A 19,000 kg void has been filled at St Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal. The monumental carillon has returned after being in France for restoration since 2019.
It’s made up of 62 different brass bells of weights varying between 5 kg and 3,600 kg. The piece of Quebec heritage were blessed during a ceremony at the Oratory on Saturday.
“We are like kids in a toy store, we were all so giddy!” St Joseph’s Oratory communications director Celine Barbeau said of the return of the bells.
The bells all combine to create one gargantuan instrument. They hung in a tower until 2018 before it was dismantled for restoration. The carillon was sent to Fonderie Paccard in France, where it was originally cast more than half a century ago.
Cyril Paccard’s family has been doing this kind of work for since 1796, for seven generations.
“These bells were cast in France in 1950 by my grand father,” he explained.
They were originally supposed to hang from the Eiffel Tower, but were never installed there. They were loaned to the Oratory in 1954 and ended up staying in Montreal after some donations permitted their purchase from Paccard.
In the four years away, they were painstakingly polished and the different sounds were calibrated with precision.
Andrée-anne doane is the oratory’s full time carillon player
“There are 62 bell and 62 different sounds,” explained Andrée-Anne Doane, the Oratory’s Titular carillonist. “They go from the low b-flat to a high c.”
There have been a few additions. Six new bells were cast at Paccard, including the bourdon, which is now the biggest of them all.
“The weight of this bell is 3.2 tonnes,” Cyril Paccard said, pointing at the bourdon. “It’s a very heavy instrument.”
Saturday and Sunday there is a unique opportunity for people to get up close and personal with the carillon, as it lies on the Oratory grounds just outside its Crypt Church.
After this weekend, work will begin to install it in a brand new custom built tower being constructed as part of extensive renovations to the oratory. The bells will be wired to a keyboard and once work is complete, Doane will resume playing them five times a week.
“I can’t wait. I just can’t wait. I heard the sound, and it’s such a beautiful sound,” she said.
It’s the only carillon in Quebec, and one of just eleven in the country including the one at the Peace Tower in Ottawa.
It should resume being played this fall.
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