Carillon

Carillon (Lat. quatuor), originally a set of four bells, but now denoting a great number of bells, so tuned and arranged as to be capable of playing airs and elaborate pieces of music. While a peal does not consist of more than 12 bells, and generally is of fewer, which are sounded from the inside by means of a clapper, and move through a half-circle when rung, the bells of a carillon are sometimes as many as 60 and upwards, and are fixed, the sound being produced outside by hammers which are worked sometimes by automatic machinery, sometimes by a kind of organ-board of keys, which are played on by an attendant. Very often both systems are in use. The Netherlands were especially noted for their carillons, the best being at Bruges and Antwerp. On the occasion of the Rubens tercentenary in 1877 a cantata was performed, one of the airs of which was first played by the orchestra on the Place Verte, then taken up by the carillons in the cathedral, and then sounded by silver trumpets on the top of the lofty tower.