CARILLON COMING

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 3, 5 August 1927, Unnumbered Page

CARILLON COMING

Listeners who have read of the — charms of carillons of the lowlands will be pleased to hear that in the dis tant future they will have the pleasure of hearing one of the largest first-class sets in the world from 2YA. The com: mittee in charge of the Wellington War Memorial has let a contract to an important English firm for the supply and erection of a carillion, to consist of 49 bells. This will be installed in the campanile to be erected as soon as pos» sible, and when completed will provide an appreciated item for broadcasting. So popular are the earillons of Belgium, and so famous do the performers become, that on the occasion of their ringing, crowds gather in the streets and stand in silence throughout the hour or more that is occupied in 4 full-dress performance. According to a tally published last year. there were 184 carillons in the world. Of these 63 were in Holland, which for the past four centuries has been the home of carillon music. Belgium next door had 44, France 25, Germany 10, Engiand 7, the Unitcd States 15, Canada 4, and South Africa and Australia one each. Although 31 carillons were destroyed in the Great War, only two-those of the Cloth Hall at Ypres and of Louvain-were of the first order. Carillons of the first order, such as Wellington is to possess, are much fewer in number than the figures given above. Those in Canada, Australia, and South Africa all come under this heading, according to Mr. W. G. Rice’s "Carillon Music and Singing Towers of the Old World and the New." Only 12 in Holland are of the front rank, 11 in Belgium, 5 in France, 4 in England, 2 in Ireland, and 10 in the United States. People who wish to hear carillon musie at its highest, according to Mr. Rice, should hear the carillon at Mechlin, in Belgium, when an_ evening recital is being given by that most famcus of all carilloneurs, M. Josef Dettyn, Every Mondav evening, from 9 to 10 o'clock, M. Denyn give Mechlin a concert during the months of June, August, and September. Mechlin’s carillon, by the way, was made in 1674, and contains 45 hells. They seem to have developed a very fine ear for bells in Holland, and in the old days, at any rate, the bellfounders had a big job in getting their bells past the critical ears of the expertse Some of the old criticisms of the seventeenth century are said to exhaust the vocabularv of deficiency. In one case, at The Hagne, in 1686, the bells of the first octave were denouneed as disagreeable in sound and in discord with each other; the next few bells were wrong, but would do; the € next above was false and dull; the sharp was shrill and dead; the b and D sharp were dull; the E was sharp; and beyond this came a bel "10 more musical than a druggist’s mot tar," and so on. The contract had been to provide The Hague with a carillon equal to Amsterdam’s best. In spite of all the critic’s vitriol, the bellfounder’s work was accepted, and the bells are heard to-day at The Hagne. The erection of carillons in Britain and America has been a very recent development. Britain has been famous for centuries for its church belis and chimes, but until recently the carillon was neglected. The first seems to have been one of 35 bells at Cattistock, in Devon, made.by & Dutch firm in 1882, then the same maker made one of 28 bells for Eaton Hall, the Duke of Westminster’s mate sion. Aberdeen, in 1890, had a carillon of 86 bells. ‘Toronto got the first carillon on the American continent ix 1922, and three months later the United States had the second.