Bells

I'd attended a practice to help balance instruments, so this interested me but I could only make 30-min and that's with a subsequent event that was just a few kms away.  This was Bell Plains with Thomas Laue, senior carillonist, and Dylan Slater, guitar.  Guitar?  This was an interesting carillon concert with compositions by a range of, I think, all Australian or local composers.  I was lucky enough to chat with Chris Sainsbury of ANUSOM at the sound check.  He provided two works, those with guitar.  Interludes from Eugene Ughetti Bell Curve fragments had been played only an hour or so earlier in Parliament House.  Perhaps it was Sally Whitwell Snaking that featured samples or recordings of sax and other instruments in performance with bells.  Others by Nat Bartsch and Dulcie Holland.  others, too, but I had to leave.  The Carillon tower must have a PA for Dylan's (moderately amplified) e-guitar and for the recordings.  Quite a fascinating outing of bells and instruments and sometimes just bells.  But the bells are sharp and cutting and perhaps unyielding for other instrumental tones.  But a careful mix allowed the softer guitar and more to sit fairly comfortably with those sharp bell tones.  An interesting outing with a string of original, innovative pairings bells and more.        

Thomas Laue (carillon) and Dylan Slater (guitar) performed music for carillon and other instruments  .

Prep

Time coming up for a busy weekend: the Canberra International Music Festival is here.  It's just a few days (5) but it's intense.  I am recording many out-of-snow concerts so busy also with preparation, planning and processing, so the work of extra days.  First touch was a short session at the Carillon to assist with audio balance for the Sunday performance of electric guitar and bells and samples for various tunes.   As is the way, I met others of musical interest, notably Chris Sainsbury, composer of one of the pieces and current head of the ANUSOM and a renowned international punk-folk bassist who now lives here in Canberra.  Capital cities are often fascinating hives.  As for the scene, it was glorious on the island with a setting sun if a bit noisy with background hum of surrounding highways.

A cold one

This was a cold one. We stood and shivered our way through a series of pieces on the Carillon. The wind blew through the recording I made. But the pieces were interesting, more so than some other Carillon gigs I've heard. A few locals were represented, people who know the carillon: Larry Sitsky, Leonard Weiss, Kate Moore. Kate's tune was commissioned for the carillon for this festival. One of Leonard's tunes was previously commissioned. There was a rag from Elena Kats-Chernin and she's sometimes in Canberra so may also know the carillon. Kate has lived in the Netherlands for the last 13 years and knows any number of carillons: they are a thing of the low countries and thereabouts. The Carillon plays with two hammered keyboards and a pedalboard. In action it looks heavy, played with clenched fists. Some sounds are deep and some light and airy. I warm to busier passages, where the harmonies become more evident with runs of notes. But pairs of notes are playable and Kate used them in her piece with cello. That was the only composition that was not solo bells. Kate's piece was For Elyse, with sustained cello played over regular harmonic accompaniment from the bells. Particularly mystical in that cold and falling darkness. Strangely, I am told the bells are only heard in the keyboard room, high but below several stories of bells, through speakers. Kate's cello was acoustic and processed and heard in the keys room, but heard over PA at ground level, with the bells sounding acoustically. Lennie played several of his own pieces; Lyn Fuller is the chief carillonist and played others; Thomas Laue and Anna Wong played others. It was a struggle against the elements, but intriguing and a pleasure.

Leonard Weiss, Lyn Fuller, Thomas Laue and Anna Wong played carillon. Kate Moore (cello) also played at the Carillon for the CIMF.

Striking tones

It has a unique sound and it’s one of only two in Australia. It’s the Carillon. The National Carillon was a gift of the British Government to the people of Australia to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of Canberra. It was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 26 April 1970 (still our common monarch). This year is the 100th anniversary of Canberra, so a concert was appropriate although they are frequent in this town. Lyn Fuller played a set of tunes for Good Friday. It was a beautiful day, sunny with just a little crispness in the air. There were kids and bicycle riders and every second person seemed to have a dog.

A carillon is a keyboard percussion instrument, played with fists and feet. It must have at least 23 bells (2 octaves – these are chromatic instruments). This one has 4.5 octaves and 55 bells. Lyn told me there’s an overlap between foot and hand keyboards. I was lucky enough to visit the performer’s room. It seems there are two full claviers, presumably allowing four handed performances. There are also a few small rooms with electric and acoustic pianos and computers and printers. It’s quite a little neat workplace up there. What we see as audience below is a 50 metre tower and an idyllic island garden. I also noticed that Lyn was playing a handwritten chart and that fits the frequent annotations of arr. Lyn Fuller or arr. otherwise in the program. This is not a common instrument (probably less than 1,000 in the whole world) and it also uses uncommon techniques. I expect carillionists learn early on how to arrange their favourite tunes. I loved the high bells ringing in fast passages and I reckon a carillon would handle dissonance well in a slurry of high notes. The slower and lower tones felt different. Bells are carefully cast and tuned for tone and pitch, but I still felt a little uncomfortable with some pitches and some undampened chords. I’ve been reading up since, and I’m not surprised. Bell making is a complex art and the sound is a complex mix of overtones that decay at different rates. There’s a low enduring hum note (octave below strike tone), a tonic (strike tone), minor third, fifth, octave, major third, fifth, etc, with various decays. All very complex, but this mix of minor and major make for an interesting tonal structure. Read about it under “Strike tone” at Wikipedia.

But what of the program? I found it relaxed, spacious, obviously bell-like. Lyn played various classical and folk themes. A sparse Benedictine plainsong called Adore devote. An arrangement of Sibelius’ Finlandia. A Sonata da chiesa. Traditional tunes like Just a closer walk with thee and Amazing grace and Picardy. A carillon can play dynamics but it’s limited. I found variation more in a rubato feeling of relaxed time and no rush between tunes. It’s a big instrument; it moves like it is. It has lugubrious, billowing pitches, but also joyous, high bells that sing with the wind. It’s one of the joys of Canberra that we walk the Lake and hear these reverberent tones on the wind. And on a day like this, it’s a particular and, at least in Australia, a rare pleasure.

Lyn Fuller performed on the National Carillon at Aspen Island for Good Friday for the C100 Musical Offering. See link below to take a virtual tour of the Carillon and play it.

Carillon tour

Play the Carillon!

Stirke tone from Wilipedia