Talk:Carillon/Archive 1

List format
Text moved to Talk:List of carillons (when this list became separated from the 'Carillon' article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by SomeHuman (talk • contribs) 00:14, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

Largest carillon
The article mentions that the largest is a 77-bell Carillon. However, the Wiki for "Stone Mountain" states that the park's Carillon has 732 bells. Can someone explain why the Stone Mountain one isn't the one listed? I might not remember to check this discussion page, so if you could, please reply on my User Talk. Thanks.
 * The Stone Mountain "carillon" is mostly electronic, and its many "bells" although mechanical resonators of many types are electronically amplified, and played from an electronic keybaord rather than the traditional baton "keyboard" of a traditional carillon. Most of the "concerts" during the week are electronically taped.  For each single tone on a traditional carillon, the Stone Mountain "carillon" has several different resonators, allowing it different voices or stops, as on a chruch organ, some with similar names.  It is a remarkable instrument.
 * Traditional carillons have their size measured in terms of the weight of the bells, rather than the number of them. The weight of either bourdon bell at Riverside or Chicago is more than the total weight of the Stone Mountain carillon.  In the old days, size was how much metal you put put up, I guess.
 * Schulmerich Carillons made the Stone Mountain carillon, and their web site is quite interesting. Rick Rayfield,  former tour guide of the Rockefeller Chicago carillon  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rayfieldvt (talk • contribs) 08:03, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedian comments
There were two, rival, foundries in the Meneely family: one lathed its bells and the other thought casting was the One True Way. So any refs to a "Meneely" foundry, like the one I added yesterday, should spec which one is meant. =/ Kwantus 21:10, 2005 Mar 26 (UTC)

I don't think that it's "Maryland, My Maryland", but rather a different song. As a graduate, I should know this ... I'm also adding the McDonogh Carillon, the other one in Maryland state.--Rbeas 00:49, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

Well, decided to revert at this point. I'm sure that someone has a suitable way to put the list on a separate page, or pages for each continent / region / whatever. Reverted to the page with the list and incorporated picapica's edits. Comments welcome!--Rbeas 00:39, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

Carillon definition
The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America defines a carillon as "a musical instrument consisting of at least two octaves of carillon bells arranged in chromatic series and played from a keyboard permitting control of expression through variation of touch. A carillon bell is a cast bronze cup-shaped bell whose partial tones are in such harmonious relationship to each other as to permit many such bells to be sounded together in varied chords with harmonious and concordant effect." For the purposes of clarity, the GCNA defines "traditional carillon" as one played from a carillon keyboard; a "non-traditional carillon" is a musical instrument with bells, but played from an electronic keyboard. Anything else is not a carillon according to the GCNA (or the World Carillon Federation). WABtheMusician 22:22, 12 May 2006 (UTC)
 * That's great and very interesting! Could you give us a link to that source? Sarum blue 14:54, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

Schools - last paragraph seems misplaced
The last paragraph under schools seems misplaced. Any thoughts on how it should be moved or removed. It seems to only highlight external links. Maybe it could go there. MissionInn.Jim (talk) 16:45, 29 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I suggest two new headings Notable Traditional Carillons and Notable Modern Carillons. Traditional carillons defined as those with bells operated manually by a baton keyboard. Each carillon should have a name, location, brief text, and link.  For example, Rockefeller Chapel, University of Chicago, sister to Rockefeller Carillon at Riverside Church in New York, and second largest bordon in world, http://rockefeller.uchicago.edu/architecture/carillon.shtmlRayfieldvt (talk) 08:13, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Loughborough Carillon
There is a famous carillon in Loughborough, Leicestershire, UK. Any chance this could be added to the article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bonzodog01 (talk • contribs) 09:09, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

History lacking
This article has some general history of bellfounding, but no history of when or how carillons were invented. Can anyone help out? -- Chetvorno TALK 04:09, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Electronic carillons
Should we consider any comment or edits to present electronic carillons? They are becoming widespread. Are they truly a carillon if they are electronic? Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines a carillon both ways. See []

Just a thought. Sarum blue 16:58, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I found an interesting brief article about the history of the carillon, its movement to the US, and the development of the electronic carillon. It can be viewed here:  In addition, I found an excellent example of a modern electronic carillon. It can be viewed here:   Someone could probably contact the manager and ask if the photo could be used. He was very responsive in emails relating to my request for information. I might come back later to work on this article and get the image, but for now I thought I'd post this information here in case anyone else wants to take this topic and go with it. Sarum blue 19:40, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I believe the opinion of a majority of carillonneurs is that an "electronic carillon" is in fact not a carillon at all, but a simple sound-producing machine, and as such, has no more in common with an actual carillon (which is a musical instrument) than, say, a CD player has with a violin.


