?
Of course I didn't start out
as a 7-year-old
playing the carillon.
I played piano.
I played organ.
And I like those instruments,
but I never felt
as accomplished on them
as I do on the carillon.
Adjusting the mechanism
is something I do
every time before I play.
Then I get my music out.
Yeah, those will work.
In about a minute,
we'll have the automatic.
[bells chime]
I usually let that die away
a bit.
?
[playing "On, Wisconsin!"]
I started out
with a series of University
of Wisconsin songs,
ones that I know were played
when the bells were installed
in 1937.
?
The building was constructed
in 1934, a year-and-a-half
before any bells arrived in it.
The idea was to have
a set of bells in the dome
of Bascom Hall, but then
a fire burned the dome off,
it never got rebuilt, and
the money sat in bank accounts.
And a couple of decades later,
it had accrued enough interest
that they could build a tower
and put a carillon in it.
?
It was 30-plus years ago
that I went to Holland
and studied the carillon,
and have a diploma
from the Dutch Carillon School.
?
I've tried to keep
good programming skills
that have been instilled in me
by my teachers, about, you know,
something a little fast,
something a little slower.
?
Because it's played with
the ends of our hands,
it gives a kind of modified
fist.
It often looks like
we're pummeling.
In fact, many descriptions
of people coming upon the
instruments often refer to
flailing, pummeling, pounding.
In fact, it's a little
more physical than a piano.
?
It's a very simple,
a very old instrument.
The lever goes down, mechanism
carried by system wires,
rods in this case,
to a to a clapper.
The clapper goes to bell,
bell sounds.
It's also equipped
with a set of pedals.
These are merely extensions
of what are played by the hand.
?
Compared with pianos, violins,
flutes, there aren't that many
in the world.
In the world, there are maybe
between 500 and 600 instruments.
So in that way, it's unique.
There are only three instruments
like this in Wisconsin.
There are two ways of gauging
the size of a carillon.
One is by the number of bells.
This one has 56.
The largest bell, the bourden,
which is just the generic name
given to the largest bell
of a carillon,
is some three-and-a-half tons.
And then, the smallest bell
is only maybe about 15 pounds.
?
I think it's important
to put something familiar,
so that one can relate to it,
and say, "Oh, they're actually
making music."
?
Probably, a lot of them
don't really know
that it's real bells
being played by a real person.
?
Actually, very little
has changed I think since 1986.
I have learned, I hope,
a few new pieces along the way.
Often time I think,
well, didn't I just start
a couple of years ago?
And suddenly, it's what?
It's more than
a quarter century.
?