Carillon

[Bill Hibbert]

There will be no point in tuning the proposed bourdon of 75t, 
certainly not in any any conventional sense, because any partial we 
normally talk about will be way below the audible range. I would 
guess such a bell would have a nominal of about 180Hz. All one will 
hear is a low-pitched tuneless crash.

However, this is a fantastic cost saving measure, because the bottom 
half dozen or more keys on the keyboard or clavier can all play on 
the same bell, and no-one will know any different. (This is an old 
organ-builders trick for 32 foot stops.) To avoid each of the keys 
producing an identical tuneless crash, each hammer could hit the bell 
at a different point moving up from the lip towards the waist.

To have the bottom nine semitones (i.e. everything with a nominal of 
less than 300Hz) all play at different points on the same bell will I 
estimate save about 315 tonnes of metal. With enough bells, arranged 
artistically, no-one will think to count how many there are.

Bill H