Discover the Centralia Carillon - One of the 10 Largest in the World
First, you might ask (because I certainly did) - what is a carillon?
A carillon is actually an instrument that produces music by playing bells. It originates back in the 1400s in the Netherlands and currently, there are about 150 of these instruments in the USA. The Centralia Carillon is one of the largest in the world, containing 65 bells. The largest bell weighs 5.5 TONS and is nicknamed "Great Tom". It's the Bourdon bell and is pitched to the musical note "G". The smallest bell weighs 20 pounds and is pitched to the musical note "C". All of the bells were cast in France in the late 1980s and the total weight of them is 61,312 pounds - which makes it one huge musical instrument! The tower itself is 160 feet tall and the "Playing Room" is located on the 14th floor.
Second, you might ask - how did such a thing come to be in existence in Centralia, IL - a relatively small city in the midwestern USA?
Mr. William V. Joy was a man with two obvious loves in his life. One was the newspaper that he was editor and publisher for - Centralia Sentinel - and the other was bell music. He first became interested in bells during his tour of Northern Europe when he was a young man. The Centralia Carillonba became a reality in 1982 and although Mr. Joy passed away in 1988 before seeing the full project completion, he set up a trust fund to ensure the carillon upkeep and also to keep employed a resident carillonist to make sure it could be used to entertain audiences for generations to come.
A third good question would be - how does one play such an instrument?
The bells are all located in the tower and the clapper ball in each bell is attached by linkage to a particular key at the keyboard. Each linkage has an adjuster turnbuckle which can be used to tune the instrument. The "North American Standard" keyboard was installed in 1997 and a new transmission system was added in 2001. This particular carillon is capable of producing 5 1/2 octaves, which makes it concert quality.
Bell towers used to have swinging bells - think Quasimodo busily pulling on ropes to ring his bells. But as mentioned above with the largest bell weighing 11,000 pounds, pulling it by a rope would not be realistic. Now the only moving part is the clapper, which makes it much more precise in controlling the notes.
As you can imagine, there aren't that many musicians that are versed in playing the carillon. The keyboard is made of both long and short wooden levers and the carillionist strikes them with the sides of his fists. There are also foot pedals and the amount of force required varies from key to key.
In addition, you can tour the small museum at the base of the carillon and climb the stairs to the top of the tower to see the bells. There are concerts performed regularly. At night, the tower is lit with ever-changing pastel lights that are truly beautiful to behold. I live within 30 miles of this wonder and until now have never known what the tower was for. I hope you have enjoyed learning about the carillon along with me and maybe someday you will have an opportunity to hear one being played.
Here's a short YouTube Video that was produced by Southern Illinois TV if you'd like to see the carillon actually being played and hear what it sounds like:
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[credit@EdibleCthulhu]
