Musical Times Publications Ltd.

Review
Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 57, No. 875 (Jan. 1, 1916), p. 22
Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.
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 22 THE MUSICAL TIMES.-JANUARY I, 1916.

e.g., the numberof bells containedin the carillonsof the M. Jef.Denyn,carillonneur, Malines;
followingplaces is not correctlygiven: Bruges, Mons, Mr. W. W. Starmer,Fellow of the Royal Academyof
Diest, Courtrai,Louvain,Arnhem,and Aberdeen. Music, London;
The Arnhemcarillonshould most certainlyhave been M. Van Dorslaer,carillonhistorian, Malines;
includedin the listof thebestcarillonsin Holland on p. 53. M. J. A. de Zwaan, carillonneur, Delft;
It is interestingto note that the three most recent M. Cyr. Verelst,directorof the Academy of Music,
carillons of Holland-Flushing (33 bells), Appingedam Malines;
(25 bells), and Eindhoven(25 bells) are by thewell-knownnames which at once give the highestauthorityto such
firmofMessrs.Taylor,ofLoughborough. a document. The followingquotationsfromit will show
The notesofthebellsat Malinesseemto have got mixed. whatare the cardinal ofa good carillonneur :
The largestbell is givenas G flatand theone above it as C. requirements
The intervalbetweenthesetwo bellsis one toneand notan I. ' It is the task of the carillonneur to makeup for
the shortcomingsand to hide the defects of his
augmentedfourth. The notesof all thebells in thecarillon instrument.'
are given in the articleon Carillons in the Musical Times
ofAprillast. 2. ' He willuse thefinestbellsand play his melodies
in thekeyswhichwill showhis instrument to the best
Amongstthe carillonsofGreat Britain,thereseemsto be
no reasonwhymentionshouldbe madeoftheone constructed advantage.'
by Van AerschodtforBoston,in 1867, as thirty-six ofthe 3. 'The carillonis nota pianoforte,neitheris it a
bells weremelteddownquitesixteenyearsago. band or orchestra,thereforepieces writtenfor such
It is withfeelingsofsadnessthatwe read the particulars of playingwill have to be in mostcases alteredand nearly
Termonde,Dixmude,Louvain,Nieuport,Ypres,and Dinant, always simplified.'
fortheyare all utterly destroyed.Malines,up to thepresent, the 4. ' Manual skillis certainly an important element,but
artistic is the-greatest,thebest,and
has mostfortunately escaped this terriblefate,forit can be the most interpretation
statedon the highestauthority thatthis is thecase, in spite necessaryfeature.'
ofnumerousreportswhichhave appearedto thecontrary. 5. 'The selectionof the music is of the greatest
Some of the expressionsused by Colonel Rice require importance,' takingintoconsideration 'the place which
the carillonmusthold as a musicalinstrument.'
explanation,as theywill notbe foundin any bookson bells
in the Englishlanguage,e.g. : Colonel Rice writesdelightfully and enthusiastically of
Bottomswell = Sound bow the carillon concerts at Malines and of the wonderful
Drum = Chime barrel playingof M. Jef.Denyn. Of these,muchhas beenrecorded
Bell master = Carillonneur ; &c. in these columns,fromtime to time,and thereis nothing
further to add to whathas
The term'Bell master' conveysno idea to the readerof It is to be hoped thatalready appeared.
ColonelRice will see his way to
theproperfunctions ofthewordcarillonneur.' Bell player' issuinganothereditionof his most interesting book,making
would be a bettertranslationif we musthave a wordto the necessaryalterationsto
describesomethingthat until recentlyhad no existencein re-arrangement bringit up to date. A little
of the subject-matter, an index, and if
England. 'Bell player' certainlyconveysa more correctpossiblemoreillustrations of bell-towers,would add greatly
idea than ' Bell master,'or the term' Bell ringer'so often to its usefulness and muchenhanceitsvalue as an important
incorrectly applied by English writers to the player of the contribution to bell literature.
carillon.
Regardingbell-founding, Colonel Rice is not on very safe Album de Salon. No. I. Novello Edition,523a.
