Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 1.djvu/326

314 the hour bell appears out of keeping; but in fact the hour bell is never used in the carillon, and the quarter chimes are sounded on a selection from the carillon peal forming a scale in the key of C. The ten bells used for this purpose are also hung so as to swing and be rung by hand in the ordinary manner, the carillon action being lifted off for the purpose: so that Manchester in reality has two peals, the carillon peal as given above, rung mechanically, and the following scale—

formed of bells selected out of the carillon peal, rung by hand. There is also an automatic change-ringing barrel to operate upon these bells when desired. It may be mentioned that this is the first town-hall in England which has been fitted with a ringing peal. Carillons on the perfected principle above described have already, at the date of this article, been put up in the towers of Worcester Cathedral, of Bradford, Rochdale, and Reading Town Halls, in the churches of Leek, Oldham, Shoreditch, Holsworthy, Witney, St. Stephen's Hampstead, etc., all by the same Croydon firm before referred to.

How far manual carillon-playing may be carried, as a branch of music, with effect, it is difficult to say. The class of composition performed on such a medium can never be very elaborate or varied, and must probably have a specialty of character to suit the instrument (if one may call it so) and the circumstances and situation in which it is heard. It is possible that these considerations might suggest some novelty of style and effect, if the keyboard carillon comes more into use. The clangour and prolongation of the sound, however, which is one of the characteristic effects of a peal of bells, is inimical to anything like true musical definition; and the attempt to damp the bells after being struck would rob them of much of their peculiar wildness and grandeur. It would seem, therefore, that the carillon must always be an instrument for effect rather than for intricate musical design; though it would be very interesting to hear the experiment tried of executing more elaborated music on a carillon with a complete chromatic scale. It must always be remembered however, that carillons, like bells proper, are to be judged from a fair distance, and not at close quarters; their tones, calculated to be heard over a large tract of country, are necessarily somewhat harsh and jangling when too near.

What may be termed drawing-room carillons are also made, in which the sounds are produced by metal bowls like the bell of an ordinary time-piece, and played on by a pianoforte keyboard. These may perhaps produce some new musical effects in combination with such an instrument as the harmonium; but probably they will always be regarded as pretty toys rather than serious means of musical effect or expression. [Vol. iv adds "See also ../Chimes in Appendix."][ H. H. S. ]

CARIO,, born at Eckernforde in Holstein, 1736, was instructed by Emmanuel Bach, Telemann, and Schwenke, and became a great trumpet player. He is said to have invented a keyed trumpet which would play in every key, and to have executed a prelude in B&#x266d; minor. He may therefore have been able to execute the trumpet parts in Sebastian Bach's music which are now unplayable. Cario was living in 1800. [ G. ]

CARISSIMI,, was born at Marino near to Rome in 1604, according to Pitoni, whom both M. Fétis and the Abbé Alfieri follow upon this point; but at Padua in 1582, if Spiridione be trusted for the place of his birth, and Mattheson for the date of it. His first professional post was that of Maestro at Assisi. This he held for some years. He then went to Rome, where he obtained the Mastership at the church of S. Apollinaris, attached to the German College. In this office he passed the remainder of his days, without, in all probability, ever having crossed the Papal frontier. He died in 1674 [App. p.579 adds Jan 12]. That he gained his taste and style, which were admirable, by long residence in Paris, and by writing for French audiences, is one of by no means the least foolish and perverse of the many foolish and perverse assertions of the Seigneur de Fréneuse.

Carissimi has the reputation of having done more than any other Italian of his epoch towards the perfection of recitative. To him Kircher admits that he owes much that is valuable in his 'Musurgia' upon this branch of art. He was moreover, although not the actual inventor of the sacred cantata, at least its parent by adoption and development, and at his hands it received that elevation of form and accession of beauty which enabled it to supplant the madrigal, and give to sacred music those elements of pathos and dramatic force for which the rise of the opera had created a general appetite. A third contribution by Carissimi to the progress of his art was the lightness and variety of his accompaniments. He had less learning and more imagination and playfulness than his predecessors in the Roman school. But if his harmonies were less elaborate than theirs, his melodies were freer and more graceful, and his effects more dramatic. There was something essentially modern in his music, and he was the precursor and teacher of a large group of polished and pleasant artists, among whom Bassani, Cesti, Buononcini, and Alessandro Scarlatti were conspicuous. No less prolific than original, Carissimi left a great quantity of finished work behind him. Unhappily too little of it has been published, and too much of it was destroyed at the time of the suppression of the Jesuits, when the collections of S. Apollinaris and the Gesù were sold for waste paper. In the library of the Abbé Santini there were two printed collections of motetti by Carissimi for two, three, and four voices, which had been published at Rome in 1664 and 1667, and a Lauda Sion and 