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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Mar 27, 2015 15:27:29 GMT 12
from The Dominion Post....Great peal of sorrow rang out across WellingtonBy ANDREA O'NEIL | 5:00AM - Friday, 27 March 2014 MELODIC MONUMENT: A huge crowd came to see and hear Wellington’s war memorial carillon at its 1932 dedication.
— Photo: Sydney Charles Smith/Alexander Turnbull Library/Ref: 1/1-020314-G.A GREAT PEAL of sorrow and remembrance rang out over Wellington as 50,000 people gathered to dedicate Mount Cook's carillon on Anzac Day 1932.
A “great sea of humanity” thronged the new National War Memorial, the largest crowd the city had ever seen, and hundreds more watched from Mount Victoria and other elevated spots.
“It seemed that all Wellington took part in or watched the ceremony,” The Dominion reported the next day.
“The occasion seemed to have gripped the imagination of all. In consequence, the attendance exceeded all expectations and must rank among the greatest public assemblies Wellington has seen.”
Commissioned in 1919 and coming in at the huge cost of £31,000, the “stripped beaux-arts style” tower was dedicated just eight days after Wellington's other war memorial, the cenotaph in Bowen Street. It was “one of the noblest and most arduous enterprises ever undertaken by the city of Wellington,” The Evening Post said.
On Anzac afternoon, 2,000 veterans of World War I and the Boer War formed the largest ever parade of New Zealand ex-soldiers, arriving at the carillon from the Basin Reserve.
Most in the crowd were waiting to hear the monument's music. The word carillon referred to the bells, whereas the tower was known as a campanile.
At the dedication, the 49 bells, most paid for by families of fallen soldiers, played our national anthem God Save the King. The bellringer or carillonneur, Clifford Ball, was provided free of charge by the chocolate-making Cadbury brothers of Bournville, England.
Carillon music was new to many in Wellington and some people whose ears were “untuned to the sweet jangle of the lighter bells” thought it was out of tune, The Dominion said.
The very word carillon was unfamiliar, and the Post instructed readers to pronounce it “car-rill-yon” to rhyme with pavilion.
As evening fell, people stayed to listen and watch a golden perpetual lamp shining on top of the tower, a scene that deeply moved a Dominion reporter.
“The great white campanile, lighted by two 1,500-watt floodlamps, towered majestically into the velvet dome of night as the soft, sweet music stole out of the latticed tower.”
Within months, however, the tower was in darkness at night and by 1933, the bells had stopped ringing in what was now a “tower of silence”. The pink-brown Putaruru stone originally used to cover the tower at great expense aged badly, and was replaced by Takaka marble in 1982. The carillon today boasts 74 bells, the heaviest 12.5 tonnes.• The National War Memorial Carillonwww.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/67521184/Great-peal-of-sorrow-rang-out-across-Wellington
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 27, 2015 17:39:10 GMT 12
Amazing photo!! It looks so much bigger there with no trees around it.
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Mar 27, 2015 18:41:43 GMT 12
Do you know, Dave, that the carillon in that tower is the third-largest carillon in the world?
It's way bigger than any carillon the Australians have got (bigger even than every carillon in Europe), and is exceeded in size only by a couple of carillons in the USA (in New York and Chicago).
It wasn't originally that big, but was considerably enlarged in the 1980s and 1990s.
There is now physically no room in the tower for any more bells, so it is as big as it will ever get.
And....I've played it! In many ways it is just like playing a large tracker-action pipe organ except that you use your fists instead of your fingers, and just like an organ you also play it with your feet. The downside is that anything you play is extremely “public”, mistakes and all.
As a matter of interest, each bell in the carillon (all 74 of them) are cast with the name of a military battle or campaign that NZers have taken part in. There is even a bell with “Battle of Jutland” cast into the side of it in the form of raised lettering. I've been right up to the top level of the tower and seen all of them.
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Apr 18, 2015 12:25:43 GMT 12
• Playing Favourites with Timothy HurdNational Carillonist of New Zealand, carillon architect, consultant, composer and musicologist, and singer with the Choir of Wellington Cathedral, and vocal ensemble The Tudor Consort.
Listen to Timothy Herd on Radio NZ National's Saturday Morning with Kim Hill (Saturday, 18th April 2015) — you can listen to the audio directly from Radio NZ's website (click on the above link) or download a MP3 file and save it (53min-02sec duration audio file).
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Jun 3, 2015 13:06:03 GMT 12
from The Dominion Post....Wellington's carillon bells toll peace, grace, hope in 1995By ANDREA O'NEIL | 5:00AM - Wednesday, 03 June 2015 Workmen move new carillon bell, the six-tonne “Grace” (Aroha), into the carillon foyer on August 8th, 1995.
— Photo: Ross Giblin/The Evening Post (Alexander Turnbull Library/Ref: EP/1995/3393/18-F).HOPE, GRACE, REMEMBRANCE and PEACE chimed loudly on Wellington's carillon as the city commemorated 50 years since the end of World War II.
Four bells, each named for the four aspirational virtues, were installed in the war memorial tower in 1995 and 1996, the largest being “Peace”, or Rangimarie, weighing 12,245 kilograms.
Cast in bronze at a Dutch foundry for the Whitechapel Bell Foundry of London, famous for Big Ben, Rangimarie was 2.7 metres in diameter.
National carillonist Timothy Hurd, who still holds the position, had travelled to Europe to tune the bell, and described the delicate installation to The Evening Post.
“The bells are lifted over 30 metres from the ground. Each pull on the chain hoist moves the bell four millimetres… Maybe we'll get sponsorship from ‘Hi-energy Bar’ or something,” he said. National carillonist Timothy Hurd welcomes the 12.5 tonne “Peace” (Rangimarie) bell to the National War Memorial on October 30th, 1995.
— Photo: Phil Reid/The Evening Post (Alexander Turnbull Library/Ref: EP/1995/4329/19-F).The carillon was dedicated in 1932 with 49 bells, but was built to accommodate 69. It took 63 years and $1.2 million to complete the instrument, Hurd told the Post.
“The addition of the bass bells has been discussed since 1932 but funding had always been an issue. The 50th anniversary of the end of WWII provided the catalyst.”
“The front sliding doors are removable, the ornate stonework is removable. The width of the doors was designed so the largest bell can fit. There is a 15-tonne capacity winch centrally located in the tower.”
Six-tonne bell “Grace” (Aroha) was installed in August 1995, while “Hope” (Tumanako) and “Remembrance” (Whakamaharatanga) were hoisted in February 1996.
Queen Elizabeth II dedicated the “Peace” bell on November 6th, 1995, having commissioned it for the WWII commemorations.
Carillonist Hurd donated five smaller bells, bringing the total to 74, and extending the range of the instrument to six octaves. It is the third largest carillon in the world, both by number of bells and their combined weight of 70.5 tonnes.• The National War Memorial Carillonwww.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/69003381/wellingtons-carillon-bells-toll-peace-grace-hope-in-1995--150-years-of-news
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