G & J Tuning (again!)

[Richard Offen]

Thanks to a singular lack of anything outside the tower and duff 
information from the local tourist information centre, whilst on a 
trip to New Zealand last week, I only managed to catch the last few 
moments of the daily recital on the recently restored and augments 
Wellington War Memorial Carillon!

Listening to the glorious sounds of this beautiful instrument, my 
mind turned to Andrew Higson's posting of a few months ago 
demonstrating that G & J's tuning forks (they are in the possession 
of Taylors) were not all that accurate - have they deteriorated due 
to corrosion and wear caused by much use? THowever, to my 
reasonably well trained ear, the carillon sounded very well in tune.

As two of Gillett's major instruments (Wellington and Riverside 
Church, New York) have recently passed through Nigel Taylor's hands 
at Whitechapel during the course of reconstruction, I wonder if he 
would comment on the accuracy of Cyril Johnston's tuning during the 
1920s?

Richard