Traditional carillons in Africa and Mideast:
index by weight (pitch)

The table below is an index to the 4 African and Mideastern traditional carillons, in order by the pitch of the bourdon (heaviest bell of the main keyboard range).  The key to the four column headings is at the end of the table, along with some other notes. 

    Location (City : Country)               Note Chr  Nr  Transp
bourdon in the bass octave (20000 to 3000 kg) - 1 instrument
CAPE TOWN - WM                : S AFRICA     B    Z   39   -1
bourdon in the middle octave (2500 to 300 kg) - 1 instrument
JERUSALEM - YMCA              : ISRAEL       D#   Y   36   +3
bourdon unknown - 2 instruments
CILAOS                        : REUNION IS.  -    -   48    -
ISMAILIYA                     : EGYPT        -    -   28    -

Key to column headings:

Note
pitch of the bourdon (bass bell) of the carillon.

Chr
chromatics indicator:
Z = fully chromatic (no missing semitones)
Y = missing one semitone in the bass (typically keyboard C#)
X = missing two semitones in the bass (typically keyboard C# and D#)
W = missing three semitones in the bass (typically keyboard F#,G#,A# or B,C#,D#)
- = unknown

Nr
number of bells (notes) in the carillon.  If the chromatics indicator contains a plus sign, then this is a pair of numbers showing the number of bells in the principal range plus the number of sub-bourdon bells.

Transp
transposition from the keyboard notes to the pitches of the corresponding bells, in semitones.  (Thus the number "12" reflects transposition upward one octave, while "-3" reflects transposition downward by a minor third.)

Notes:

The table is sorted first on the pitch of the bass bell, then on the number of bells [in the principal range], then on the chromatics indicator, state/province, city and site code.  The actual weight of the bass bell is not used.

The weight range indicators for each octave are only gross approximations, and should not be taken to represent any specific bell.

Return to Indexes to traditional carillons in Africa and the Mideast.

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This index page was built from the database on 9-Jul-05 and last revised on 26-Mar-20.

Please send comments or questions about this page to csz_stl@swbell.net.