Carillon Bells - O Canada - God Save the King // The Message of the Carillon

On July 1, 1927, some 60,000 people gathered on Parliament Hill in Ottawa for Canada's Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the inauguration of the newly installed Peace Tower Carillon. As Percival Price, Canada's first Dominion Carillonneur, played "O Canada" on its 53 bells, the performance was carried live across the country. Several million people heard the inaugural concert by radio, carried across Canada in the country's first live coast-to-coast radio broadcast.

The Victor Talking Machine Company of Canada documented the occasion on Victor 216504. One side, issued as "Carillon Bells," preserves Price playing "O Canada" and "God Save the King" on the Parliament Hill carillon. The reverse, "The Message of the Carillon," presents excerpts from a recorded address by The Right Honourable William Lyon Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada. Victor recorded King's address in Ottawa on June 30, followed by Price's inaugural carillon performance on July 1.

Canada was celebrating the 60th anniversary of Confederation. The carillon had been installed in the Peace Tower as a national memorial to peace and to the service and sacrifice of Canadians during the First World War. Its 53 bells were cast and tuned by Gillett & Johnston of Croydon, England, with the great bourdon weighing more than ten tonnes.

The carillon is housed immediately above the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower. Its largest bell bears an inscription in both English and French commemorating the Peace of 1918 and the service and sacrifice of Canada during the Great War.

In his address, King explained the purpose and symbolism of the new instrument and spoke directly of the music about to sound from the tower. He said the notes of "O Canada" would be heard far beyond the bounds of the Dominion as Canada marked its sixtieth anniversary, carrying with them a message of peace and goodwill.

Percival Price was at the keyboard when the carillon's bells rang out for the first time. King described the instrument as being as sensitive to a musician's touch as the string of a harp.

When Price played "O Canada" that day, the song had yet to receive official status as Canada's national anthem. Calixa Lavallée had composed the melody in 1880, and by the time of the Diamond Jubilee it had become widely familiar across Canada. Parliament formally proclaimed "O Canada" the national anthem on July 1, 1980.

Price's recording is entirely instrumental. The later changes to the lyrics have no effect on what we hear. Lavallée's melody remains immediately recognizable today as the music that rang from the Peace Tower on July 1, 1927.

At the close of his address, Mackenzie King described the carillon as "the voice of a nation." He imagined its sound travelling over land and sea and perhaps being carried "down the centuries to come."

Victor 216504 preserved that sound on record.

Nearly a century later, the bells of July 1, 1927 can still be heard.

-Robert Williston