source file: m1588.txt
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 18:57:38 -0500

Subject: re: Carillon Retuning

From: "Darren Burgess" <dburgess@acceleration.net>

Paul Erlich wrote:
>>One of the most important things to consider, if you are trying to
>>achieve consonance on the carillon, is that bells have completely
>>inharmonic partials. If constructing an optimal tuning for the bells, I
>>would need to know the frequencies of the partial tones of the bells. JI
>>maximizes consonance only for instruments with harmonic partials, such
>>as human voices, bowed strings, brass, and reed instruments, and
>>periodic synthesized tones (and even then there are some chords where JI
>>is not necessarily best).

Yikes! I had not even considered this in the tuning that I developed.  I
would be happy to share what I have developed so far.  It is currently in
Quattro pro 8.0, but can be easily converted to many other formats.  Name a
format and I will upload the file (80K) and its accompanying documentation
directly to your email. (not the list).

I will begin to measure the partials.  Any suggestions as to how to do so? 
I have an old HP frequency generator that I have used for tuning.  It has a
1/10th hertz resolution.  I also have access to a occilliscope (sp?).

The bells are composed of steel bars that have 2-3 brass collars fixed
along different places in their length.  I assume that the collars are
supressing or enhancing certain partials.  The highest octave does not have
collars.

I have developed the tuning so that almost all the bars will be slightly
flatted, not more that 8%.  4 will be sharpened slightly. 

Would changing the fundamental frequency of the bar change the effect of
the collars?  What do list members believe the effect of the collars are?

Thanks for the input so far -- its has been extremely helpful.

Darren Burgess, Gainesville, FL