This is a carillon performance of four of Ambrosius Lobwasser’s 1576 polyphonic settings of Calvinist hymns, namely Psalms 1, 6, 42, and 134 from the Genevan Psalter. I also included 4 phrases of Claude Goudimel's setting of Psalm 42 to highlight the differences in the treatment of the melody. In Lobwasser's version, the melody is in the tenor, while in Goudimel's version, the melody is in the soprano.


My selections for performance were made for particular reasons. Psalm 1 is the first psalm and represents a typical major key psalm, Psalm 6 is a favorite of mine and is the only minor key psalm in the selection, Psalm 42 is popular in the Netherlands from my experience listening to Dutch organists, and Psalm 134 is the well-known “Old Hundredth” tune.


While the four voices are easy to sing, as there is virtually no melisma and few large leaps, it took some specific edits to render them more playable and idiomatic on the carillon. The main edit I made was to remove repeated notes in non-melody voices when they occurred on weak beats. This is for two reasons. First, carillon bells cannot be dampened, so repetition is not necessary for the note to be heard. Playing the note again would excite more overtones, muddying the sound. Second, removing repeated notes often reduces the number of notes required to be played by the feet from two to one, meaning the left and right feet can alternate instead of having both feet move back and forth between pedals at the same time, which is risky. The other major edit I made was to further remove notes by taking out nearly every non-melody note where the note one minor third below is played on the same beat. This is because most carillons, including the Kniker Carillon in the UT Tower, naturally generate an audible minor third overtone. If I were to keep the upper note, it would also generate a minor third overtone above, creating a diminished sonority, which is undesirable because in my selections, neither Lobwasser nor Goudimel ever implies such a chord. Having played the psalms both before and after these edits, I noticed that the edited version has a significantly clearer melody. Due to the acoustics of the carillon and the fact that Lobwasser’s melodies are in the tenor, sometimes it can still be difficult to identify the melody, so to aid the audience, I have included images of the notated melody in the video.


I hope you enjoy!

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