Gdańsk carillon tablatures
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Date
2012
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Katedra Muzykologii, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PTPN, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM
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Abstract
The music collections of Gdańsk State Archive include music written for the automatic carillon
of Gdańsk Main Town Hall. These are four tablatures with a unique notation system that appears only in
Gdańsk sources. The oldest tablature (consisting of four volumes) was produced in the years 1769–1775; two
others (one volume each) were copied in 1775 and 1776; the fourth was compiled in the years 1808–1812.
The tablatures contain a total of 653 chorale settings. Their author was Theodor Friedrich Gülich, who
programmed the Town Hall carillon from 1764 to 1776.
The Main Town Hall carillon played the chorales every hour. Two different chorales could be programmed
on the carillon drum simultaneously. A longer chorale signalled the passing of an even-numbered
hour and a shorter chorale an odd-numbered hour. The chorales were changed every Saturday.
The four-volume tablature contains chorale settings for the whole year, settings of funeral hymns and
instructions for changing the chorales on the carillon drum and programming chorales for special
occasions (such as the arrival of the king, the death of a prominent fi gure, such as the monarch, the
mayor, a city councillor or a councillor’s wife, and elections to the City Council, as well as the opening
and closing of St Dominic’s Fair). One of the single-volume tablatures includes Old Lutheran Church
songs, another has Reformed Evangelical Church songs, and the fourth tablature contains chorales
arranged for successive weeks of the year.
This article presents the Gdańsk carillon tablatures and explains the principles behind their musical
notation.
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Keywords
carillon, Gdańsk historical carillons, Gdańsk Main Town Hall carillon, musical notation, tablature, Protestant chorale
Citation
Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology 11, 2012, pp. 103-122.