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Chimes of bells are limited to simple hymns and folk tunes, or unmelodic "change ringing" which is fairly common in the U. S.† The musical literature of the carillon is larger, although it, too, has its limitations. One of these is that each bell has four or more separate "partials" or overtones in addition to its fundamental note, and when these are not all in tune with each other as well as with those of other bells, a prodigious jangling results. Thus a carillonneur must often rearrange a composition to allow for discords in his family of bells. Nevertheless, on the ancient bells of Alfred last week, Carillonneur Wesson performed a remarkable variety of tunes, ranging from Hail to Thee, Alfred to two movements from a Sonata for Carillon by Teinmerinaus.
*World's largest bell, which cracked in casting and hence is untuned, is Russia's Tsar Kolokol (Tsar of Bells), made in 1733, 19 ft. high and weighing 440,000 lb.
†"Changes" are rung on a number of bells by a number of ringers, in mathematical sequence. This strenuous pastime, popular in England (see Dorothy Sayers' The Nine Tailors), involves varying the order of pealing bells so that no one succession of notes is repeated during the lengthy operation. In 1922 the Oxford Diocesan Guild and the Ancient Society of Youths rang 21,363 different changes at the rate of 28 a minute, a record.