Chime (bell instrument)

A carillon-like instrument with fewer than 23 bells is called a chime.

Chime

Eight-bell chime in its frame (McShane Bell Foundry, Maryland)
Percussion instrument
Classification	Percussion
Hornbostel–Sachs classification	111.242.2 (Sets of bells or chimes)

The first bell chime was created in 1487. Before 1900, chime bells typically lacked dynamic variation and were not harmonically tuned. Since then chime bells produced in Belgium, the Netherlands, England, and America have tuning to produce fully harmonized music.[1] Some towers in England normally hung for full circle change ringing can be chimed when mouth downwards by an Ellacombe apparatus.[2]

American chimes usually have one to one and a half diatonic octaves. Some chimes are automated.

Notable chimes

• The Altgeld Chimes at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The fifteen bells were cast and installed by the McShane Bell Foundry in 1920. They were a gift of the classes of 1914-1921 and the United States School of Military Aeronautics.[3]

See also

• Campanology: Chimes

References

1. Bell Facts – Bell Chimes Archived August 13, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
2. "Glossary of ringing terms". www.cb1.com.
3. Anne Lukeman (Producer), Jake Maples (Editor), Nick Yi (Drone footage) (August 2, 2017). The Altgeld Chimes (YouTube video). University of Illinois Office of Public Affairs. Retrieved January 4, 2020.