Carillon Profile: Massey/Drury Memorial Carillon

Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Carillon, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

The University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Memorial Chapel houses one of the crown jewels of carillons worldwide—the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Carillon. The 72-bell instrument is a sister to the other carillon donated by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.—the carillon in The Riverside Church in New York City. Both carillons were cast by Gillett & Johnston of Croydon, England, and they are the two largest carillons in the world by weight, with Chicago’s carillon second heaviest at over 100 tons. The Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Carillon was cast over a three-year period and installed in 1932. The university proudly celebrates the 90th anniversary of the carillon’s installation by hosting the annual congress of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America in June 2022 (gcna.org).

The carillon’s mechanics and design bear some hallmarks of Gillett & Johnston’s style while also incorporating contemporary features. The bells possess a rich, full tone because of their fine craftsmanship and extra-large profile, true to the Gillett & Johnston tradition. The large range of the keyboard was of the foundry’s own design, similar to that of their instrument in New York, before unifying keyboard standards were adopted by carillon guilds. The keyboard transposes down four semitones, intensifying the bells’ low register and long resonance. The largest nine bells of the carillon were connected to an electro-pneumatic mechanical system to ring the time in 15-minute increments and to ring the six largest bells via an electric switchbox mounted directly on the carillon keyboard.

In 2005, members of the university administration solicited gifts from alumni to fund an organ and carillon renovation on the occasion of University President Don Michael Randel’s retirement and 65th birthday. Through these generous donations, Eijsbouts of the Netherlands was able to execute a full-scale renovation in 2007 and 2008. The transmission system was updated from a roller bar to directed crank, and the bells were repositioned on a new frame to allow for better sound transmission from the belfry to the ground. All clappers were replaced. The original playing cabin was dismantled, rebuilt, and repositioned within the tower, allowing for better sound transmission and playability from the keyboard. The original keyboard frame was retained but outfitted with an updated World Carillon Federation keyboard design. The electro-pneumatic mechanical system was decoupled from the carillon transmission system in the bass bells, making them more playable for the carillonist. The highest 46 bells were slightly retuned to offset the effects of corrosion over the decades. All in all, the carillon became more consonant, resonant, playable, and easier to hear for audiences.

The original Gillett & Johnston practice keyboard is currently being restored by the B. A. Sunderlin Bellfoundry of Ruther Glen, Virginia. The foundry cast new tone bars and rebuilt the transmission for the full six-octave keyboard. The project is expected to be completed in time for the GCNA Congress in June.

Joey Brink, a member of The Diapason’s 20 Under 30 Class of 2015, has been university carillonist since September of that year, although he will be stepping down in September 2022 (see page 3). An active student carillon guild involves undergraduate, graduate, and professional students in carillon instruction and activities. About twenty students per year enroll in weekly carillon lessons led by Brink, and they assist in playing daily recitals and leading tower tours.

The carillon is played each day, 12:00–1:00 p.m. and 5:00–6:00 p.m., during the academic quarters. Recitals are performed by Brink and students of the carillon guild. The Sunday noon concert, following the chapel service, is programmed and performed by Brink or other local professionals. The carillon is also played for special occasions in the Rockefeller Chapel, including weddings, funerals, and university convocations.

—Kimberly Schafer, PhD

Carillonist and campanologist

Chicago, Illinois

Carillon website: rockefeller.uchicago.edu/the-carillon

Beaumont Memorial Tower

Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan

The Michigan State University’s Beaumont Memorial Tower in East Lansing is centrally located on campus in an open, wooded park ideal for carillon concerts. Apart from its beautiful natural setting, Beaumont Memorial Tower is distinguished as the first recipient of a Michigan Historical Marker in 1955 on the occasion of the centennial celebration of the university. Alumnus John W. Beaumont and his wife Alice donated the funds for the tower and chime as a monument to the college’s mission and achievements.

