[ Music ]
>> Bert Ruymbeek: Hello.
We are Bert and Pieterjan from
WOR, and instead of playing live
for you in the American Folk
Life Center at the Library
of Congress in Washington,
D.C we're coming to
you from Mechelen.
Mechelen is a city in the
northern part of Belgium
in Flanders, the region
where we speak Dutch.
>> Pieterjan Van Kerckhoven:
And the first tune you have
heard today was "Ketting"
which is Dutch for a chain.
It's a mashup of two traditional
tunes found in a book in Antwerp
that actually they're
known all over Belgium,
and we will continue
with another one called
"Le Jolies Filles" found
in a book in Leuven,
some city name dropped, and
Leuven is right to Brussels
and the tune is called "Le
Jolies Filles" which is French
for "The Beautiful Girls."
[ Music ]
>> Bert Ruymbeek: We're going
to continue with a melody
from the southern part of
Belgium, from Wallonia.
That's the name of the region
where everyone speaks French.
It's a melody from a
manuscript of a musician
that was called [inaudible].
It's number 86 of
this manuscript.
>> Pieterjan Van Kerckhoven:
And when we first
rehearsed the arrangement
to this traditional tune we were
in England for some concerts,
and at that moment there were
a lot of student protests
for a better climate or
against climate change.
And because we support
their actions we had, okay,
let's call it the climate march.
[ Music ]
>> Pieterjan Van Kerckhoven:
Today we present to you music
from our latest album that's
called "About Towers."
We have recorded this
album in 2020 and are happy
to present this music
to you today.
The CD, the album, is called
"About Towers" because most
of the melodies we have found
for this album are
traditional songs or melodies
from carillon manuscripts.
So bell tower musicians or
professional musicians wrote
down their favorite tunes or the
favorite tunes of their audience
which is the audience
downstairs at the marketplaces.
So we call this bell tower music
actually the radio of its time.
>> Bert Ruymbeek: We contacted
the current carillon player
of Mechelen, Dina Verheyden,
and first you'll hear her
perform the next song which is
"Beyaert" and then you
will hear our version.
[ Music ]
>> Bert Ruymbeek:
Originally the concert
at the American Folk Life
Center at the Library
of Congress was part
of our tour,
and but now we're
doing it virtually.
Good news.
In November of this year we're
coming to the U.S for a tour.
We do a concert in Louisiana.
We play some concerts
in Montana.
And then we go through Wisconsin
and we end up in Boston.
The exact dates and
locations you will find
on our website www.wearewor.com.
>> Pieterjan Van Kerckhoven:
Last time we traveled
oceans it was to Australia
where we performed
also this piece
on the National Folk Festival
in Canberra, and when Fabio,
the baritone saxophone player
of our band [inaudible]
presented it
as VB71 the audience
started to laugh.
We didn't know why actually,
but apparently they thought we
made the silly beer Belgium joke
because Victoria Bitter is one
of Australia's most
popular beers.
But nothing to do with beer.
It's about tune number 71 of
the manuscript of [inaudible].
[ Music ]
>> Pieterjan Van Kerckhoven:
Dina Verheyden performed
for you a piece from Fiocco.
It was an adagio and
Fiocco was a composer
from the 18th century,
and his melodies
and compositions can be found
also in the carillon books
that we use to select
our music that we use
with our band [inaudible]
and [inaudible] can
you tell us a bit more
about this beautiful instrument?
>> Speaker 1: Yes.
I would be happy to.
This is called a carillon.
It's an instrument that exists
already for five centuries
and is quite common
in this region.
So that's to say
Belgium and also Mechelen
which can be called the capital
of the carillon actually.
There are several
carillons in this city,
and there's also a very nice
carillon school where students
from all over the world gather
to learn how to play
the carillon.
And I as a kid I was
born here in Mechelen
and as a kid I already
heard a lot
of these nice bell
sounds in the city.
So I'm very happy that I could
go to this Royal Carillon School
and learn how to
play the instrument.
And I'm also happy
to be a teacher now.
So I'm the teacher of
the carillon school.
And learn students from all
over the world how to play.
I will also explain you a
little bit how this works.
It's a little bit
like a very big piano.
So here are the white keys
and these are the black keys.
And if you play there is
a connection to a clapper
which goes -- which
hangs inside of a bell.
So if you move the clapper,
you hear the bell sound.
For every different note there
is a different size of a bell.
So these are very small bells,
and down in the pedal
there are the lower bells
and the heavier bells.
Actually this is a very small
carillon because it's down here.
It's a mobile carillon,
a very recent instrument.
Within the big tower,
the historical tower,
here in Mechelen there is
a huge instrument of more
than 40 tons of bronze.
Bronze. So there are very
different sizes of carillons.
>> Pieterjan Van Kerckhoven:
And the carillon players,
they perform for all the
people in the markets.
They performed pieces that
the people already knew,
traditional songs, but also they
took the more popular classical
music of their time.
And so Dina will also perform
another piece from [inaudible].
[ Music ]
We'll continue this concert
with a minuet from Antwerp.
It's a tune very popular
by bagpipe players.
I play bagpipes.
It's called the Flemish
bagpipes or the bruegel pipes
since it's bagpipes that you
can find a lot on paintings
of famous painter Peter Bruegel
who worked between Amsterdam
and Brussels so it's the
bagpipes of the lowlands.
I will continue in this set
with "[Inaudible] Bien Amoureux"
which is French for when
we are pretty much in love.
So enjoy.
[ Music ]
>> Bert Ruymbeek: So we have
arrived at the last track
of our album which will also be
the last track of this concert.
The name of the song
is "Cecilia."
The full title is [inaudible]
Cecilia [inaudible].
We found several versions
in several manuscripts
in several locations
in our region,
and we interpreted
the song pretty freely
since it was clearly a big
hit in that -- at that time.
>> Pieterjan Van Kerckhoven:
And the song is actually
about Cecilia, a girl
walking at the riverside.
Sitting at the other side
of the river a Shepard called
Florian [assumed spelling]
who she's in love with
and good for her and him.
At the end of the
couplet they kiss.
We wish to thank you to be here
today, to listen to our concert.
Also thank you for
the invitation
to make this concert today
for you, and I hope to see you
in the future somewhere.
[ Music ]
>> Fabio Di Meo: Thank you.
Thank you for watching.
I hope you enjoyed this concert.
And if you want to
listen to more of us,
you can check our website.
You can check all
our live dates.
And you can check
those on Spotify,
Facebook [inaudible] WhatsApp.
Everything there
is, we're on it.
We hope to see you in
person in the near future.
Thank you.