On the tuning of church and carillon bells

Abstract The whole area of the tuning of church and carillon bells is reviewed in an historical context. Experimental results on the tuning of a small carillon bell are reported and compared with the results of van Heuven for the ‘average Hemony bell’. Surprisingly, in view of the very different geometries of the bells, there is excellent agreement. This fact, coupled with unexpected nodal patterns for some of the carillon bell's modes, seems to shed some light on the classification of church bell modes.