The Westminster Quarters, from its use at the Palace of Westminster, is a melody used by a set of four quarter bells to mark each quarter-hour. It is also known as the Westminster Chimes, Cambridge Quarters, or Cambridge Chimes, from its place of origin, the Church of St Mary the Great, Cambridge.

Description

The Westminster Quarters are sounded by four quarter bells hung next to Big Ben in the Elizabeth Tower belfry in the Palace of Westminster. These are: The quarters consist of five changes, combinations of the four pitches provided by these quarter bells (G♯4, F♯4, E4, B3) in the key E major. This generates five unique changes as follows: Each of the five changes is played as three crotchets (quarter note) and a minim (half note) and are always played in the sequence 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. This sequence of five changes is used twice every hour as follows: The number of changes used matches the number of quarter hours passed. Because the five changes are used twice, and in the same sequence, the mechanism that trips the hammers needs to be programmed with only five changes instead of ten, reducing its complexity. Both the third quarter and the full hour require the fourth quarter bell, B3, to be rung twice in quick succession (changes 4,5,1 and 2,3,4,5); too quick for the hammer to draw back for the second strike. To address this, the fourth quarter bell is equipped with two hammers on opposite sides and becomes, effectively, a fifth bell for the mechanism to play. The first and third quarters finish on the dominant, B, while the half and full hours finish on the tonic, E, producing the satisfying musical effect that has contributed to the popularity of the chimes. The following sounds have been recreated as electronic, MIDI files and do not necessarily represent the actual sounds of the bells and that the pitch of the Big Ben clip is closer to F than E in modern concert pitch. An actual recording may be heard in the summary section above.

Words associated with the melody

The prayer inscribed on a plaque in the Big Ben clock room reads: <poem style="margin-left: 1em;">All through this hour Lord be my guide That by Thy power No foot shall slide. The conventional prayer is: <poem style="margin-left: 1em;">O Lord our God Be Thou our guide That by Thy help No foot may slide. An alternative prayer changes the third line: <poem style="margin-left: 1em;">O Lord our God Be Thou our guide So by Thy power No foot shall slide. A variation on this, to the same tune, is prayed at the end of Brownie meetings in the UK and Canada: <poem style="margin-left: 1em;">O Lord our God Thy children call Grant us Thy peace And bless us all. Amen.

History

The Westminster Quarters were originally written in 1793 for a new clock in Great St Mary's, the University Church in Cambridge. There is some doubt over exactly who composed it: Joseph Jowett, Regius Professor of Civil Law, was given the job, but he was probably assisted by either John Randall (1715–1799), who was the Professor of Music from 1755, or his undergraduate pupil, William Crotch (1775–1847). This chime is traditionally, though without substantiation, believed to be a set of variations on the four notes that make up the fifth and sixth bars of "I know that my Redeemer liveth" from Handel's Messiah. This is why the chime is also played by the bells of the so-called Red Tower in Halle, the native town of Handel. In 1851, the chime was adopted by Edmund Beckett Denison (an amateur horologist, and graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, who was familiar with the Great St Mary's chime) for the new clock at the Palace of Westminster, where the bell Big Ben hangs. From there its fame spread. It is now one of the most commonly used chimes for striking clocks. According to the church records of Trinity Episcopal Church (Williamsport, Pennsylvania), this chime sequence was incorporated into a tower clock mechanism by E. Howard & Co., Boston, Massachusetts. The clock and chime in Trinity's steeple base was dedicated in December 1875. It holds the distinction of being the first tower clock in the United States to sound the Cambridge Quarters.

Other uses