Singing Bronze: A History of Carillon Music

369 Pages·2014·8.497 MB·English

by  Luc Rombouts

luc rombouts
Singing Bronze
A History of
Carillon Music
Singing Bronze
luc rombouts
Singing Bronze
A History of
Carillon Music
With the support of
The Guild of Carillonneurs
In North America
Lipsius Leuven is an imprint ofLeuven University Press
Original title Zingend Brons. 500 jaar beiaardmuziek in de Lage Landen en de Nieuwe Wereld
Authorized translation from the Dutch language edition published by Davidsfonds / Leuven
© 2010 Dutch language edition by Davidsfonds / Leuven (Belgium)
© 2014 English language edition by Leuven University Press / Universitaire Pers Leuven /
Presses Universitaires de Louvain. Minderbroedersstraat 4, B-3000 Leuven
All rights reserved. Except in those cases expressly determined by law,
no part of this publication may be multiplied, saved in an automated datafile
or made public in any way whatsoever without the express
prior written consent of the publishers.
isbn978 905867 956 7
d/ 2014 / 1869 / 31
nur667
Translation Communicationwise
Design Korpershoek Ontwerpen
Front cover illustration Carillon bells in the St. John’s Tower in Gouda (the Netherlands)
Contents
11 Introduction
part 1 –bell cultures in antiquity and the middle ages
chapter 1 –The magic of old bells
15 A fruit with pith
17 A world of sounds
18 Made in China
21 Jingle Bells
24 Bellmen
chapter 2 –The time of God
27 The daily call to prayer
28 Europe of Bells
30 The appearance of the medieval bell
32 Church doctrine and popular belief
35 Tolling for political ends
chapter 3 –The time of man
39 A day in the city
40 Tolling for special events
43 New bell casting techniques
46 The bell-founder in action
chapter 4 –The bondage of time
49 Clocks in monasteries and cathedrals
52 Measuring time in the open air
55 The signal becomes music
– 5–
singing bronze
part 2 –the old carillon art
chapter 5 –A new musical instrument
59 Making music with bells
61 The terms beiaardand carillon
62 Further development of the new musical instrument
65 The first founders of carillon bells
chapter 6 –Carillon music in a divided land
71 Why in the Low Countries?
74 Good and bad songs
78 Bells as commodity
80 The oldest carillon books
chapter 7 –Pure bells
85 A blind nobleman with a keen sense of hearing
88 François Hemony
90 The Hemonys’ secret
91 Pieter Hemony
94 The Hemony legacy
chapter 8 –Carillon music at the court
97 The successors of the Hemonys
100 The carillons ofPeter the Great
103 Carillons for the young Prussians
105 Royal extravagance in Portugal
chapter 9 –The Bach of the carillon
109 Peter Vanden Gheyn, monk and entrepreneur
111 Matthias Vanden Gheyn, virtuoso carillonneur
115 Andreas JozefVanden Gheyn, talented bell-founder
119 The descendants of the Vanden Gheyns
– 6–
contents
chapter 10 –Panorama of the old carillon art
121 The bells
122 The automatic mechanism
126 Manual playing
127 The carillonneurs
129 The carillon repertoire
133 The audience
135 The fate of the French Low Countries
part 3 –the new carillon art
chapter 11 –National Carillon
139 Carillon music riding the waves of politics
141 The confiscation of bells in the
Southern Low Countries
145 Gradual restoration of the bell stock
146 The Northern Republic in the French era
148 Napoleon’s bell
chapter 12 –The carillon as romantic symbol
149 The carillon, an old instrument
152 Literary interest in bells and carillons
158 The carillon at the service of nationalism
chapter 13 –In search of the sound of the past
165 Bell-founding in the 19th century
168 Innovations in keyboard construction
173 Rediscovery of the art of bell tuning
chapter 14 –A soul in peace, among the stars
177 A carillonneur with an interest in technique
181 Enchanting Monday evenings
185 The vision of the master
187 An American much interested in carillons
– 7–
singing bronze
chapter 15 –The broken bells of Flanders
191 War rages over Belgium
195 The voice of fallen carillons
200 Carillon war in the Netherlands
205 Bells of victory
chapter 16 –Memorial bells
207 A school for carillonneurs
209 Carillon sounds across the Atlantic
214 Rockefeller and his Belgian carillonneurs
218 The race for bigger and heavier
222 Contours of a new carillon culture
225 New carillons in other parts of the world
chapter 17 –New carillon construction
in the Old Country
229 Belgian and English influence in the Netherlands
231 Protectionist reflexes in Belgium
235 Malaise among the Belgian bell-founders
238 Belgian carillons in the United States
240 The Mechelen carillon school during
the interwar period
chapter 18 –‘The bells fight with us’
249 Nazi bells
251 Carillon music in occupied territory
256 The confiscation ofbells in Europe
263 Liberation
chapter 19 –Dutch manufacture versus
Carillon Americana
267 The return of the bells
271 Reconstruction in the Low Countries
275 A carillon without bells
278 Carillon battle in the Vatican pavilion
– 8–
contents
chapter 20 –Innovations in the Old and
the New World
285 American Beauty
289 The American carillon movement
293 Acid rain in Europe
296 Using the computer
305 Carillon music in the East
chapter 21 –Panorama of the new carillon art
309 The carillons of the world
312 Carillon organizations
314 Carillonneurs and their audience
318 The diversity of carillon music
321 A future for the carillon
325 Sources and acknowledgements
327 Notes
337 Bibliography
351 Origin of the illustrations
353 Indices
– 9–