Abstract
The carillon is probably the most original achievement in the musical history of the Low Countries. As often happens with local phenomena, some myths arose around the origin of the instrument, especially in Flanders. But historians too failed to identify the exact line of development that led from different premusical
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bell practices to the carillon. The carillon developed from the technique of chiming on swinging bells. Chiming, called beyaerden in Middelnederlands, was practiced by pulling clappers towards the inner walls of bells by means of ropes in order to create rhythmical sond patterns. It was performed mainly on special occasions. Around 1480 chimers succeeded in performing existing melodies on large swinging bells. In 1510 at the latest melodic chiming was applied to smaller bells in tower clocks. The forestrike had originated around 1375 as a functional warning on one or two bells that preceded the signal of the hour bell. From around 1460, forestrikes could be programmed to play melodies. The first recorded melodies were Gregorian chants, probably programmed in their original, single-voice setting. The slow development of the forestrikes in tower clocks is surprising, given the fact that sophisticated musical alarms and clocks were built from the 13th century on. Around 1530 forestrike bells and swinging bells were integrated and would form one music instrument that was played both manually and automatically. This development path shows that the carillon didn’t originate directly from the forestrike, as many authors have written, but from chiming on swinging bells. At a certain moment, the embryonic carillon made use of the growing number of forestrike bells to continue its development. There is no historical evidence that carillonneurs ever played on forestrike bells with hammers. This popular hypothesis was probably due to the erroneous association with the medieval custom of playing music on cymbala or small indoor bells. Whereas evidence of carillon playing prior to 1530 is scarce, contemporary accounts testify that by that time, carillon playing had become a common practice in the territory of the Low Countries. This implies that there is still a rich reality of carillon culture to be discovered. Despite the fact that, prior to the development of the carillon, chiming traditions and musical indoor and outdoor clocks existed already in different European regions such as France, Germany, England and Spain, the carillon itself emerged only in the Low Countries and didn't develop outside of that region. That indicates that carillon music was a luxury product that could originate and flourish in a wealthy region with a competitive city culture and an advanced technology. However, it would be wrong to overestimate the innovative nature of the carillon from a technological point of view. Both automatic and manual carillon playing made use of basic mechanical elements that were already known in Antiquity. The origin of the carillon is mainly due to the creativity to combine different bell practices and the motivation to invest public money in the transformation of functional signals to music instruments.
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