The tower was designed in the neo-Gothic style by the architectural firm of Donaldson and Meier of Detroit and built in 1929. The current carillon of Beaumont Memorial Tower started as a ten-bell chime cast by Gillett & Johnston of Croydon, England, in 1928 and installed in 1929. The chime was performed manually from a baton keyboard, and the bells were automated to ring the quarter-hour and hour. Shortly after its installation, three more bells were ordered from Gillett & Johnston and installed in 1930, so that the college’s Alma Mater, “Close by the Winding Cedar,” could be performed with the available pitches.

The chime underwent multiple expansions and improvements until it became the world-class carillon it is today. Russell Daubert, the first chimer, advocated for the expansion of the instrument to a carillon, and in 1935 ten more bells were added—bringing the total number of bells to 23. In the late 1940s, due to the advocacy of new carillonist Wendell Westcott, 14 more bells were added in 1950, bringing the total to 37, but these treble bells were cast by the Dutch firm Petit & Fritsen. The Michigan State College Fund solicited for ten more bells shortly thereafter, and six treble bells were installed in 1952, while four bass bells were installed in 1959. The new trebles were cast by Petit & Fritsen, while the four bass bells were cast by Gillett & Johnston. By this time, the carillon consisted of 47 bells at a concert size of four octaves.

By the early 1970s, the instrument had fallen into disrepair, and in 1986 the bells were disconnected from the keyboard and automatic playing mechanism. The university hired the Royal Eijsbouts Bell Foundry of the Netherlands restore the clock mechanism, automate the lowest 27 bells, install a new central transmission system with directed cranks, replace the 20 Petit & Fritsen bells, and add two more bells. The replacement treble bells rectified the tuning discrepancy between the bells cast by two firms. Margo Halsted, the University of Michigan carillonneur, was a strong supporter of the carillon’s renovation and was the formal consultant on the project. After this last renovation was completed, the carillon consisted of 49 bells. The bells are pitched from C3 to D7, absent two bass notes, although they transpose up one whole step from their keyboard position (lowest bell keyed at B-flat).

Margo Halsted served as the visiting university carillonneur from 1996 to 1997, at which time her student Ray McLellan was appointed to the position of university carillonneur. He served in this position until his untimely passing in April 2021. The university carillonist of Grand Valley State University, Julianne Vanden Wyngaard, served as the interim carillonist, and Jonathan Lehrer started as the new university carillonist in August 2022. Other regular performers include Rachel Drobnak, Laurie Harkema, Sally Harwood, and Bill McHarris.

When classes are in session, the carillon is played at noon most days of the week and for special events. Lehrer will continue the carillon performance studio started by his predecessor. The Muelder Summer Carillon Recital series occurs on five to six consecutive Wednesdays in July and August at 6:00 p.m., started in 1996 through the generosity of faculty member and administrator Milton Muelder.

—Kimberly Schafer, PhD, Carillonist and campanologist, Chicago, Illinois

Carillon website: music.msu.edu/carillon/history-of-beaumont-tower-and-the-carillon

Chicago Botanic Garden's Theodore C. Butz Memorial Carillon

The Theodore C. Butz Memorial Carillon stands in the idyllic location of the Chicago Botanic Garden, in the suburb of Glencoe, perfectly suited to engage and accommodate their large audiences. The carillon is housed in a modest-sized open tower with large glass panels on all sides of the playing cabin, allowing garden visitors an excellent view into carillonists’ performances. The tower is situated on Evening Island, which is across the Great Basin from a large lawn where hundreds of listeners have gathered on summer evenings to hear concerts by carillonists from around the world since June 1987.

The carillon was generously donated by Mrs. Harold “Mitzi” James, a member of the family that formed the Butz Foundation. Wanting to give to the garden, which was in the area where she had spent much of her life, Mitzi immediately decided upon a carillon when shown the garden’s master plan with the instrument drawn in. Petit & Fritzen of the Netherlands (now merged with Eijsbouts) cast the bells, while Verdin of Ohio installed them. The instrument is a standard size of 48 bells (four octaves) and bourdon C weight of 5,000 pounds. It does not transpose.

The Butz carillon was dedicated on October 19, 1986. Carillonist Wylie Crawford performed the recital, which included the commissioned piece, “Prelude, Intermezzo & Finale,” by Ronald Barnes.

