WHAT IS A CARILLON

Carillon: a set of stationary bells in a tower, usually played from a keyboard. From Late Latin quatemion, via Old French quarregnon (by fours), with reference to the fact that the original carillon consisted of four bells hung in the tower of a church.

Many older Eastern universities and European cathedrals have carillons with large cast bells hung in towers, which are played with wooden levers. But the cost of these bells is prohibitive today.

In the 1940s, Maas-Rowe, the company that made ASU's Symphonic Carillon, patented a method of tuning small chimes so they had the same tone structure as large bells. And, they designed a way to amplify the sound of these small "chime-bells" so they had the same sonority and quality as large bells weighing up to 20,000 pounds.

The sound is authentic because genuine metal is being struck, so all the nuances provided by natural ringing metal are present.

ASU's Symphonic Carillon, which has 148 bells, is played with a keyboard much like a pipe organ. The carillon system also can play CDs of carillon recordings.

Maas-Rowe's carillonneur recorded ASU's Alma Mater and fight song, "Maroon and Gold," on the company's 246-bell Grand Symphonic Carillon so that we can play it every day at 5 p.m.

 

Pictured is a symphonic carillon at Harbor Place in Baltimore, Maryland, similar to the one ASU owns.