NOTED CARILLONEUR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 137, 11 June 1932, Page 10

NOTED CARILLONEUR.

RETURNING TO ENGLAND

ADMIRER OF NEW ZEALAND

WANTS TO GO TRAMPING.

Very reluctantly Mr. Clifford Ball, the carilloneur of Bournville, England, who came out to open the War Memorial Carillon at Wellington, is leaving next Monday on the return journey to England. He and Mrs. Ball, who are staying at the Grand Hotel, arrived in Auckland last night from Rotorua. They have thoroughly enjoyed their visit to New Zealand, and their only regret is that they cannot stay longer. Both are keen trampere, and they leave with an unsatisfied wish to go on a tramp through the New Zealand bush. Rotorua impressed them very much, and Mr. Ball remarked this morning that the more one went over in one's mind the remarkable sights to be seen there the more wonderful they seemed. Kotorua was certainly unique, and what struck him with surprise was to find such weirdness and such beauty in the same district. In one direction, he said, there were the most uncanny phenomena ill the .world, and in the other there was the most delightful scenery. He and Mrs. Ball went down as far as Dunedin , after their stay in Wellington, and they thoroughly enjoyed the lake and mountain scenery, the only regret in a delightful experience being their inability to get to the Mount Cook area and to carry their rucsacs over the Milford Track. They had heard so much of the track, and were such keen walkers, that they would have liked nothing better than to make the : journey. Wonderful Weather. "We have in New Zealand friends we knew in the Old Country," said Mrs. Ball, "and we find that they have quite adopted New Zealand as their home. We can quite understand why they love it. This" —and she pointed outside where the warm sun was shining from a cloudless sky and the harbour was sparkling —"is wonderful; it is simply glorious weather, and would make anyone love the country. The sunshine struck us more than anything else hi New Zealand, liven in Wellington, after a southerly blow —and it can blow —they would tell us, 'Wait for a day or two'; and sure enough the gale would be followed by the most delightfully sunny weather, crystal clear. When you think of the fog and mist of the Old Country in winter you are really to be envied in the weather you enjoy." The Shy Carillon. Speaking about the Wellington carillon, Mr. Ball said it was decidedly one of the best sets of the world. A carillon was new to Wellington, and at first some people were a trifle disappointed; they had expected something louder. A carillon was quite different from a peal of bells, and required different surroundings. A park was an ideal place in which to hear a carillon. On the Continent, where carillons were more enmiuon than in England, the traffic was diverted from the vicinity of the tower when concerts were given, as, for instance, at Bruges, where the square was closed to traffic on the evenings concerts were held. Nevertheless, Wellington people had soon found that at certain points their carillon sounded with telling effect, and they took pleasure in finding out these spots. A carillon was something to get to know intimately, and people who might at first be rather indifferent ended by becoming very fond of it; the music grew on one. The man who plays the carillon when it is played by hand is a carilloneur, and wherever he goes Mr. Ball is sure to be asked how he pronounces that rather difficult word for English ears not accustomed to the liquid French "1." He pronounces it with the accent on the "car," as though it were spelt "carryIon," and the instrumentalist "carrylonner."