The following June, the annual summer carillon concert series began, thanks to the generous support of the Butz Foundation. The Monday evening concerts commence in mid-June and last until the end of August, drawing hundreds of attendees at each event. Before performing, the featured carillonist gives demonstrations of the instrument to the curious. Due to ongoing Covid restrictions, the garden cancelled the summer carillon concert series in 2020 and 2021.

The instrument has undergone some updates since its installation 35 years ago. In 2006, again thanks to the generosity of the Butz family via Elvira Butz, the garden obtained a practice carillon keyboard in order to facilitate performer practice and carillon lessons, led by Wylie Crawford. In 2014–2015, Meeks & Watson of Ohio replaced and updated carillon components that had been water damaged or over exposed to the elements. Major features of their project consisted of replacing and renewing the transmission system, restoring clappers, removing rust and repainting metal components, replacing support bolts, and repairing water damage on the wooden keyboard and bench.

Currently the carillon is performed on weekday mornings from 8:00–9:00 a.m. by the Botanic Garden Carillonist Wylie Crawford and other local carillonists.

Carillon Profile: Walter F. Tilton Memorial Carillon, Norwood, Massachusetts

The Walter F. Tilton Memorial Carillon in the town of Norwood, Massachusetts, is being restored, carrying on its iconic status in the community. The entire transmission system, from the keyboard wires to the clappers, was replaced to create a more modern, playable instrument. The updated design retained the legacy roller-bar system and the original keyboard, although the keyboard was reconditioned and outfitted with modern parts. The steel bell frame had rusted due to decades of exposure, so it was treated and repainted to withstand many more decades. The B. A. Sunderlin Bell Foundry of Ruther Glen, Virginia, is carrying out the carillon work and will finish the project this spring.

Notable figures in the North American carillon community and local community have stewarded the instrument for decades. The late Sally Slade Warner, renowned for her deft arrangements and moving performances, played on the instrument for decades until her retirement in the early 2000s. Slade Warner performed repairs and renovation work herself in the 1980s to make the instrument more playable. Bernie Cooper, assistant town manager, was also critical in taking care of the instrument. He worked with Slade Warner to bring the instrument back into better working order, and he ensured financial support for the carillon until his untimely passing in January 2021. He and Slade Warner started the annual summer carillon concert series in the 1980s.

Another notable figure is Lee Leach, a current carillonist. Leach had noticed the extensive rust on the bell frame and the difficult playability as early as the 1990s, when he had first learned to play the instrument. When the state of Massachusetts passed new legislation that made local taxes and state appropriations available to communities to fund preservation projects, Leach and Cooper set to work and applied for a grant from the Community Preservation Act to fund the carillon’s restoration, which was approved by the local committee and then awarded by the state.

The Walter F. Tilton Memorial Carillon is one of the few municipal carillons in North America. The funds for the instrument were donated by local leader Walter F. Tilton to recognize all the Norwood residents who had fought in past wars. The fifty-bell instrument was cast and installed by Gillett & Johnston of England and dedicated on November 11, 1928, the tenth anniversary of Armistice Day. The carillon is located within Norwood’s Memorial Town Hall and is managed by the municipality. Three of the bells were replaced since the carillon’s inception, but otherwise no major work was done until now.

The carillon will continue in its summer carillon concert series in 2022, inviting guest recitalists from near and far. The traditional informal ring by local carillonists will take place on the afternoon of the Fourth of July. These musicians will play on occasion, including Margaret Angelini, Anton Fleissner, Jennifer Herrmann, Lee Leach, Thomas Lee, Christina Meyer, Margaret Pan, and John Whiteside. The anticipated date for its first recital is May 22, 2022, when Norwood will honor its veterans as part of its 150th-anniversary celebration of its founding.

—Kimberly Schafer, PhD, Carillonist and campanologist, Chicago, Illinois

All photos credit: Lee Leach

B. M. C. Durfee High School, Fall River, Massachusetts

The newly refurbished 23-bell instrument of B. M. C. Durfee High School in Fall River, Massachusetts, is distinguished by its status as the only carillon in a public high school in the United States. The instrument began in 1886 as a ten-bell chime cast by Meneely of Watervliet, New York, for the Durfee High School. The chime was dedicated a year later to the memory of Bradford Matthew Chaloner Durfee, the only child of Bradford and Mary Brayton Durfee, local residents.

