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Sound, Pitches and Tuning of a Historic Carillon

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Studies in Musical Acoustics and Psychoacoustics

Part of the book series: Current Research in Systematic Musicology ((CRSM,volume 4))

Abstract

The City of Bruges in Flanders owns one of the finest carillons in Europe. Of its 47 bells, 26 are historic specimens, cast by Joris Dumery (Georgius Du Mery) between 1742 and 1748. In 2010/11, the carillon underwent restoration including retuning as necessary. The present article reports the status of the 26 historic carillon bells as recorded by us in the years 1997–2000 prior to restoration. Since the original tuning of the bells has been assumed to be close to quarter-comma meantone temperament, the tuning is investigated both in regard to physical data and scaling (weight, diameter) as well as fundamental frequencies and spectral characteristics of the Dumery bells. Trajectories for the five so-called principal partials hum, prime, tierce, fifth and octave (or nominal) are established to check the smoothness of inner tuning of the 26 bells. From the fundamental frequencies, the tuning of the 26 Dumery bells to a musical scale is derived, and a matrix of fundamental frequencies shows all intervals that can be realized with these bells. A second parameter relevant for the tuning of (swinging and carillon) bells is the so-called strike note, which is first discussed with respect to concepts of pitch perception and then in regard to a possible meantone tuning. Finally, in continuation of previous experiments which demonstrated ambiguity of pitch perception in subjects listening to bell sounds we conducted two small experiments one of which addresses the number of pitches subjects distinguish per bell sound while the other explores identification of musical intervals realized with sounds from the historic Dumery bells. Findings are evaluated in regard to perception and musical issues.

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Acknowledgments

Our recording of the Dumery carillon was greatly supported by the late Aimé Lombaert (1945–2008), who from 1984 until his untimely death was the chief carillonist (stadsbeiaardier) of the City of Bruges. We like to dedicate this study to his memory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Systematic Musicology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Albrecht Schneider

  2. Institut für Systematische Musikwissenschaft, Neue Rabenstr. 13, 20354, Hamburg, Germany

    Albrecht Schneider

  3. Institute of Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music, University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium

    Marc Leman

  4. IPEM—Musicologie, Vakgroep Kunst, Muziek, en Theaterwetenschappen, Universiteit Gent, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, Technicum Blok 2, B-9000, Gent, Belgium

    Marc Leman

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  1. Albrecht Schneider
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Correspondence to Albrecht Schneider .

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  1. Institut für Systematische Musikwissenschaft, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Albrecht Schneider

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Schneider, A., Leman, M. (2017). Sound, Pitches and Tuning of a Historic Carillon. In: Schneider, A. (eds) Studies in Musical Acoustics and Psychoacoustics. Current Research in Systematic Musicology, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47292-8_9

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