 * Certainly if some company manufactured a CD player that only played sounds that were sort of similar to a violin, but required no musician to operate it, no one would seriously suggest including references to this machine in the Wikipedia article on violins... SaxTeacher (talk)  06:48, 18 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I've added a quick reference to electronic or simulated carillons, and I've added an article where they can be discussed. Mattlary 04:26, 14 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Sorry Mattlary, I removed that entry (see my edit comment). If the article on electronic carillons would come to include their playable kind, all with proper references, then an appropriate line from this 'Carillon' article could point at such. Kind regards. — — SomeHuman 14 Feb2007 06:00 (UTC)


 * An electric one would be like a sampler I think.--SilverPwnzor (talk) 02:35, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Full-size electrically-controlled carillons
Another set of non-traditional carillons exists that has at least 23 carillon bells, but the bells are struck by electric solenoid-actuated clappers. One such instrument is located in the Bell Tower at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. Such a system enables performances to be recorded and played-back at a later time. This particular instrument could be a full carillon, but its current electronic control limits its expressive capability. Isingbass76 (talk) 03:25, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

Promo
Has anyone thought to add a piece to this about Cast in Bronze? www.castinbronze.com The only travelling Carillon in the world, and quite amazing if I do say so myself.
 * Yes, several users. It's in the List of carillons where it belongs. Please start a new section for an comment unrelated to a former one, and sign your comment with 4 tildes ( ~ ). — SomeHuman 26 Feb2007 06:00 (UTC)
 * Just for the record, Mr. Della Penna's Cast in Bronze is not the world's only mobile carillon. Chime Master Systems also own one, the "Mobile Millenium" (see: http://mobilemillennium.com/), and there are several in Europe as well. AMVStecker (talk) 06:27, 31 July 2011 (UTC)

The Stephen Foster Memorial Carillon is not a carillon (?)
This article contains a photograph with the title ".. Stephen Foster Memorial Carillon bell tower, the world's largest tubular bell instrument.." However, the definition of a Carillon requires the bells to be "cup shaped," not tubular. Consequently, it seems that the Stephen Foster instrument is not a Carillon and the photograph should be removed.

For the same reason, the Stephen Foster Carrillon should be moved from the "Traditional Carillons" section of List of carillons to the "Non-traditional Carillons" list.

If there are no objections, I shall proceed with these proposals. StandardPerson (talk) 01:37, 20 April 2011 (UTC)


 * As the Stephen Foster tower is not a carillon, I've gone ahead and removed it per the discussion above and replaced it with an image/info about Bok Singing Tower. AMVStecker (talk) 06:57, 31 July 2011 (UTC)

Mention of semantra needs clarification
In the "Musical Characteristics" section, the article says "Modern imitation instruments...use semantra (rectangular metal bars roughly the diameter of a pencil, but of varying lengths)". This is unclear, as the term diameter is by definition irrelevant in regards to a rectangular object. Does it mean the semantra are the thickness of a pencil? Are the semantra in question actually cylindrical? I don't know what to make of this sentence, but it clearly needs to be revised. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.15.81.27 (talk) 18:53, 17 December 2011 (UTC)

Additional citations
Why and where does this article need additional citations for verification? What references does it need and how should they be added? Hyacinth (talk) 15:03, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Problems with descriptions
The description given of a carillon in the first section is extremely limited, and fails to describe a majority of extant carillons. The most basic definition for "carillon" is a "a set of fixed, tuned bells, sounded by hammers controlled from a keyboard." There is no requirement for a particular number of bells, nor for a direct mechanical linkage between keyboard and hammers, and certainly not for a keyboard that has to be played "with the fists".

Carillons may have any number of bells, from two to as many as you care to have, and may have different kinds of keyboard -- mechanical, electromechanical, electronic--, activated by hands, feet, fingers, etc.

The definition given is for one kind of carrillon, which one might designate the "traditional" carillon -- although even there, there are many variations. I feel the basic definition should be much more generic, with the variations on the instrument defined later on, as need be. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.92.174.105 (talk) 23:55, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

Harkness Tower, Yale
The carillon at Yale University, New Haven, CT has 54 bells and is played by members of the Yale Guild of Carillonneurs, a student-run organization. There is a Wikipedia article on it ("Harkness Tower"). This article should mention it and have a picture. Lmonteros (talk) 23:16, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Glockenspiel
What is up with the glockenspiel-carillon confusion? It says that the carillon is sometimes called a glockenspiel in German, while in French, the glockenspiel is called a carillon. No citation is given, are the terms interchangeable? Please help. — Preceding unsigned comment added by U. E. Aduan (talk • contribs) 14:59, 2 October 2012 (UTC)

Aberdeen Carillon
It appears there is a carillon in Aberdeen (Scotland, not Hong Kong) at. St Nicholas Church. There's actually a list of UK carillons at http://www.carillons.org, and bizarrely with 3 of these unusual instruments nearby (Aberdeen, Perth, St. Andrews) and a 4th in not-so-far Dumbarton, we're probably in one of the most carillon-aded parts of the UK. At 16 (reported) carillons in 244820 sq.km, that makes 0.065 for the density metric, nearly 6 times as many in the States. You can barely walk down the streets without bumping into indigent carillonneurs touting their wares. If people are interested, my wife has a number of decent photos of the Aberdeen Carillon, and is unlikely to object to their being used. Contact me through my user page (the wife is more interested in this than I, but she's never even thought of editing Wikipedia). Aidan Karley (talk) 11:07, 14 September 2008 (UTC)


 * The article could use a decent, public-domain digital recording of a carillon performance. If you, or someone you know in the area have access to good recording equipment and a way of digitising the recording to OGG or WAV format, we could no doubt find a Wikipedia with audio editing skills who could prepare it for Wikimedia Commons. &mdash; QuicksilverT @ 21:29, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

Better audio sample needed
The one audio recording linked from this article, File:O Canada and God Save the King instrumental 1927.ogg, is of dreadful quality. I cleaned it up a bit with Audacity to reduce hiss, hum and rumble, but it still leaves much to be desired. The solution may be for a Wikipedian who lives near a carillon to make a recording with a decent microphone and modern digital recorder. If said Wikipedian doesn't know how to prepare the file for upload to Commons, I'm certain arrangements could be made for someone else to take care of those details. &mdash; QuicksilverT @ 21:29, 26 January 2013 (UTC)