For decades, the bells tolled 29 times every morning to commemorate every year of Chaloner’s life. The bells were removed from the old school tower in 1978, when a new school was built; the original school was later re-purposed as a state courthouse in the 1990s.

The bells needed an extra boost to be reinstalled on the new school grounds. The late Les Cory, Durfee alumnus, formed the Durfee Bells Preservation Society, Inc., and the organization successfully raised all the funds in order to mount the bells again in a free-standing tower on the new school grounds. Another alumnus who was pivotal in the effort to remount the bells was Janice Curry, to whom the clocks in the tower were dedicated.

When the chime was rededicated in 2014, five bells were added to form a 14-bell instrument. Four of the new bells were newly cast, and one of them was a replacement, since one of the original ten bells had been stolen in the late 1990s. Meeks, Watson & Co. of Georgetown, Ohio, did this work. One of the added bells was an older one repurposed for this chime, a McShane of Baltimore bell from 1898 that fit in well with the existing set. Meeks, Watson & Co. had searched the country for a bell similar to the original Meneely of Watervliet bell and chanced upon this one in Tennessee. In addition to casting four new bells and finding a replacement bell, Meeks, Watson & Co. retuned the original nine remaining bells.

Only four years later, the bells had to come down again. The school was torn down to make room for a new, larger school. This time, B. A. Sunderlin Bellfoundry of Sunder Glen, Virginia, was contracted to handle the expansion and reinstallation project. The new school has an integral tower in its design where the bells will hang and ring out daily. Sunderlin cast nine new bells for a total of 23, just surpassing the numerical threshold to constitute a carillon. The bells play automatically via computerized electromagnetic hammers and manually via a traditional baton keyboard.

All photos credit B. A. Sunderlin Bellfoundry

Kimberly Schafer, founder and partner of Community Bell Advocates, LLC, is a bell performer, researcher, and advocate. She has performed on the carillon since a college student, in recital across the United States and Europe.

Schafer studied bell instruments as part of her musicological dissertation research at the University of Texas at Austin and serves as the editor-in-chief of the Bulletin, the journal of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (gcna.org). She advises institutions on the repair, installation, performance, and programming of tower bells and bell instruments in North America and coordinates events to promote them.

The Netherlands Carillon monument, located in Arlington, Virginia, next to the Arlington National Cemetery and Iwo Jima Memorial, was a gift from the Netherlands to the United States in gratitude for their liberation during World War II and Marshall Plan aid. A Dutch press officer, Govert Verheul, had dreamed up the idea of giving the United States a carillon at a time when the administration was searching for an appropriate present for their generous benefactor. The subsequent “Bells for America” committee solicited donations from Dutch people, provinces, businesses, and organizations for the carillon. Queen Juliana announced the gift to the United States on her state visit to the country in 1952. While the bells were cast only one year later, the carillon would not be installed and dedicated until 1960.

The carillon and tower were designed to showcase Dutch culture and society. The instrument was provisioned with forty-nine bells cast by three different Dutch bell foundries: Eijsbouts, Petit & Fritsen, and Van Bergen. The bells were exquisitely inscribed and decorated to represent varying divisions of Dutch society. The lowest were dedicated to Dutch territories, the middle to professions and professional organizations, and the highest to the youth. Eugenia van den Grinten-Lücker, Louis Meijs, and Gerard van Remmen designed the bell ornamentation. The rhyming couplets centered on Dutch life and aspirations were composed by poet Ben van Eysselsteijn. The modernist tower was designed by Joost W. C. Boks and is bordered by Dutch royal lions by Paul Koning and forty-nine tulip beds to match the number of bells.

