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Ton Verhees helps to dismantle one
of the largest bells from Stanford's carillon.
The bells are being sent to the Netherlands for
replacement or refurbishing. Photo courtesy Steve Gladfelter/Visual Art Services |
The bells made their first transatlantic crossing whenthe carillon came to the United States for the 1939-40 New York World's Fair, after being built one year earlier by the Michiels Bellfoundry of Belgium. Because Belgium was under Nazi occupation, at the end of the fair the carillon was purchased by the Belgian-American Educational Foundation. The foundation presented it to the Hoover Institution as a gift of appreciation for Herbert Hoover's famine relief efforts during and after World War I.
The restoration project will include adding nine large and four small bells for a total of 48 bells, improvements that will increase the carillon's range to four octaves. The existing bells will be retuned or replaced, and the carillon's mechanism, frame, keyboard and bell clappers will be replaced. The work is expected to take a year.
Lowering the huge bells was just another day's work for Dutchmen Peter Tielen and Ton Verhees, who were too busy last week to enjoy the tower's panoramic views of the campus and nearby foothills. "We go all over the world," Tielen said, noting they traveled last year to work on a carillon at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
While two U.S. companies bid for the repair and renovation work, the Dutch company was recommended most highly, Craig Snarr, Hoover Institution's facility manager, said as he surveyed the work. Tielen and Verhees were using a variety of pulleys and cables to stabilize the bells as they loosened them from a massive beam. The heaviest were wheeled one by one into Hoover Tower's elevator for the trip down 20 flights.
The carillon's automatic-play drum, the only one of its kind in the United States, will be restored. The drum's rotation, similar to a music box, activates hammers located on the outside of about half of the carillon's bells. The drum was damaged in the 1989 earthquake and has not played since. The carillon still could be played manually, however, and was last heard at Convocation in September.
Gifts supporting the carillon renovation project include donations from the Herbert Hoover Foundation, Herbert Hoover III and Meredith Hoover, L.W. "Bill" Lane and Jean Lane, and the Music Box Society.
A contribution from the President's Fund will pay for the new bells and the construction of a playing cabin that will house the keyboard on the tower's observation deck. Currently, the keyboard and the automatic-play drum are located one floor below the deck.
The carillon's 35 bells are positioned in a metal cage on the deck that, with age, has rusted. A performer sitting at the keyboard strikes wooden keys with fists to activate the clappers inside the bells and produce music. The keyboard also has foot pedals that a performer uses to play the bells.
From 1960 to 1991, the
Stanford carillon was played and taught to students by
James B. Angell, who is now a professor emeritus in the
university's electrical engineering department. Two of
Angell's former students have been active in the
restoration project. Margo Halsted, the carillonneur and
an associate professor at the University of Michigan, was
the associate carillonneur at Stanford from 1967 to 1977
under Angell. Timothy Zerlang, the executive director of
the El Camino Youth Symphony and a lecturer in piano at
the Stanford music department, is currently the
university's carillonneur. SR
