Grace Notes

Looking For “The Merry Bells”

DONNA REILLY

For the aria and chorus at the end of Part I of L’Allegro, “Or let the merry bells ring round,” Handel is reported to have used a kind of keyboard instrument that somehow played bells or bars of metal. It was probably the same instrument he had invented a year earlier for the oratorio Saul. His librettist, Charles Jennens, states his opinion of the instrument in a letter:

“Mr. Handel’s head is more full of maggots than ever. I found yesterday in his room a very queer instrument which he calls carillon and says some call it a Tubelcain, I suppose because it is both in the make and tone like a set of Hammers striking upon anvils. ‘Tis played upon with keys like a Harpsichord and with this Cyclopean instrument he designs to make poor Saul stark mad.”

Although we know that Handel used an instrument he called a “carillon,” there was no written part for any such instrument in either L’Allegro or Saul. Modern performances have had to make do by including a part for celesta (think Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies) augmented by a glockenspiel. Since this mystery instrument is called upon to double the violins or the chorus, it has to be strong enough to hold its own. Some recordings of L’Allegro don’t even begin to accomplish this.

When Filippo set out to find a celesta for UV Baroque’s performance in April, there were all sorts of unexpected surprises as a result. Thinking he might find assistance from a friend at Harvard, where the college Baroque group had recently performed L’Allegro, he learned that they’d borrowed an instrument from John Eliot Gardiner for their performance.

Gardiner, following as much as could be gleaned from descriptions of it, had found someone to fabricate Handel’s “Carillon.” Unfortunately, the resulting instrument is rather large and unwieldy and is currently located in England. Shipping it to Hanover and back would be prohibitively expensive, and there was no guarantee we would even be permitted to borrow it.

Meanwhile, all who were involved in this Treasure Hunt were searching for ways to come up with a solution. Handbells were suggested, but the modern score calls for an instrument with a range of notes far beyond what handbells are capable of playing.

So the search is still on. It will be interesting to see what appears on stage in April to play the part of “the Merry Bells!” We have complete faith in Filippo to find a way to make them ring again.    .