The carillon project was delayed and marked with problems from the beginning. Dutch carillonist Ferdinand Timmermans and Belgian Kamiel Lefévere performed for the official presentation of the carillon to the United States on May 5, 1954, Liberation Day for the Netherlands. The carillon was housed in a temporary structure in West Potomac Park until its relocation in its permanent tower in 1960. By that time, the United States had its own growing carillon culture, so Charles T. Chapman, the carillonist of the Luray Singing Tower memorial carillon, Luray, Virginia, inaugurated the instrument during its formal dedication on May 5, 1960.

In 1963, Frank Law, also carillonist at the Valley Forge Carillon, became the first director carillonneur of the instrument and tirelessly advocated for its performance and care. By 1970, though, the carillon had already fallen into disrepair. Thanks to Law’s advocacy and publicity from The Washington Post, the National Park Service allocated the necessary funds to screen off the open belfry from birds, refurbish the transmission system, and replace the keyboard.

A full renovation did not happen until 1994–1995, which was conducted by Eijsbouts. Two Dutch businessmen, Berend Boks, son of the tower’s architect, and Kersen de Jong, spearheaded the fundraising campaign that gathered donations from Dutch businesses and the government. One of the primary aims was to re-tune the smallest thirty-six bells to sound more concordantly together, since the three bell foundries did not produce bells of the same casting and tuning quality. Other improvements in the renovation included yet another new keyboard aligned with the North American keyboard standard, new transmission system, new clappers, and a new automatic playing mechanism controlled by a computer, replacing the obsolete tape-playing mechanism.

In 1995, the year of the fiftieth anniversary of Dutch liberation, Prime Minister Wim Kok presented a fiftieth carillon bell to President Bill Clinton. The newest Eijsbouts bell was now the smallest, and it featured two lions to represent the Netherlands and a bald eagle for the United States, along with the message of “Freedom / Friendship.” The newly expanded and renovated instrument was inaugurated by Washington, D.C., carillonist Edward Nassor and Dutch carillonist Jacques Maassen on May 5, 1995. Nassor, Law’s student, had become the director carillonneur after Law’s death in 1985. The liberation commemoration and celebration was a lavish two-day affair, including a ceremony honoring fallen soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery, the performance of the musical Bells of Freedom composed for the occasion, and a dinner and dance for over 1,000 Dutch businessmen and American veterans and diplomats.

In 2010, the tower was closed to visitors due to safety issues. Water damage had noticeably corroded bolts and the exterior paint, raising concerns about the tower’s structural integrity. By 2015, the automatic-playing mechanism had broken, ceasing the daily noon and 6:00 p.m. playings. Because of these issues and the upcoming seventy-fifth anniversary of the Dutch liberation, an international fundraising team comprising both governments, the Netherlands-America Foundation, and corporate donors raised funds for the latest renovation to the tower and carillon.

The work began in October 2019, when all fifty bells were removed and returned to the Eijsbouts bell foundry in the Netherlands for another round of re-tuning. Three new bells were added, one low and two high, and the bells have been re-keyed at concert pitch, rather than transposing down a minor third. The range extends down to a low G, making the instrument an American grand carillon, and thus continuing the Dutch tradition of expanding and upkeeping their gift according to the prevailing standards. Other improvements include a World Carillon standard keyboard, new clappers, updated automatic-playing mechanism, and new playing cabin. The three new bells were dedicated to extraordinary Americans in the twentieth century: General and Secretary of State George Marshall, Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and First Lady and activist Eleanor Roosevelt. The three new bells were exhibited in Washington, D.C., in May 2021, and the entire carillon was reinstalled in June 2021. The project had been delayed by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The tower will undergo repairs until autumn 2021, when an inauguration recital is scheduled. Edward Nassor continues as the director carillonneur of the Netherlands Carillon and will lead the regular concert schedule.

The author consulted three sources for this profile: Tiffany Ng’s doctoral dissertation, “The Heritage of the Future: Historical Keyboards, Technology, and Modernism” (2015); Diederik Oostdijk, Bells for America: The Cold War, Modernism, and the Netherlands Carillon in Arlington (2019); Edward Nassor, “A Culture Inscribed: Inscriptions and Reliefs on the Bells of the Netherlands Carillon, USA,” The Bulletin of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America 70 (2021).