Keyboard Ranges

The ranges of carillon keyboards are shown in the "Technical data" section of site data pages in a "shorthand" format to avoid wordiness. Although this may seem a bit confusing at first, you will probably become quite comfortable with it after looking at several different site data pages.

In its simplest form, a keyboard range specification looks like this:

     MlMh / PlPh  

where

the part before the slash (/) describes the manual keyboard, and

the part after the slash describes the pedal keyboard.

The "MlMh" and "PlPh" parts show the ranges of the respective keyboards, where

• "Ml" represents the lowest note of the manual keyboard.
• "Mh" represents the highest note of the manual keyboard.

• "Pl" represents the lowest note of the pedal keyboard.
• "Ph" represents the highest note of the pedal keyboard.
• If there is no pedalboard, then "PlPh" appears as "NONE".

• Each note is shown using conventional notenames.
• If any of these four notes is unknown, it appears as "--".

In this simple form, it is assumed that

• all notes appear on the manual keyboard;

• the pedal keyboard is at least one octave but not as much as two octaves;

• there are no "extra" bass notes.

Example 1:

   C C / C G 

would describe an instrument where the manual has a full multi-octave range from C-natural to C-natural (the number of octaves being implied by the number of bells) and the pedal has a range of one-and-a-half octaves from C-natural to G-natural.

If any of the simple-format assumptions are inappropriate, then one or more pieces of this more complex format must be included to specify the keyboard(s) completely:

     (ss)MlMhnn / (ss)PlPhnn  

where

• "nn" (a 2-digit number) is added to the manual part to specify the number of notes on the manual keyboard when some bells are not connected to it. The unconnected notes are always at the bass end of the instrument.

• "nn" (a 2-digit number) is added to the pedal part to specify the number of notes when either the pedalboard has less than one octave or it has at least two octaves.

  Note that the number of notes in a certain range will vary depending on how many bass semitones are missing. This is separately stated in the technical data, and a more detailed explanation is given below.

• "ss" (a note name in parentheses) is added to show that there is an "extra" bass note at the bottom of the range, separated from the next note by more than one whole tone. (This is rare in North America, but more common among older instruments in Europe.)

Example 2:

   G C 42 / C G 

would describe a 4-octave instrument with the old Dutch standard clavier of 3 1/2 octaves (G to C) on the manual and 1 1/2 octaves (C to G) on the pedal.

Example 3:

   C C  / C C 25 

would describe a fully chromatic instrument because there are 2 full octaves in the pedals. This would fit the GCNA standard 4 octave clavier.

Since there is no "flat" character in most computer display fonts, the "sharp" version of all "black notes" is used, e.g. "A#" for B-flat.

Example 4:

   C C 49 / A#C 26 

would describe a 50-note instrument with 4 fully chromatic octaves on the manual and just over 2 octaves on the pedal, including a bass A# (B-flat) which is the only note not connected to the manual.

Example 5:

   (G )C D  / NONE 

describes the Taft Memorial electric-action carillon in Washington, DC, which has just over 2 octaves on the manual plus a very heavy bass pitched a fourth lower than the next bell. There is no pedalboard on this instrument.

Remember that most carillons are transposing instruments. To know what pitch is produced when a given key is pressed, you must adjust for the transposition given in the "Technical data" section for the instrument.

Missing semitones:

The keyboard range specification is independent of the number of missing semitones in a particular instrument (if the number of bells is also ignored.) But it is important in determining which (if any) semitones are missing. Semitones are counted with respect to the lower of "Ml" or "Pl", taking that note to be the tonic of a major scale. Thus in Examples 1,2,3,5 above, they would be figured with respect to C-natural; the first possible missing semitone would be C#, while the second would be D#. In Example 4 above, the starting point is A#, so the first possible missing semitone would be B-natural, the second C#, and the third D#.

When range specification and number of missing semitones are considered together, this limits the possible values for the number of bells. Considering the range in Example 1, above, if there are no missing semitones then the only possible numbers of bells are 25, 37, 49, 61 or 73. If there is one missing semitone with that range, then the only possible numbers of bells are 24, 36, 48, 60 or 72. And two missing semitones would permit only 23, 35, 47, 59 or 71 as possibilities for the number of bells.

Return to the Standard format page.

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This page was created 1997/01/20 and last revised 2004/12/08.

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