ground. His remarksare too generalto be ofvalue,and too
vagueto givea correctidea of the manyconditionswhich [Novello& Co., Ltd.]
governthetoneand pitchofbells. Here are fourteen piecesbyRussianand Polishcomposers.
To state that the pitch of bells is determinedby the In additionto suchold friendsas Chopin's Valse in D flat,
diameteris nothalfa truth-shapeand thickness are equally Rubinstein'sMelodyin F and Nocturne in G, thereare a
important,and must be taken into consideration. Pitch delightful Preludeand Mazurkaby Liadov, threeinteresting
(numberof vibrationsper second) in bells of the same pieceson Russianmelodiesby Hofmann,and otherexcellent
material,shape,and proportionalthicknessvariesinverselyitemsbyArensky,Tchaikovsky, Schuloff,Cui, and Glinka-
as thediameter. a very attractivecollection. The degree of difficulty, of
Nowadays, no expert bell-founderwould dream of course, varies, butis nowheretoogreatto preventthe book
'filing' a bell to tune it. In this country,for manyyears frombeingusefulto fairlyadvancedplayers.
past,thetuninghas been done moresatisfactorily and more
accuratelyby a verticallathe,whichis capableof turning off
the finestshavingfromanypart of the inside of the bell. The Book of Hymns with Tunes. Edited by Samuel
a GregoryOuld, O.S.B., and WilliamSewell, A.R.A.M.
Sharpening bell is to be deprecated,evenif at all possible.
At the presenttime, owing to the greatimprovements [London : Cary& Co.]
which have,been madein constructing the 'mould' forthe This hymn-book, foruse in Roman CatholicChurches,is
bell, thecastingsare so trueand exactthatlittleadjustment editedbyDom Ould, O.S.B., and Mr. W. Sewell.
is requiredin the tuningmachine. It is impossibleto casta admirably
It containstwohundredand seventy-six
seriesof bells perfectly 'in tune' in thestrictmeaningofthe well chosen,and the listof authors hymns,particularly
containssuch names as
term,thechiefcause of this beingthe variations whichtake Dryden,Faber,Newman,Caswall,Caddell,Bridges,Furniss,
place in thecoolingof themetal. Vaughan,Rawes, O'Connor,Henry,Lingard,de Montfort,
Colonel Rice quotes M. Van Aerschodt,thewell-knownand others,as wellas St. Gregory, St. Bede, St. Bonaventure,
founderof Louvain,thus: 'I cast a dozen small bellsfora St. Thomas, St. Paulinus, Rabanus, Savonarola,da Todi,
particularpitch I desire,and choose the best one.' This Celano, Suso, St. Ambrose, Chateauroux, Fortunatus,
is surelytoo empiricala method to be of any practical Abelard,and Adam ofSt. Victor.
value,and sucha proceedingshouldnotbe necessary. As a As to the tunes, the names of the composers are a
matterof fact, if the minutestcare is taken it is not sufficient guarantee,whilemanyof theold-fashioned airsare
necessary.Small bellsareand alwayshavebeentroublesomeretained,notmerelyforold times'sake,butfortheirgenuine
to tune,and froma practicalpoint of view presentgreat intrinsicworth. Thus we findmelodiesby Ett, Webbe,
difficultiesbothas to castingandtuning,but thesedifficulties Pere Hermann, Crookall, Hemy, Herbert, Richardson,
have been entirelyovercome,and at the presenttime they Nanini, Mozart, Haydn, Palestrina, Tallis, Pergolesi,
can be tunedwithgreateraccuracythaneverbefore. Pearsall,Phillips,Rhaw, Stevenson,Wesley,Mendelssohn,
In AppendixE, ColonelRice has done excellentservicein and VincentNovello; and we are also givennew tunesby
an
printing English translationof the judges' reportof the Sir HubertParry,Hollins,Somervell,Smith,JohnE. West,
InternationalCarillon Competitionswhich took place at Mohr,C. H. Lloyd, Gounod,Haigh, Barrett,Mocquereau,
Malinesin August,191o. Pothier,Palmer,and bytheEditors. Dom Ould is responsible
This reportis probablythe most importantcontributionfortwenty-five tunes,and Mr. W. Sewell foreighteen.
yetwritten on carillon-playing.It is signedby themembers In additionto the
hymns,thereis an excellentModal
of thejury: settingof theMissa de Angelus. The index affordsa clue

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