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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That would be a carillon, not
By aragusea
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 8:11am
That would be a carillon, not a glockenspiel. #bandgeek
In German...
By Jacob Wirth
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 10:26am
A carillon IS a glockenspiel. #SillyAnglos #TeutonicPride
K, next score I write I'll
By aragusea
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 2:23pm
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"
By Jacob Wirth
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 2:49pm
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!
By NaranjaLine
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 5:53pm
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
By aragusea
Sat, 06/09/2012 - 12:56pm
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
By Blanco
Thu, 06/21/2012 - 9:59am
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
By Kyle
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 8:55am
It's the only carillon I've ever heard play The Sound of Silence.
Carillon
By APB
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 9:14am
If it plays requests, I'd like "Fixing a Hole (Where the Rain Gets In)"
Is it real?
By jp_guy
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 9:24am
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.
By jenny
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 9:28am
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?
By Ron Newman
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 10:00am
given that there is no longer a real building behind the Filene's façade walls?
Bwa-ha-ha!
By Ward8Mahatma
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 4:19pm
Why it's obviously The Fantom of Filene's Basement ringing those bells ;-)
Umm, Adam...
By JPFree
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 10:32am
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
By aragusea
Sat, 06/09/2012 - 1:02pm
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...
By Blanco
Thu, 06/21/2012 - 10:03am
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
By Katia
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 10:36am
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
By anonbos
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 2:25pm
I heard the Notre Dame fight song, as well. I'm not sure which one is worse.
There used to be a guy who
By anonnona
Mon, 06/11/2012 - 10:10am
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?
By jp_guy
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 10:59am
I'd like to go make a video of the carillon. Does anyone know at what times it plays?
Every hour, on the hour.
By Neal
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 12:57pm
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
By Night Owl City
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 12:54pm
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...
By Neal
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 1:03pm
...the theme to Love Story
I wish Ray Bradbury were here
By joehp
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 2:33pm
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 ...
By adamg
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 2:38pm
Harlan Ellison is, although I hear he can be cranky.
Thanks, Adam.
By joehp
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 2:44pm
M. Ellison is not funny, though, and M. Bradbury was. That story is creepy as hell.
True, that
By adamg
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 2:45pm
As is much of his work.
Nothing like making a snarky remark....
By Michael Kerpan
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 3:15pm
... about Harlan Ellison at a science fiction convention (long ago) and then discovering he is standing right behind you.
Who,you?
By joehp
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 3:22pm
What's the story?
It was a group conversation...
By Michael Kerpan
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 3:29pm
... 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.
By joehp
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 5:32pm
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
By Michael Kerpan
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 5:51pm
Not sure that I have many more details of this eccounter left in my memory. ;~}
How does the carillon work? I
By anon
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 3:58pm
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
By Neal
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 4:48pm
And, I think, my most viewed video on Youtube.