Featured Carillon Projects
Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont
This tower contained a chime of 11 bells cast by Meneely & Company, Watervliet, NY. The school acquired a small Van Bergen carillon from a church in Eastern Massachusetts; the Paccard firm carried out the expansion of these resources into an instrument of 48 bells in 1986. Although some of the Meneely bells were successfully tuned, the 12 Van Bergen bells used in the prominent location of much of the second octave, and beginning of the third octave were a weak point in the instrument. We were asked to make a tonal analysis and recommendation for the instrument, and the work was carried out with the removal of three of the Meneely bells, including the bourdon (E3, 2,500 lbs.), all twelve of the Van Bergen bells, and 14 of the Paccard trebles in August of 2000. The Meneely and Paccard bells received tuning attention; and we have also cast and tuned 12 new bells to replace the 12 unsatisfactory Van Bergen bells originally used. New cast iron ball clappers have been made for several of the larger bells, to improve the bass clapper scaling and tone production, and a number of improvements have been made throughout the playing action and at the playing keyboard. (www.middlebury.edu)
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