More about carillons
and other tower bell instruments

This is the introduction to (or top page of) a very large collection of pages that provide more detailed information about specific sites.  (That means tower bell sites, not Web sites.)  There is also much closely related or supporting information on topics such as bellfoundries, great bells, etc.

Check out what's new in these pages as of 3 May 2008

A complete Table of Contents for this collection appears further down on this page, after the following paragraphs about just what you can find here. It also appears in abbreviated form in the Data Navigation frame at left.

Introduction

Since the focus of the GCNA is on traditional carillons in North America, we provide a variety of indexes and links to enable our visitors and members to locate any carillon site in North America in several different ways.  These indexes all point into a set of Web pages, one per site, which present useful information in a standard format.  The site data pages also provide links to other places on the Web where information about the site can be found, when such exist.  For the sake of inclusiveness, and to help dispel confusion about what a carillon is, we provide similar indexes and pages for non-traditional carillons.

In recognition that a number of North American traditional carillons are either enlargements of or replacements for chimes, we provide similar indexes and pages for all chimes in North America, regardless of the type of playing mechanism used.  To support our sister organization, the North American Guild of Change Ringers (NAGCR), we provide similar indexes and pages for rings of bells, i.e., tower bells hung for change-ringing.  To clarify a major difference in nomenclature between chimes and rings, we provide a page on notation in chimes and rings.

To tie all of these North American indexes together, there is a single combined index to all kinds of existing tower bell instruments in North America by state/province.  An alternate combined index arranged by bellfoundry omits the great number of chimes made entirely by a single American bellfoundry (to save space).

Some instruments have moved from their original locations, while others no longer exist.  A list of sites that are no more identifies these places, and tells what happened to each one of the instruments.  Similarly, some instruments have been down-sized or have lost some capabilities; a list of degraded sites identifies these places, and tells what happened to each one of the instruments.

The historical significance of various installations is outlined in a set of milestones in history.

Statistical information is presented in various summaries which show the numbers of tower bell instruments in various categories.

Of related interest are various collections of tower bells, some of which are also museums.

In support of the World Carillon Federation (WCF), of which the GCNA is but one member society, we provide similar indexes to traditional carillons and other tower bell sites outside North America.

Most site data pages have one or more locator maps to make it easy to find the place where that set of bells is installed.  Since several different online mapping services are now used, what was originally a simple Help page has evolved into a complex set of map usage hints.

There is a limited glossary of bell-related words to help you understand how those words are used in these pages (and elsewhere).

Finally, since many of the heaviest bells in the world are the basses of the largest carillons, we present some lists of great bells and some general information about bell weights.

We provide a list of bellfoundries around the world, both past and present (though it is far from comprehensive).  For each one, there is an index page to their work on carillons, chimes and great bells.  (Other bellfoundries are not listed.)  For most of them, that index page also includes some information on the history of the foundry.  For those which are currently in operation, the index page always includes information on how to contact them (and their North American representatives, if any).  We intend eventually to provide a list of carillon builders and maintainers (i.e., non-bellfounders) around the world, including information on how to contact them. 

We do not provide information about any of the various kinds of electronic devices that purport to imitate the sound of bells, even when they include the word "carillon" in their names.  However, we realize that you may run across such places while surfing the Web, and we want to help you avoid confusion about what they are.  Therefore, we do provide a list of such places that have come to our attention (but without links).

Although this Web site is designed to give you ready access to specific data on every individual tower bell instrument which is known to us, we realize that a few of our visitors may have a need for a compact printout (or hardcopy) listing all of the tower bell sites that fit a certain set of criteria.  We provide that in two ways:

Both of these types of hardcopy originate from the same database that is used to produce the site data pages which you can find here.  They include additional types of technical information which are not included in these Webpages.  See our hardcopy page for more information.  You will also find there some of the history of this database and its earlier appearances in various print publications.

The same printout service is used to provide an expression of our thanks when you send us useful feedback to improve the contents of the database of tower bell sites.

Those who are technologically curious can read an explanation of how we maintain this Website.

Table of Contents

Here are most of the links from the Introduction above, grouped together for convenience:

If you used the first link after the quick reference list at the top of this page to get to this Table of Contents, then you can add this link to your hotlist (or set a bookmark) in your browser now.  (If you didn't, then use the one in the previous sentence!)  This will make it easy for you to keep just this one item on your hotlist (or among your bookmarks) and still reach quickly any page which you want to revisit later.

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This page was created 1996/12/10 and last revised on the date shown after the first paragraph above.

Please send comments or questions to csz_stl@swbell.net

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