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Les cloches de Hinckley

acc

Member
I seem to remember hearing once (probably on BBC Radio 3) that it was not Big Ben he heard, but the chimes of Westminster Cathedral.

I don't know the tune of Westminster Cathedral's chimes. Vierne did play there on January 3rd, 1924, so that may have something to do with it.

Another point, though, is that Vierne actually misquotes the Big Ben tune. Here is what one hears from the clock tower itself (transposed into D major, and where F stands for F#):

  • 1st quarter: F E D A
  • 2nd quarter: D F E A — D E F D
  • 3rd quarter: F D E A — A E F D — F E D A
  • 4th quarter: D F E A — D E F D — F D E A — A E F D
Vierne replaces the 2nd quarter with D E F A — A E F D.

Rollin Smith tells a second-hand story about Vierne actually calling Henry Willis across the Channel, asking him to whistle the tune over the phone, suggesting a poor communication line and/or Willis's poor whistling capabilities to be responsible for the error.

I also heard (possibly in the same programme) that the first time he played C. de W. as a postlude at Notre Dame the worshippers were so entranced by it that they refused to leave their seats until it was over (and who can blame them?)

Indeed, this is confirmed by Rollin Smith on p.555 of his book, where he quotes an excerpt from Henri Doyen's Mes leçons d'orgue, p.80–81:
...one of the rare times when I saw the clergy and faithful not sortie... Everyone, to the desperation of the verger and sacristans “who had never seen anything like it,” waited quietly until the end, and a number of people improvised a little ovation for the maître when he came down from the tribune.
 

Thierry59

New member
I have already done that. I haven't found any mention of Hinckley at all, and only a single sentence about Big Ben, at the bottom of p.149:

(Translation: “And, on this occasion, he writes down the tune of the famous chimes [of Big Ben] that would become the basis for one of his most popular works a few years later.”)

Assuming I haven't overlooked any other passages — the lack of an index doesn't make life easy when one tries to use Gavoty's book to look up for anything specific. :( (Of course, Gavoty never intended his book to be a scholarly work in the first place.)
As I am in vacation I cant' find out some other sources I could have or talk to people I know who might tell me more about this mystery! When I'm back in Paris I will investigate and share with you what I will have picked up
 

eameece

New member
chimes of Hinckley

Thierry wrote, "In the leaflet attached to the recording made by Labric, it is clearly indicated that the carillon sounded every 15 minutes whereas the site says 3 hours. I think the first version is more likely since Vierne was complaining about being waken up very often...But all the witnesses have passed away..."

It may be that both are true; the bells rang the hour and quarter hour, and played a tune every 3 hours.:)
 

Ruralista

New member
More specifically, the site mentioned by eameece gives the titles of the seven tunes, so the question is to see whether one of them is close enough to Vierne's main theme: B---E---A-F#-B---E---AGF#-B---c#---d#ec#-g# (first heard in the pedal at bar 11).
Almost certainly the Sicilian Mariners hymn (also used for the German carol 'O du fröhliche').
 
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