Some of the cleverest recent ideas in food have come from upstarts. Big packaged-food companies are timid innovators, fiddling with flavour or cautiously extending their existing product lines, says Thilo Wrede of Jefferies, an investment bank. That is costing them customers, some of whom are defecting to fresher foods
Music | 10.07.2009
Belgian school draws top bell ringers from around the world
In nearly every city in the Benelux countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg there is a carillon - a stationary set of around 23 separate bells of varying sizes, usually housed in towers and churches. A carillon player, known as a carillonneur, plays the instrument with a large keyboard which then pulls the bells clapper to produce sound.
Many carillonneurs learned their craft at the Royal Carillon School in Mechelen, Belgium. It is one of the most famous and oldest schools dedicated to teaching carillon and only accepts a handful of students each year.
Geert Hellemans, a 33 year-old Belgian high school teacher, has spent the last 10 years studying part-time to become a qualified carillonneur. He is just one of four international students studying at the Royal Carillon School, with the others coming from Australia, Hong Kong and Russia.
An artistic science
Hellemans has to climb up 400 steps to reach his practice location in the Sind Romuald cathedral. Some of the bells are several meters wide.
"The largest bells are beneath the player and upstairs and overhead are the smaller bells," said Hellemans. "That way you are not disturbed while playing by the sounds of the larger bells. And this gives a good mixture of sound to the people underneath."
To play, the carillonneur sits at a long bench and clenches their hands into fists and strikes long wooden keys called batons. Simultaneously, they push pedals on the pedal board with their feet to move the clappers that strike and sound the bells.
The carillonneur has to think about the height of the tower, the type of bells and how the windows will let out the sound when striking the keys.
Isaac Wong, a 28-year-old carillon student from Australia, thinks the small playing room at the top of the tower is one of the most beautiful places to be.
"You become part of that environment," he said. "I think it's very therapeutic, it's something that makes me calm and it definitely makes me feel positive about myself."
Wong was studying carillon in Australia but the Belgian school's reputation drew him to Mechelen for one year of intensive study.
No pain, no gain
He said learning to play can be painful in the beginning, as the carillon keyboard is connected to bells that can weigh up to several tons.
"Sometimes it hurts, especially in the lead up to the exams," said Wong. "When I was practicing for a couple of hours every day, at the end of the day I felt so sore that the only remedy was to give myself a break and not play for a day."
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Carillons can be heard chiming in churches and cathedrals
In an exam, the teachers stand in the open so they can listen for technical precision, quality of sound and artistic interpretation.
Each examinee has to play for 45 minutes, performing both classical and modern pieces as well as a composition of their own. Wong said he had arranged some pop songs from Asian countries like Japan and Hong Kong.
"If something is very popular and I like it then I would try to play it on the carillon," he added.
Dedication to art
All four of the foreign students have passed their final exam at the Royal Carillon School and Wong and Hellemans even earned "Distinctions."
Wong plans to return to Sydney and pass on new techniques to the carillonneurs in his home country. Hellemans hopes to be hired to play in Belgium and around Europe where professional carillonneurs get the opportunity to play one or two hours per week, usual on Sundays.
That doesn't quite make for a lucrative career, but at least he's now a graduate from one of the oldest and most recognized carillon schools in the world.
Author: Nina Plonka / Cheryl Northey
Editor: Kate Bowen
carillon (kăr'ə-lŏn', -lən)
n.
- A stationary set of chromatically tuned bells in a tower, usually played from a keyboard.
- A composition written or arranged for these bells.
To play a carillon.
[French, alteration of Old French quarregnon, from Late Latin quaterniō, quaterniōn-, set of four. See quaternion.]
upstairs
Translate upstairs | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanishadverb
Pronunciation: /ʌpˈstɛːz/
adjective
Pronunciation: /ˈʌpstɛːz/
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