In this dispatch from our "Kid Reporter" series we unveil the hidden magic of the carillon – a magnificent musical instrument that fills the air with captivating melodies.
Embark on an auditory adventure through one of the treasures locked away on University of Montana campus.
Join us on "Pea Green Boat" Friday, Sept. 1 at 4 p.m. and on "Children's Corner" Saturday at 8 a.m. as we ring the bells at the top of the clock tower!
Transcript:
Bella: Presenting another dispatch from a Pea Green Boat kid reporter! Here it is!
Lur: This is Lur Hamon-Comb, kid reporter for the pea green boat.
Jake: And I'm Jake birch producer for Montana Public Radio. What are we talking about today?
Lur: We're talking about the carillon.
Jake: What’s a carillon?
Lur: A carillon is similar to an organ. So the person who's playing the carillon either steps on or punches the wooden keys and that makes the humongous bells ding.
Jake: Do you remember where the carillon is?
Lur: Yes, it's in the clock tower. The very top of the clock tower.
Jake: And we had a pretty cool opportunity to check out the carillon here on the University of Montana campus in Missoula.
Lur: Yeah, we literally got an insider's look. All thanks to Barbara.
Barbara: I'm Barbara Ballas, and I’m the carilloner at the University of Montana.
Lur: Do you know how the carillon evolved over time?
Barbara: Carillons have been around for 500 years, and they originated in Europe. And in the beginning, 500 years ago, if a town was wealthy enough, they could afford bells for their church towers. And those bells were played before the hour. And the reason you want to have a little music before the hour is: walking along down the street in Brussels and you say ‘Wait, did that just start? Is it three o'clock? Or is it four o'clock?’ And so you have a lot of music ahead of time and people know and find out what time it is and then they hear what time it is.
Bells were also used for alarms at that time. That's something you know a fire had started and part of the city the bells would ring. And now there are over 180 carillons in the North American countries and hundreds more in Europe.
Lur: Wow. That’s a lot of carillons.
Barbara: That means some of the music that I play could have been written 500 years ago. And I love thinking that someone outside on the ground here at the university is hearing music that people 500 years ago also heard.
In our part of the country, actually up in the Pacific Northwest, there's one in Spokane that I've played and there's one in Seattle that doesn't get played much. Then you have to go to California. Yep. Yep.
Jake: So Lur, tell me about how your time with Barbara started. What was the beginning of the day like?
Lur: Well, she showed us her practice room.
Barbara: And so this is where I prepare all my music because you wouldn't want to practice in front of the public, right? You don't want to have them here you playing scales or wrong notes. So how it works is there are batons that are laid out like a keyboard. And when I flick one down in here in the practice room, I'm sounding a tuned metal bar with a resonator and that's where the sound comes from. But over in the tower, the wire pulls the clapper against the side of a bell and it makes the bell ring. And I can do it quietly, or I can make it very loud. So it's an expressive instrument.
Jake: So at the time, I actually asked you to describe the practice room.
Lur: So there's what was it called again?
Barbara: Batons.
Lur: Batons. And then there's pedals you can push with your feet at the bottom. There's a bench setup. And then when you push the buttons, there's a string that clangs the bells. There's one instrument or carillon on one side of the room. And there's another carillon, it looks a little different than the other side. And in between the two there are pictures of all sorts of different Caroline's that look like from all sorts of different places, which is cool.
Barbara: Those are pictures of organ pipes in famous cathedrals around the world. And then that is a harpsichord, which is different from a piano sounds a little like a guitar
Jake: So what happened after we left the practice room, where do we go next?
Lur: So after we were in her practice room, we walked all the way through campus.
Barbara: We better just charge right up there.
Lur: We're walking up the clock tower to the top floor which has the carillon.
Barbara: Now we go through an office and then through a storage pantry and then up some last stairs and we're there.
Jake: Everyone got pretty winded climbing all those stairs.
Lur: It was tiring. She told us there were 100 stairs all the way up to the top. And it was pretty exhausting. Yeah.
Jake: I was certainly out of breath by the time we got up there.
Barbara: Now I'll get on my playing shoes which are actually just Organ shoes. But they allow me to feel where my feet are on the pedals.
Jake: What were your impressions of the room that the carillon is in?
Lur: It was a nice room. You could see the stairs coming up. And then there was a little window. It was pretty small - just the carillon in the middle, and some room for people to walk around. There's brick walls, and there's metal posts along the walls probably to help keep them up. And then there's a wooden ceiling and there are stairs that go up in part of the room and then like a railing so you don't fall because the stairs are very steep.
Jake: Do you remember where those stairs lead?
Lur: Up to the bells!
Jake: And you got to poke your head up there?
Lur: Yeah, it was amazing. You can see a bunch of big bells. And you can see the strings that go down through the ceiling down to the carillon. Yeah, it's really cool. Is it louder if you're if your head is poked up there when you play?
Barbara: Yeah.
Jake: It was amazing to learn from Barbara about the bells and the scale of the instrument.
