Handbells

One of my projects last week was making a CD-R of an old LP I grew up with, "Bells on High-Fi" by John Klein.

During the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle, they mounted big speakers around the top of the Space Needle and somebody (John Klein maybe) played a carillion every hour or so during the fair.  The sound could literally be heard all over Seattle, up to ten miles away.  A carillion is a keyboard-operated bell instrument:


Unfortunately, the Seattle instrument (and subsequent [studio] recording) were not a TRUE carillion, but an instrument that played RECORDINGS of bells, kinda like an early Mellotron.  The effect is somewhat muted from what it should sound like.

Working on cleaning up this very-noisy LP I got to wondering if any better, real carillion recordings were available.

Couldn't find any.

But this led me to various handbell ensembles, where bells are rung by hand.  Lots of these ensembles exist, and several recordings are available.  Unfortunately handbell ensembles don't include, by necessity, any of the really BIG bass bells I was hoping for, but they can still sound pretty amazing with a whole room full of people shaking their bells.


Bell ensembles are some of the oldest musical ensembles, going back to the 12th Century.

The National Cathedral in Washington DC has a carillon.

Quote :

The Cathedral’s Kibbey Carillon is the third heaviest in the world. Given by Miss Bessie J. Kibbey in memory of her grandparents, the 53 bronze bells of the carillon were cast at one time and installed in the early 1960s. The carillon was manufactured by the John Taylor Bellfoundry of Loughborough, England, and dedicated on September 22, 1963.

The smallest bell of the carillon weighs 17 pounds. The largest weighs 24,000 pounds, or 12 tons, and measures eight feet, eight inches in diameter. The carillon is played via a keyboard and pedals, situated high in the Cathedral’s central tower (150 feet above the nave floor) and directly amid the bells. The keyboard controls a mechanical tracker system (similar to a tracker organ) that uses transmission wires to move the clappers. The bells remain stationary while a metal clapper strikes the inside of the casting.