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A carillon
Carillons come in many designs, weights, sizes, and sounds. They are among the world's heaviest instruments, and the heaviest carillon weighs over . Most weigh between . To be considered a carillon, a minimum of 23 bells is needed; otherwise, it is called a chime. Standard-sized instruments have about 50, and the world's largest has 77 bells. The appearance of carillons depends on the number and weight of the bells and the tower in which they are housed. They may be found in towers that are free-standing or connected to a building. The bells of a carillon may be directly exposed to the elements or hidden inside the structure of their towers.
The origins of the carillon can be traced to the Low Countries—present-day Belgium, the Netherlands, and the French Netherlands—in the 16th century. The modern carillon was invented in 1644 when Jacob van Eyck and the Hemony brothers cast the first tuned carillon. The instrument experienced a peak until the late 18th century, a decline during the French Revolution, a revival in the late 19th century, a second decline during the First and Second World Wars, and a second revival thereafter. UNESCO has designated 56 belfries in Belgium and France as a World Heritage Site and recognized the carillon culture of Belgium as an intangible cultural heritage.
According to counts by various registries, about 700 carillons exist worldwide. Most are in and around the Low Countries, though nearly 200 have been constructed in North America. Almost all extant carillons were constructed in the 20th century. Additionally, about 500 "non-traditional" carillons are known that most registries do not consider to be carillons due to some component of their action being electrified or computerized. A plurality of them is located in the United States, and most of the others are in Western Europe. A few "traveling" or "mobile" carillons are fixed to a frame that enables them to be transported.
A musician who plays the carillon is commonly called a carillonneur ( , ), also lent from French. It and carillon were adopted by English speakers after the introduction of the instrument to British troops following the War of the Spanish Succession in the 18th century. Though the French word carillonneur literally refers to carillon players who are men, the French carillonneuse to denote women is not used in English. Another common term is the English carillonist, which some players of the carillon have wished to replace carillonneur because of the former's gender inclusivity, simple spelling, and unambiguous pronunciation. In 2018, the World Carillon Federation adopted carillonist as the preferred term for its communications.
Each key is connected to a transmission system by a wire, usually made of stainless steel. When a particular key is depressed, it pulls on the wire, which after interacting with other wires and pulleys, causes a clapper to swing towards the inner wall of the key's corresponding bell. At rest, these clappers are about away from the bell wall. Small bells are fitted with springs to pull their clappers back immediately after the stroke, so that the bell is not sounded more than once with each keystroke. This is not necessary for large bells, which have sufficiently heavy clappers. Immediately above each key is a wire adjuster called a turnbuckle. These allow the performer to adjust the length of the wire, which often changes with temperature fluctuations.
The carillon's cast-bronze, cup-shaped bells are housed at the top of a tower in a structure typically made of steel or wooden beams. The arrangement of the bells depends on the space, height, and construction of the tower, and the number and size of bells. When the heaviest bells are especially large, they are usually placed below the playing cabin to achieve a better tonal distribution. The bells do not move during operation, only the clappers. With some instruments, the heaviest bells may be outfitted with a mechanism enabling them to swing.
The carillon has a dynamic range similar to a piano, if not more versatile. Through variation of touch, performers can express many volumes. The larger the bell, the larger its dynamic range. Bigger bells will also sound naturally louder than smaller, higher-pitched bells.
Along with pipe organs, carillons are among the world's heaviest musical instruments. Most carillons weigh (counting only the weight of the bells) between , with extremes ranging from very light instruments to the world's heaviest at over —the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Carillon of the Riverside Church in New York City, US. Its bourdon, or largest bell, is the largest tuned bell ever cast for a carillon. It sounds a full octave below most other bourdons. The entire ensemble of fixed and swinging bells, clappers, and steel framework weighs more than .
The title of "world's largest carillon by number of bells" is shared between two instruments: the carillon of the Kirk in the Hills Presbyterian Church in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, US, and the carillon at the in Daejeon, South Korea; both have 77 bells.
