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The musical stylings of the Filene's carillon
By adamg on Fri, 06/08/2012 - 7:36am
Just the Way You Are and the theme to Hill Street Blues. Also, the theme to the Godfather. What else does it play? And will it survive the inversion of the Hole into a building?
Note: Name of the thing changed in the headline thanks to people who know their mechanical musical devices way better than I.
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Comments
That would be a carillon, not
That would be a carillon, not a glockenspiel. #bandgeek
In German...
A carillon IS a glockenspiel. #SillyAnglos #TeutonicPride
K, next score I write I'll
K, next score I write I'll indicate "carillon" when I mean glock, and I'll watch the percussionist run out the back door in search of a church tower.
Sorry mein friend, you're in America, and these words do not mean the same thing in English.
"You're in America"
Except when you're not. Carillon came to us from France and, in French, it sometimes means glockenspiel.
Also, the author of the blog post in question was comparing Filene's tones to those heard in public squares in Germany and Central Europe. Those would be played on a glockenspiel so, in that context, glockenspiel would be the right word.
If you want to cling to the French, that's just fine. But those of us who've seen an actual glockenspiel in action before -- and didn't just play a hand-held version of one during a kick-ass high school halftime rendition of Rush's Tom Sawyer -- will continue to call that device a glockenspiel.
NICE!
Wow, an NPR reporter tries to claim the intellectual high ground and still gets schooled by an anon. Come on, "Jacob," take a bow! Who are you? What do you do?
"The next score I write..." I'm sure that was supposed to bolster the argument, but even a trained composer has a bad day every so often.
Sorry, not ready to surrender
Sorry, not ready to surrender the intellectual high ground yet. By Jacob's logic, I could use the word "chanson" in English to refer to any type of song and no one would have a right to look at me funny. After all, it's a word borrowed from French, and in France it just means "song," right? The fact that we use "chanson" in English to describe a polyphonic secular song from the French Renaissance is irrelevant in Jacob's world. But in the world on which the rest of us are living, imported words are not subject to any different meaning they may have in their country of origin, and the thing in the Filene's building remains a carillon (unless it turns out to be a loudspeaker).
A key difference
See what I did there ^^^
There's a flaw to the logic on each side. The key difference between the carillon as we know it and the glockenspiel of Eastern Europe is simple: The carillon employs bells while the glockenspiel uses tubes or flat metal plates.
If you watch Neal's video below and listen to the glockenspiel, you can hear the flattened tones that would be extremely muted for even a cracked, leaden bell. Meanwhile, if you listen to a true carillon, the richer sound of the bells is much more pronounced.
The Filene's device sounds more like a music box than a series of bells, so I'd be inclined to say that the mechanism is a glockenspiel. HOWEVER, I think Mr. Ragusea is correct: It's more likely a loudspeaker playing a recording.
Meanwhile, why is the history of this device not worthy of it's own piece. It seems we have someone at 'BUR who's more than up to the task of researching it...
It's the only carillon I've
It's the only carillon I've ever heard play The Sound of Silence.
Carillon
If it plays requests, I'd like "Fixing a Hole (Where the Rain Gets In)"
Is it real?
I know there is/was a real carillon there. But last time I walked by there, the music sounded like it was coming from an electronic carillon and a loudspeaker. Are we being duped? Is the real carillon still there and operational?
It's got a pretty extensive repertoire, I think.
The only things I can bring to mind at the moment are Sound of Silence and (I think) Bridge over Troubled Waters. It's around the corner from my office, but for some reason I don't often get to hear it. I always thought it was in the Jordan Marsh building, though. I hope it does stay.
How is that still working, and who is running it?
given that there is no longer a real building behind the Filene's façade walls?
Bwa-ha-ha!
Why it's obviously The Fantom of Filene's Basement ringing those bells ;-)
Umm, Adam...
You just changed the head for no reason. Germans call the carillon
, so the blog's author was correct. The glockenspiel used by marching bands is just one form of it. There's also a keyboard glockenspiel that resembles a piano.
This is what happens when Boston loses its Germans...
Brits call a cigarette a
Brits call a cigarette a "fag," but I don't think Adam would be wise to do so in one of his headlines. Do you?
JPFree is right...
but for the wrong reason. Read my explanation above.
P.S. When glockenspiel and fag have the same negative connotations in American English, maybe we can have that discussion. It's not an argument that applies here, though. A carillon and a glockenspiel are as different as a cigarette and cigarillo.
The Victors
I walked by one day and it was playing the Michigan fight song. That was pretty cool for me :)
I heard the Notre Dame fight
I heard the Notre Dame fight song, as well. I'm not sure which one is worse.
There used to be a guy who
There used to be a guy who sold Spare Change and shouted ten syllables of gibberish over and over, I could never make out what it was. One day the Notre Dame fight song played, and on cue, after the last note, you could hear him shouting the gibberish. One of the funniest things I've heard in Downtown Crossing.
Schedule?
I'd like to go make a video of the carillon. Does anyone know at what times it plays?
Every hour, on the hour.
Its Westminster Chime is the real thing, sounding every 15 minutes, in longer increments until the top of the hour where it does a full Westminster, followed by the pealing of the hour, I think that is a recording though (A very high quality one though). The music follows the hour count. I'm not sure if they change the music for special occasions, except by season. I did happen to hear it play "Wild Blue Yonder" on the same day last year that my nephew graduated from USAF Basic Military Training. I don't know if that was coincidence (like if all BMT graduations happen on the same day or something) or in commemoration.
NPR story
Filene's Musical Holiday Celebration, from 2002 reports the bells that play (sound? chime?) Westminster Chimes were installed in 1912 and the carillon was installed in 1997.
It also plays...
...the theme to Love Story
I wish Ray Bradbury were here
to write a story for us: I have no carillon and I must scream. I have no glockenspiel and I (and everyone within earshot), must scream with delight.
He's not here, but ...
Harlan Ellison is, although I hear he can be cranky.
Thanks, Adam.
M. Ellison is not funny, though, and M. Bradbury was. That story is creepy as hell.
True, that
As is much of his work.
Nothing like making a snarky remark....
... about Harlan Ellison at a science fiction convention (long ago) and then discovering he is standing right behind you.
Who,you?
What's the story?
It was a group conversation...
... in an aisle in the book sellers area -- and I was one of the participants -- and I hear someone behind me say "can I get by" -- and it was H.E. himself. We _hoped_ he hadn't been standing there listening, waiting for the moment to cause us maximum chagrin -- but who knows.
Thank you, Michael.
I am a bit thick, so I know I need to know more to get the full picture... Hopefully (yes, hopefully -- word we all get!), we can connect at some point and you can help me understand.
These are 30+ year old memories
Not sure that I have many more details of this eccounter left in my memory. ;~}
How does the carillon work? I
How does the carillon work?
I assume it isn't someone playing a keyboard in real-time. So where to the music files come from, and who chooses them?
The world's most famous Glockenspiel
And, I think, my most viewed video on Youtube.