Barbara: An interesting thing about it is that it's very heavy. Tuned bells are made from brass and brass is expensive and heavy. So 47 Bells, weighed 10 tons. So that's all on the floor up above us. And that's like six adult bison standing up there on top of it. The smallest one is 20 pounds, Lur. So this one up here at the tip top is like a little flower pot. Go ahead and play it. And you'll just find it a little tiny. Alright, it's just a little flower pot up there. And then the big one is the one that plays that weighs a ton; it's 2000 pounds. So it's a huge difference and that creates a difficulty in balance. Fine if your melody’s in the pedals. But what if your melody’s up on one of these little guys, you know? Then you have to be careful with how you play the others. You know, you just go partway down and give him a tiny little tap. Our carillon is kind of typical for its age, I think. But the grand carillons, some of them are actually easier to play because they have better connections with springs and makes the playing a little more even. But in the olden days and then some of the European carillons it's still very difficult. It's hard work. And people would wear a little bit of a gauntlet over their pinky there and you keep your fingers stacked up like that, like architecture. It's strong and you're not going to hurt yourself.
Jake: So do you think we should hear a little music now?
Lur: Yes, of course.
[sound of carillon playing]
Jake: So now Lur, you actually got to play the carillon to what was that like?
Lur: It was nice. She put little scrunchies on as markers and you just played a steady ding dong, ding dong, ding dong.
Jake: That's right. You guys got to practice in the practice room beforehand. I seem to remember she was explaining the different pieces you were going to play. And she kind of surprised you with that.
Lur: Yeah, it was it was amazing. It was really fun.
Barbara: I can choose what ever I want to play. So I choose it according to holidays or things that are going on. The past couple of years, I've been able to do a lot more women's music composed by women are arranged by women. So that's my special project this summer is to continue with that. So it's wonderful because you can include all cultures with carillon. I want to show you what I'm going to play today. I'm doing Yankee Doodle. Then I have what I call a visitor duet. Visitor duets mean there is a very easy part for someone to play and I'm hoping will be you, Lur.
Lur: We could try it
Barbara: Good. All right. So I'll do it back and forth three times. Then it's your turn to start it and you'll do it by yourself and then I'll start the tune. So… Now your turn and you just keep going.
That's it. I get the last word because it ends on notes that don't match with yours. Well done. That's it.
Jake: So first you practiced but then you went to the actual clock tower and played the actual carillon. What was that like?
Lur: It was cool. Actually, I've never really thought about how everybody on campus could hear me.
Jake: I think probably most people think the carillon is mechanical, not like a human being playing it. Or at least that's what I always thought, until I learned otherwise.
Well, I know you had some questions about the carillon. And thankfully Barbara had some answers.
Lur: Do any of the bells have a special story?
Barbara: Every Bell does have a special story because they each have a dedication plaque that you can read. And you can see, when I play this bell, it's called the ‘music bell’, or it's called the ‘alumni bell’. Or it's called the ‘forester’s bell’. When the carillon was put in here at the university, that'd be 70 years ago this fall, a lot of the bells were donated by people who were making it a memorial to the memory of someone. And unfortunately, a lot of times it was the memory of some young man who had been a student here who had died in one of the wars. But then there's they also memorialize ideas like music, or they'll memorialize a group of people. So they do every time I play a single bell, it's ringing out for some reason for someone, and I couldn't think of a more beautiful way to memorialize people.
Lur: You play the carillon alone in the clock tower. Has anything mysterious ever happened?
Barbara: Well, not mysterious. But in the wintertime, when it gets below zero, sometimes I go up and I find out oops! -the batons won't move because they're frozen up above. So what I do is I very gently jiggle them. And if they do go loose easily, I'm fine. And I'll go ahead and play. But if they don't, then it's frozen. And I'm not going to break it. So I don't play it.
Lur: Yeah. What do you do if they're frozen? Do you get someone to come in and thaw them?
Barbara: Nope. You wait for the weather to change. That's all and so the worst will happen like a four day streak or something when I can't play but usually it changes soon enough so I can get them jiggled and little bits of frost will come down from above. That would be about as mysterious. I have played at midnight at New Year's quite a few years. I did that. And you would think perhaps something mysterious would happen. But no. Instead, one time my husband who would come with me looked out the window and he said oh and there was a couple dancing to my music out of out below in front of the building. It was beautiful.
Lur: It's a very unique instrument.
Barbara: It is isn't it? Yes, Missoula is fortunate to have it too. It's a beautiful addition to the campus. It always gets played at homecoming and at graduation. I've played for a wedding on the oval. Isn't that fun? And then another one where it was a surprise to the groom and so when they did their after they said their vows and kissed and that was when the bells were supposed to start ringing that was fun one to do
Jake: Well, I thoroughly enjoyed that experience. It's not every day you get to get up close and personal with such a grand and unusual instrument. Do you have any closing reflections on your experience at the carillon, Lur?
Lur: Well, yeah, that was amazing.
Jake: It really was and thanks for helping to make this happen. How about you take us out, Lur?
Lur: Okay. This kid reporter special was made for MTPR Kids by me and Jake Birch. Thanks to Barbara Ballas for her generosity and sharing the carillon with us. Thanks also to my mom and brother, Emil, for helping and hanging with this experience. Pea Green Boat is hosted by Vicki Cheney. Our program director is Michael Marsolek. And if you have an idea for a kid reporter segment, let us know! You can reach us by email at pea green boat at MTPR.org. That's pea green boat, all in one word, at MTPR.org. Or try us by phone at 406-243-6511. That's 406-243-6511 This has been a production of the Montana Public Radio. And I am Lur Hamon-Comb signing off!
Barbara: If you're around on April Fool's Day and it's the day when I'm playing, I always add a number 13 After the 12 chimes and I'm sure it's just a little carilloner joke, but I always do it because somebody may notice someday.