Since a carillon is seldom played in concert with other instruments, its bourdon may be any pitch—whichever is advantageous for the location and funds available; to simplify the writing and playing of music, keyboards often have a C-compass. As a result, many carillons are transposing instruments, especially those that are small, have many bells, or were constructed on limited funds. The transposition can vary from down a perfect fourth to up an octave. In North America, increasing numbers of new carillons have been installed in concert pitch as a result of the desire to establish the carillon as a full-fledged concert instrument.
Many carillons, according to a C-compass, are missing the lowest C and E bells (equating to the second- and fourth-largest bells if they were included). The reason is often financial; by omitting these bells, the construction of a carillon can be reduced significantly, sometimes by 20% for large installations. Since the early 1900s, European installations often reintroduce the E bell, and instead of adding the C bell, they include a B bell (which is a major second below the C-compass bell).
Bellringers attached ropes to the clappers of and rang them while stationary in a technique called chiming. Chiming bells gave the ringer more control compared to swinging bells, so was used to send messages to those within earshot. For example, sounding bells was often used to warn of a fire or impending attack. At celebratory events, a bellringer could gather ropes together to chime multiple bells in rhythmic patterns. By the end of the 15th century, chimers are recorded to have used their technique to play music on bells. A 1478 chronicle recounts a man in Dunkirk having made a "great innovation in honor of God" by playing melodies on bells. Another one recounts in 1482 a jester from Aalst playing bells in Antwerp with ropes and batons, the latter term suggesting the existence of a keyboard.
In the 14th century, the newly developed escapement technology for spread throughout European and gradually replaced the water clock. Since the earliest clocks lacked Clock face, they announced the time by striking a bell a number of times corresponding to the hour. Eventually, these were modified to make a warning signal just before the hour count to draw the attention of listeners to the upcoming announcement. This signal is called the forestrike (). Originally, the forestrike consisted of striking one or two bells, and the systems slowly grew in complexity. By the middle of the 15th century, forestrikes, with three to seven bells, could Clock chime.
As late as 1510, these two functions were combined into one primitive carillon in the Oudenaarde Town Hall. One set of nine bells was connected to both a keyboard and the clock's forestrike. The Low Countries—present-day Belgium, the Netherlands, and the French Netherlands—were most interested in the potential of using bells to make music. In this region, bellfounding had reached an advanced stage relative to other regions in Europe.
A critical development for the modern carillon occurred in the 17th century, which involved a partnership between Pieter and François Hemony and Jacob van Eyck. The Hemony brothers were prominent bellfounders known for their precise tuning technique. Van Eyck was a renowned Blind musician of Utrecht, who was commissioned by several Dutch cities to maintain and make improvements to their clock chimes and carillons. He was particularly interested in the sounds of bells. In 1633, he developed the ability to isolate and describe a bell's five main overtones and discovered a bell's partial tones can be tuned harmoniously with each other by adjusting the bell's thickness. The Hemony brothers were commissioned in 1644 to cast 19 bells for Zutphen's with Van Eyck as their consultant. By tuning the bells with the advice from Van Eyck, they created the first carillon by the modern definition. According to carillonneur John Gouwens, the quality of the bells was so impressive that Van Eyck recommended casting a full two octaves, or 23 bells. This range has been considered the standard minimum range for carillons ever since. During the next 36 years, the Hemony brothers produced 51 carillons. Carillon culture experienced a peak around this time and until the late-18th century.
Between 1750 and the end of the 19th century, interest in the carillon declined greatly. An increasing number of households had access to grandfather clocks and , which eroded the carillon's monopoly on announcing the time. As a musical instrument, the carillon lagged behind during the Romantic music, which featured music of a wandering, story-like nature. Many carillons were tuned using meantone temperament, which meant they were not suited for the chromaticism of the newer musical styles. The production of new musical works for the instrument essentially came to a standstill. The standard skill level of carillonneurs had also dropped significantly, so much so that in 1895, the music publisher Schott frères issued Matthias Vanden Gheyn's 11 carillon preludes for piano with a foreword claiming "no carillonneur of our time knows how to play them on the carillon". Also, with a reduced demand for new carillons, the tuning techniques developed by the Hemony brothers, but not Van Eyck's underlying theory, were forgotten. Subsequent carillons were generally inferior to earlier installations.
