[Bell Historians] Re: St Giles, Cathedral, Edinburgh

[Richard Offen]

--- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, "LOVE, Dickon" 
<dickon.love at a...> wrote:
> RCO:
> "It's not a carillon, it's a set of Whitechapel handbells. The 
organ 
> was built by Rieger in 1992 and the set of handbells was included 
as a 
> stop on the (if I remember correctly) great organ. They are 'hung 
> dead', sounded by means of pneumatic hammers and mounted at the top 
of 
> the organ, but not in view."
> 
> Are we talking about a cybalstern here? There are plenty of organs 
which
> contain these, two notable ones being St John's College Cambridge 
and St
> Giles Cripplegate.
> 
> DrL 
> 

No, it's a set of 32 (I think) handbells, which can either be played 
in combination with other stops, or as a solo register.

Are you sure St Giles' Cripplegate has a cybalstern (set of four or 
six small bells, mounted on a rotating disc, which give a jingling, 
tinkling sound used as a background to organ pieces such as JS Bach's 
choral prelude on In Dulci Jubilo)? It isn't shown on the 
specification I've got and I don't remember seeing one when I was 
shown over the insides of the instrument by Noel Mander many years 
ago! The organ does however have a 'Cybel' stop, which is a high 
pitched mixture of three ranks on the choir organ ...are you getting 
confused? 

St John's College does have one however!

R