Carillons

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Modern carillon tuning was rediscover beginning in the early 1890's in England. The development of the tuning was led by Canon Arthur B. Simpson who was interested in bells and wanted to find out why the bells being cast sounded out of tune with themselves. At the same time, the John Taylor Bell Foundry of Loughborough was also working on improving the sound of their bells, rediscovering the partials of the bells they were casting and slowly learning how to manipulate the shape of the bell to create a better sound.

In 1895 and 1896 Simpson published articles in Pall Mall Magazine titled "WHY BELLS SOUND OUT OF TUNE AND HOW TO CURE THEM". These articles are likely the most important published information about bells that has ever been written.

Simpson's theories were that there were at least five different sounds that were produced when a bell was rung.  These "partials" he named the Hum Tone, Prime, Tierce, Quint and Nominal. He further suggested that these five partials needed to sound in a way so that the bell would ring and be in tune with itself. 

Hum - Lowest partial of the bell

Prime - Musical pitch of the bell, one octave above the Hum

Tierce - Minor third above the Prime

Quint - Perfect fifth above the Prime

Nominal - Perceived note of the bell, two octaves higher than the Hum

The development of this five-point tuning system, which some refer to as Simpson Tuning, was further developed in England, eventually becoming the standard in the world for how a bell should sound.

In order for a bell to successfully be tuned using the five point Simpson Tuning System, is must have a profile that will allow it, and even then the person doing the tuning must be an expert. When tuning a bell it is not possible to only tune one partial at a time. In fact, many partials move at the same time, some faster than others when trying to flatten the bell. The tuner must be very careful as it is very easy to flatten the bell, but almost impossible to sharpen it if too much metal is removed.

Most carillons in the US that were installed in the 1900's and 2000's are five-point tuned. Most of the tuning on these instruments is fairly good but of course there are improvement that can be made in some instances, especially in carillons cast before about 1970.

Many times in the treble register of these instruments the foundries had issues with the tuning because the partials were very difficult to read because of the lack of technology. Now, with better technology we are able to read these partials and make adjustments to the tuning of the bells to make them sound better.