In Mechelen, Belgium, Jef Denyn was a major figure in the carillon's revival as a musical instrument. In 1887, after his father had become completely blind, Denyn took over as the city carillonneur and was responsible for playing the carillon in the tower of St. Rumbold's Cathedral. From the beginning of his career, Denyn advocated for better playability of the instrument. He further developed the tumbler rack system of transmission cables that his father had installed on the cathedral carillon. This allowed the player to have better control over dynamic variations, fast musical passages, and . Tremolos offered a solution to a Romantic-era limitation of the carillon: its inability to expressively sustain the sound of individual notes.
With his improving skills as a carillonneur and the upgraded cathedral carillon, Denyn's performances began attracting crowds of listeners. He established regular Monday-night concerts at the suggestion of the city council. On 1 August 1892, Denyn hosted the first carillon concert in history. From this point forward, the instrument garnered a reputation as a concert instrument, rather than as an instrument tasked with providing background music.
Stephen Thorne of the Canadian military history magazine Legion writes that the Allied Powers of World War I and of World War II saw the destruction of carillons during the respective wars as a "brutal annihilation of a unique democratic music instrument". The destruction was highly publicized among the allies of Belgium and the Netherlands. In the latter war, British investigators claimed Germany seized two-thirds of all bells in Belgium and every bell in the Netherlands. Between 1938 and 1945, 175,000 bells were stolen and stored in (). Some 150,000 were sent to foundries and melted down for their copper. Following the war, with the bells out of their towers, E. W. Van Heuven and other could research the tonal qualities of bells in laboratory conditions and with modern electrical sound-analyzing equipment. Percival Price, the Dominion carillonneur at the Peace Tower, was tasked with repatriating as many surviving bells as possible. He also used the opportunity to publish similar research. Every bellfounder could then learn how to cast the highest-quality bells, and the increase in new carillons was greater than ever.
In 1999, UNESCO designated 32 bell towers in Belgium as a World Heritage Site, in recognition of their architectural diversity and significance. The list was expanded in 2005 to include 23 in France, as well as the tower of Gembloux, Belgium. In 2014, UNESCO recognized the carillon culture of Belgium as an intangible cultural heritage, stating that it "recognizes the creativity of carillonneurs and others who ensure that this cultural form remains relevant to today's local societies."
In 2008, the carillon was featured in the film Welcome to the Sticks, a box-office success as the highest-grossing French film ever released in France
In 2019, playing the carillon of St. Coleman's Cathedral in Cobh, Ireland, was recognized by the Irish government as key element of the country's living cultural heritage. In 2025, the casting of bells and playing music on bells was added to Germany's list of intangible cultural heritage.
The earliest known original compositions specifically for the carillon, and not simply any keyboard, are the 11 preludes of Matthias Vanden Gheyn. The structure of his works suggests he had been playing nonspecific keyboard music on the carillon for many years and that he wanted to play music that is idiomatic to the instrument. Technically challenging, his preludes have been the standard repertoire among carillonneurs since the early 1900s.
Jef Denyn made many public statements about what music should be performed on the carillon, and he persuaded several composers of the time to write for it. Among those composers were his students, including , Léon Henry, and , and composers for other instruments, such as Jef van Hoof. The carillon school began publishing carillon music in 1925. Through his school, Denyn was the early proponent of the "Mechelen style" of carillon music, which consists of virtuosic flourishes, tremolos, and other Baroque and Romantic elements.
Ronald Barnes was the leading figure behind the North American style of carillon music, which developed in the 1950s and 1960s. He encouraged his University of Kansas peers to compose for the carillon, and he produced many of his own compositions. Barnes' campaign was most successful with Roy Hamlin Johnson, a piano professor who introduced a whole category of music exclusively native to the carillon featuring the octatonic scale. Many of Johnson's works are acknowledged as . Barnes produced 56 original compositions and hundreds of arrangements to expand the available repertoire. Other major 20th-century contributors were Albert Gerken, Gary C. White, Johan Franco, John Pozdro, and Jean W. Miller. The new American style developed into the antithesis of the Mechelen style; instead of exciting, tremolo-filled performances that demonstrate the showmanship of the carillonneur, it features slow passages, sparse harmonies, and impressionist themes to draw the listener's attention to the natural sound of the bells.
