The development of carillon art and culture in Australia: Two case studies (1933–2021)

This presentation charts both historical and contemporary accounts pertaining to the musical and societal functions of two carillons in Australia: the War Memorial Carillon in Bathurst, New South Wales (1933–2021) and the National Carillon in Canberra (1970–2020). Whilst these two carillons share one feature in common (they comprise bells that were cast exclusively by the renowned bell foundry, John Taylor & Co.), their gradual development as community-based concert instruments have tracked very distinct paths. The Bathurst War Memorial Carillon was erected to commemorate the significant loss of lives during World War I. It is said that everyone in Bathurst and its surrounding districts knew someone who served in the war (Page 2018). Although the tower, fully funded by the local community, was finally erected in 1933 in the midst of the Great Depression, it would take almost nine decades before the Bathurst carillon received its mechanical clavier, thus converting the monument into a true ‘singing tower’ as it was originally envisaged. The carillon in Canberra, on the other hand, was received as a gift from the British Government. Canberra-based carillonists and musicians have, since the 1980s, been at the forefront of artistic experimentation in Australia through the commissioning of new music and the formation of novel ensemble combinations that brought other instruments alongside the carillon, a subgenre known as ‘carillon plus’. In recent years, a growing number of large projects and international festivals have resulted in both local and international premieres of solo and carillon-plus repertoire. These meaningful, civic contributions were made possible through genuine collaboration with increasingly diverse artists from around the country, including a growing number of First Nations performers and composers. I argue that the potential for carillon performance to make meaningful contributions to society, both locally and at large, are maximised when there is an earnest appreciation of responsible and sustainable management of the fragile acoustic ecology within the tower’s audible vicinity (cf. Gillmurray 2017).

Dr Thomas Laue is a musician, educator, and Lecturer in Music at the Australian National University School of Music. He is Senior Carillonist at the National Carillon in Canberra. In 2012, Thomas completed his doctoral studies with a thesis entitled The role of performance in aural harmony: Discovering, classifying, and evaluating pedagogical approaches. In the same year, he commenced studies on the carillon. His achievements on carillon have been recognised by multiple national and international awards, including: 3^rd Prize at the ‘Olympics of the carillon’ — the Seventh International Carillon Competition ‘Queen Fabiola’ (2014); 3^rd Prize in the Matthias Vanden Gheyn International Carillon Composition and Arrangement Competition (2021) for an original composition, 'Boomerang Nebula', and 1^st Prize for a baroque arrangement of 'Sonata for Solo Violin' Op. 16 no. 12 by Isabella Leonarda. Both new works are currently in press, to be published later in 2021 by Campanae Lovanienses, Leuven, Belgium. Thomas is presently engaged in a large collaborative project funded in part by the Australia Council for the Arts and artsACT, working with dozens of local and First Nations composers and performing artists, to enable the commissioning, premiere, and professional recording of over fifty new works for carillon ensembles in celebration of the Golden Jubilee of the National Carillon, Canberra (1970–2020).

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