Monday, December 5, 2016

Campanology is the Study of Making Bells (Ignore in America)

We have an unusual Word of the Day in 'campanology' since it's the making of bells and also the ways to ring them.  It's an intricate and exhausting study which it must be since just think of those monks in the bell towers trying to ring the bells in some sequence which may take the rest of their lives to play.  There's a surprising amount to this and it may interest you.  (WIKI:  Campanology)

Ed:  are you pretending to be a bell expert now?

I'm not pretending anything.  I saw the word and started reading about it.  Maybe the premise was incorrect at the start and America shouldn't ignore this since maybe study will mean they won't break any more bells.


Professional Carillonneur, Belgian Jef Denyn (WIKI)

I've seen some seriously twisted musical kit from time to time but this set is out there in the far reaches.


Here's where you can learn how to do it, the Royal Carillon School "Jef Denyn" (WIKI) and you can learn more about the school from the school's Web site.  The school is in The Netherlands but the text is in English.


Here's some more kit and antiques this time since we're getting a bang out of finally finding musical kit which is even harder to practice than a live drum kit due to the hordes of people who can hear you doing it.


Royal Carillon Museum


Wouldn't you dig it, tho.  Touch this one and the biggest bell rings, man.

Novitiate: really?

Sure.  It makes the whole tower shake.  You know you want to do it.

2 comments:

Laughing Gecko said...

Wow, this post brought back memories. You may not remember it, but after dropping out of U.C. in the mid 70's, I took a job with a small company in Cinti. called I.T. Verdin. They were positioned above the Ohio river near Columbia Parkway and built carillons. I was sort of an apprentice machinist as these things were built from scratch. I believe we were the only company in the northern hemisphere that did this type of work as employees had to travel all over to service these things, mostly churches & universities. It's a bit of a lost art as electronics have replaced the old school bells, being cheaper & easier, but nothing sounds quite like these bells being played by a real carillonneur. This work only lasted less than a year as I ran off to a better paying job doing land surveying for the city, but sometimes I wish I had stuck around longer to learn more about this. Fascinating stuff.

Unknown said...

I got a taste of what you mean from the article and this comment makes it all the more personal. I'm sure the science behind tuning a bell must be ridiculously complex and it's a marvel they got so far with this centuries ago.

Here's a bit of trivia I just learned: the inscription on the Liberty Bell is from Leviticus ... in the Torah. This country is insane (larfs).