New timbres of St. Catherine's carillon

St. Catherine's carillon, the largest instrument of its
kind in Poland, deserves special attention due to its particular acoustic
properties. They were investigated in detail and relevant results reported
earlier. Recently, the acoustic possibilities of the carillon and its sound
repertory has been significantly augmented thanks to twelve new bells added to
the 37 existing so far, and the newly installed keyboard, enabling the
carillonist direct exciting of bell sounds. Thanks to the enlarged carillon
sound scale and the direct mechanical coupling of keyboard keys to bells, the
carillonist gains an enriched possibility of creating new chords and complex
timbres resulting in several bells being struck either together or subsequently.
These timbres were actually investigated with the same method and equipment as
applied during the former investigations, mentioned above. The selected carillon
sounds were recorded and the recorded samples analyzed digitally by means of
dedicated computer software programs. The results confirm the high quality of
the enlarged part of the carillon, comparable to the very high quality of the
instrument existing so far. Conclusions concerning particular properties of the
St. Catherine carillon are presented at the end of the paper.