The table below summarizes the manual and pedal keyboard ranges of all known traditional carillons around the world. This may be helpful to composers and arrangers of carillon music who are concerned about how widely their work may be playable and whether to offer alternate note options in the bass.
The seven central columns correspond to the five major countries or regions in which the art of the carillon is concentrated, plus two regions for the rest of the world. Each of those seven column headings is also a link to the keyboard range index for that particular country or region, making it possible to see not only the details that contributed to the construction of this table but also the available treble ranges which are not considered here.
The instruments are divided into four major groups by total range, as follows:
Group 1 - grand carillon = at least 4.5 octaves, keyboard G - C
(i.e., having extended bass)
Group 2 - concert carillon = at least 4 octaves, keyboard C - C
Group 3 - medium carillon = at least 3 octaves, keyboard C - C
Group 4 - small carillon = less than 3 octaves
Each group is subdivided according to the configuration of the bass end
of the playing range that defines the group (which often is less than the total range
of the instrument).
The subgroups are identified in the leftmost column
and described in the column following the regions and countries.
If "missing or added bass notes" is "(none)" then the instruments are
fully chromatic throughout the defining range; there may in fact be
additional bass notes outside of the defining range.
This classification method ignores any additional treble notes
outside the defining range.
In each cell of the table there are two numbers; the first is the number of carillons in that region and subgroup, and the second is the number of different keyboard configurations in those carillons. The second number may be preceded by "≥", meaning "at least," which indicates that some manual and/or pedal ranges in that subgroup are not fully known. The numbers of carillons are totalled by subgroup in the rightmost column; both numbers are totalled by country or region in the last row of the table.
Following the table are some observations about differences between regions.
| Region: Subgroup |
North America |
Netherlands | Belgium | France | Germany | Other European countries |
Countries elsewhere |
Missing or added bass notes |
TOTALS by group or subgroup |
| Group 1 - grand carillons = at least 4.5 octaves, keyboard G - C (extended bass) | 33 | ||||||||
| Group 1a | 5 : 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 : 3 | (none) | 9 |
| Group 1b | 16 : ≥ 11 | 2 : 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | - G# | 22 |
| Group 1c | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - G#,A# | 2 |
| Group 2 - concert carillons = at least 4 octaves, keyboard C - C | 305 | ||||||||
| Group 2a+ | 11 : 6 | 4 : 4 | 3 : 3 | 0 | 2 : 2 | 0 | 0 | + Bb | 20 |
| Group 2a | 8 : 5 | 2 : 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 : ≥ 1 | 1 | (none) | 17 |
| Group 2b+ | 22 : ≥ 11 | 20 : ≥ 11 | 33 : ≥ 14 | 2 : 2 | 4 : ≥ 3 | 6 : ≥ 5 | 1 | - C# + Bb | 88 |
| Group 2b | 40 : 10 | 10 : ≥ 4 | 5 : ≥ 2 | 7 : ≥ 4 | 5 : 3 | 20 : 3 | 1 | - C# | 88 |
| Group 2c+ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - C#,D# +Bb | 1 |
| Group 2c | 20 : ≥ 9 | 41 : ≥ 12 | 10 : ≥ 5 | 6 : 6 | 6 : 6 | 6 : ≥ 4 | 2 : 2 | - C#,D# | 91 |
| Group 3 - medium carillons = at least 3 octaves, keyboard C - C | 111 | ||||||||
| Group 3a | 3 : 2 | 3 : ≥ 2 | 0 | 2 : 2 | 1 | 4 : ≥ 3 | 1 | (none) | 14 |
| Group 3b | 9 : 6 | 11 : ≥ 6 | 4 : ≥ 3 | 2 : 2 | 0 | 5 : ≥ 4 | 2 : 2 | - C# | 33 |
| Group 3c | 23 : ≥ 13 | 20 : ≥ 9 | 8 : ≥ 8 | 2 : 2 | 3 : ≥ 2 | 8 : ≥ 7 | 0 | - C#,D# | 64 |
| Group 4 - small carillons = less than 3 octaves | 71 | ||||||||
| Group 4a | 5 : 5 | 1 | 4 : 4 | 1 | 2 : 2 | 3 : ≥ 2 | 0 | (none) | 16 |
| Group 4b | 5 : 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 : 2 | 2 : 2 | 0 | - C# | 12 |
| Group 4c | 22 : ≥ 10 | 7 : ≥ 6 | 3 : 3 | 1 | 1 | 8 : ≥ 4 | 1 | - C#,D# | 43 |
| not categorized - configuration unknown or highly unusual | |||||||||
| 1 | 67 | 24 | 38 | 20 | 37 | 16 | 203 | ||
| TOTALS | |||||||||
| 189 : ≥ 97 | 190 : ≥ 62 | 99 : ≥ 46 | 64 : ≥ 22 | 49 : ≥ 21 | 104 : ≥ 36 | 28 : 9 | 723 | ||
| Average number of carillons with each configuration | |||||||||
| 1.9 | 2.0 | 1.6 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 2.9 | 3.1 | |||
TEMPORARY NOTE: Although the observations below were revised slightly in Feb.2024, the content of the table above has not been revised since Aug.2020. There have been changes in all regions of the world since then.
Observations:
1. The Totals column on the right side of the table does not include counts of the number of different keyboard layouts because that would require a detailed comparison of all individual keyboard range indexes simultaneously, and that effort seems unjustified when so much data is currently missing.
2. There are so many carillons for which the keyboard ranges are unknown to the compiler of these pages that very few conclusions can presently be drawn. Resolving the unknown and partially known configurations will almost certainly make significant changes in many of the numbers in this table.
3. Nevertheless, these preliminary conclusions can be drawn:
—
Among the grand carillons, by far the most common configurations have
only one bass semitone missing.
—
Among the concert carillons, it is equally likely to have
one or two bass semitones missing.
—
Among medium and small carillons, by far the most common configurations have
two bass semitones missing.
4. In spite of all the efforts towards keyboard standardization that have been made by the World Carillon Federation and the various national or regional carillon societies in the last four-plus decades, there are still an astonishing number of different keyboard configurations in existence — far more than can be explained solely by differences in the sizes of instruments (in terms of number of bells). More than 60 years ago, the realization of this curious situation (in terms of the carillons that then existed) prompted the initial collection of this type of information, which now forms the central core of this Website. That this curious situation remains true today demonstrates clearly that what was then an important reason remains today an important reason for continuing this Website as a public service.
This summary page was created 2020/07/27 and last revised 2024/02/29.
Please send comments or questions about this page to csz_stl@swbell.net