Footage reaches us today of a man playing AC/DC's Hell Bells in a church in Germany. To be more precise, the 1980 classic is played on a carillion, by the talented carillionist David Drambyan.
What is a carillion? We had no idea, so we looked it up. And this is what Wikipedia tells us:
"A carillon is a musical instrument that is typically housed in the bell tower (belfry) of a church or municipal building. The instrument consists of at least 23 cast bronze, cup-shaped bells, which are played serially to produce a melody, or sounded together to play a chord. A traditional manual carillon is played by striking a keyboard – the stick-like keys of which are called batons – with the fists, and by pressing the keys of a pedal keyboard with the feet."
This particular carillion is found at The Red Tower, a medieval church in the city of Halle. It was installed in 1999, and consists of 76 bells with a total weight of 54,980 kg, making it the largest carillion in Europe and the third largest in the world. It is surpassed only by the carillon of the Tower of the Apostle Kirk in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA, which boasts 77 bells, and the equally large carillon at Hyechon College in South Korea.
Carillion also rhymes with Marillion. Maybe.