Carillon music was first published in North America in 1934. G. Schirmer, Inc. published the compositions of Curtis Institute of Music students Samuel Barber, Gian Carlo Menotti, and Nino Rota as part of the institute's short-lived publishing series. The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America opened the first dedicated publishing house for carillon music in North America in 1961. In 1968, the Anton Brees Carillon Library was established at Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Florida, US; it contains large collections of carillon music and related materials.
In the late 2010s, University of Michigan professor Tiffany Ng analyzed the diversity of the carillon repertoire. In a bibliography focusing on African-American music and composers, Ng claims, "while African-American music permeates the carillon repertoire," mostly in the form of spirituals, "almost none of the carillon arrangements and compositions are authored by African Americans." In a second bibliography with Emmet Lewis focusing on women, transgender, and non-binary composers, they assert that while many works have been written by these groups, they are often not published through traditional means, and "gender inequality remains systemic and common practice in carillon concerts."
The lack of consistent interest in traditional performances among the general public has caused carillonneurs to engage in musical collaborations and experiments, collectively referred to as "Carillon Plus". Carillonneur duos explore the possibility of duet playing and producing new music for the configuration. Others seek to play the carillon in , Concert band, and other Musical ensemble. Carillon Plus performances are not new, but have been explored more intensely since the mid-20th century.
Every three years, the federation hosts an international congress in a home country of one of the member organizations. The congresses host lectures, workshops, and committee meetings about the topics related to the carillon, for example: news, tutorials and demonstrations, and research developments. Most member organizations give periodic updates to their members on the state of carillon culture in their respective regions.
Training to perform on a carillon can be obtained at several institutions, though the Royal Carillon School "Jef Denyn" has been the most popular. The LUCA School of Arts in Leuven, Belgium, offers a master's degree in the carillon, and the Utrecht School of the Arts in Amersfoort, Netherlands, has a dedicated school. The is located in Denmark, and there are schools in the United Kingdom and France.
The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America organizes carillon examinations during its annual congresses. Those who pass are certified as carillonneur-members of the guild. It also partners with the North American Carillon School, founded in 2012 as an affiliate of the Royal Carillon School "Jef Denyn". Several American universities offer a carillon program within their curriculum. For example, the University of California, Berkeley; the University of California, Santa Barbara; the University of Denver; the University of Florida; and the University of Michigan offer complete courses of study. Clemson University, Indiana University, Iowa State University, the University of Kansas, and Marquette University offer limited Course credit for carillon performance. Employed carillonneurs will often offer private lessons at their carillons. Universities that possess a carillon but do not offer course credit often have a student organization or education program, such as the Yale Guild of Carillonneurs, which manages performances on the Yale Memorial Carillon, and the University of Chicago Guild of Carillonists.
Music competitions for carillon are held regularly, with the international Queen Fabiola Competition being the most important.
According to TowerBells and the World Carillon Federation, about 700 traditional carillons exist. At least three can be found on every continent except Antarctica; however, of the countries in which traditional carillons can be found, only six have more than 20. The "great carillon" countries—the Netherlands, Belgium, and the United States—account for two-thirds of the world total. Over 90% are in either Western Europe (mainly the Low Countries) or North America. In North America, about 80% of carillons are owned by religious or educational institutions, while in Europe, nearly all carillons are municipally owned. Almost all extant traditional carillons were constructed in the last 100 years; only some 50 historical carillons from the 18th century or earlier still exist. According to TowerBells, there are another 483 non-traditional carillons, which are located mainly in the United States and Western Europe.
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According to counts by the World Carillon Federation and TowerBells, there are about 20 existing traveling carillons with only three being non-traditional. Many were or are owned by bell foundries as a promotional tool. Almost all traveling carillons are headquartered in Western Europe and the United States. Two American traveling carillons are part of the musical group Cast in Bronze, which features the "Spirit of the Bells" playing the carillon in concert with other instruments or a recording. Cast in Bronze is credited with introducing the carillon to the United States' public in its mission to promote and preserve the instrument.
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