tower in the celebrated Cathedral Saint Romb.iut, which dominates the old town so When climbing up those ancient stone steps, it was impossible not to notice the names which cover the walls forn the humblest of bell-lov-ers to one of the Kings of France. History does not relate if he ever reached the top!