Elegy for Carillon honors the memory of Johan Franco (1908-1988), a dedicated 20th-Century composer who devoted much of his time and energy to the creation of music for the carillon.
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He attended many gatherings of The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, and his music has been widely performed at their annual congresses. His gentle contemporary language and fresh approach to the instrument is stylistically unique and offers an individualistic listening experience to all who have become familiar with his output. While this brief memorial offering does not endeavor to duplicate his innate musical spirit, it does provide a congenial language and manner similar to his creative esthetic.
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Elegy begins as a song without a melody, opening with a somber statement sixteen measures in length. After modulating to a new key, its plaintive ariose theme emerges in the soprano line. Sequential modulations and reappearances of the theme follow in different ranges and voices with increased movement, until at last the melody is stated boldly in the lower pedal notes of the instrument, sounded out against the arpeggiated harmonies of the introduction played in higher registers. In the wake of this dramatic statement, the intensity abates and the movement draws to a gently serene conclusion. It could be effectively rendered on the piano with judicious octavo basso doublings of the bass line.

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