Profile: Bok Tower Gardens
Bok Tower Gradens is one of Florida's most famous landmarks.
It was a gift to the American people from Edward Bok whose purpose was
"simply to preach the gospel and influence of beauty reaching out to
visitors through tree, shrub, flowers, birds, superb architecture, the music of
bells, and the sylvan setting. And a restful, quiet, beautiful spot where where
visitors may feel, as the sign at the entrance declares by an extract from John
Burroughs: 'I come here to find myself. It is so easy to get lost in the
world.'"
Originally named Mountain Lake Sanctuary--"a sanctuary
for humans and birds"--the carillon tower, wildlife sanctuary, and gardens
were dedicated by President Calvin Coolidge in 1929. Near Lake Wales, Bok Tower
Gardens is situated atop Iron Mountain--Florida's highest point of elevation,
298 feet. Based on the extraordinary architectural and artistic quality of both
the gardens and the tower, Bok Tower Gardens was designated by the federal
government in 1993 as a national Historic Landmark--one of the few in the State
of Florida.
Edward William Bok
Born in Den Helder, the Netherlands, in 1863, Edward William
Bok emigrated to the United States at age six, and eventually became a
successful, influential, and affluent Philadelphia editor and publisher. Bok
was a champion of social causes--a pioneer in the field of public sex
education, prenatal education, and childcare; and an environmental activist in
public health and the saving of Niagara Falls. His autobiography, The
Americanization of Edward Bok, won the Gold Medal of the Academy of Political
and Social Science and a Joseph Pulitzer Prize. Bok was a noted philanthropist,
and after his 1919 retirement, he devoted his life to fulfilling his mother's
charge: "make you the world a bit more beautiful and better because you
have been in it." One of his benefactions was the Mountain Lake Sanctuary,
realized in gratitude for the opportunities America had given him.
The Gardens
Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. of Brookline, Massachusetts,
designed the original gardens. Olmsted--whose father created New York's Central
Park--was for many years America's foremost landscape architect. In but five
years, he transformed a dreary sandhill devoid of growth and beauty into one of
the most exquisite spots of verdure in the United States. Bok Tower Gardens is
now 157 acres--more than double the amount at the time of Edward Bok's death in
1930. Thousands of azaleas, camellias, magnolias, and other flowering plants
provide seasonal vistas of color against a lush green background of ferns,
palms, oaks, and pines. Bok Tower Gardens is home to a colony of wood ducks and
126 other wild bird species.
The Tower
The centerpiece of the Gardens, Bok Tower rises elegantly to
a height of 205 feet. It is surrounded by a 15-foot-wide moat, and is
stunningly mirrored in a large reflection pond. At the base the tower is 51'
wide, and is square below 150'. It is octagonal above that mark, and 37' wide
at the top. Architect Milton B. Medary of Philadelphia was commissioned by
Edward Bok to build a tower as beautiful as the one at Mechelen, Belgium. The
pink and gray marble was quarried in Tate, Georgia. The tan coquina rock
between the tower's ribs is native to Florida and is the same as that used by
the Spaniards in the old fort at Saint Augustine.
The work of three other celebrated Philadelphians
contributes to the total effect. Lee Lawrie designed the sculpture which
decorates the tower. Thirty-two feet above the base is a frieze of Florida
wildlife, including pelicans, herons, flamingos, geese, and swans. The first
windows, 130 feet high, have a grill of colored faience of under-sea life, such
as the sea-horse and jelly-fish. Three-quarters of the way up the tower, at the
point where the octagon begins, there are corner finials of eagles and on
either side, doves and oak branches. The crown of the tower is comprised of
eight figures of cock and hen herons with nests and young joined by a
sculptured marble screen of palms and roses. Samuel Yellin wrought the ironwork
used in the tower and the moat bridges. He also designed and executed the great
brass entrance door which depicts the creation of all forms of life in 30
hand-wrought panels. J.H. Dulles Allen created colorful grilles using
earthenware decorated with opaque colored glazes. Each of the eight grilles
enclosing the bell chamber is 35 feet high. The tower weighs 5,500 tons.
The Carillon
The primary purpose of the Bok Tower is to support and house
its voice. It is a "Singing Tower." Edward Bok's Netherlandic
heritage made him keenly aware of the role of bell towers in the culture of the
Low Countries, calling the people to work, to prayer, to war, and to feast.
When installed in 1928, the instrument for Bok Tower was the largest carillon
ever cast by the Taylor Foundry at Loughborough, England. There were 61 bells
for four octaves, the top 13 notes being doubled in an attempt to mask the
deficiencies of the treble bells. With the exception of the omission of the
lowest semitone, it was completely chromatic. The bourdon weighed 22,300 pounds
and sounded Eb1 (a thirteenth below middle c). Shortly after the inauguration,
the smaller Taylor bells were added--five being doubles. All the treble doubles
were eventually removed, 24 treble bells were recast in heavier profiles, and
the range of the instrument was expanded upward to 57 tones. The transmission
system was redesigned in 1979. The Eb bourdon is now keyed to F1, hence the
instrument transposes down one whole step. The inscription on the bourdon
reads: "This Carillon is a tribute of affection from Edward William Bok to
his grandparents: Lovers of Beauty. Nineteen Hundred and Twenty-Six."
During the 1930's sound physicist Dr. G.M. Giannini from the
Curtis Institute of Music invented some means of damping the minor-third
partial in bells which was applied to the large bells in the Bok Tower carillon
as well as in the carillon of the Riverside Church in New York City. The
dampers soon went out of use.
The Carillonneurs
The Belgian Anton Brees served as carillonneur from the time
the instrument was installed in 1928 until his death in 1967. He was the son of
Antwerp city carillonneur, Staf Brees.
Milford Myhre was appointed carillonneur in 1968. Myhre
began his study of the carillon with Ronald Barnes at Lincoln, Nebraska, and
continued with Staf Nees at the Belgian Carillon School and with Percival Price
at the University of Michigan. He also studied organ with André Marchal
in Paris. Myhre is a past president of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North
America, an honorary member of the Guild of Carillonneurs of France, and was
president (1982-90) and a founding member of the World Carillon Federation. He
is highly regarded as a performer as well as for his carillon music
arrangements.
William De Turk has been the assistant carillonneur at Bok
Tower Gardens since 1993. He is also the librarian for the Anton Brees Carillon
Library which is housed in the tower. De Turk holds music degrees from
Heidelberg College and the University of Michigan, and was the first Carillon
Scholar at Bok Tower Gardens in 1974. He is also a past president of the Guild
of Carillonneurs in North America, and is currently the archivist for the Guild.
The Anton Brees Carillon Library
A large collection of materials relating to bells and
carillons had accumulated at Bok Tower when, in 1971, Milford Myhre embarked on
a project to organize it. He enlisted the help of music librarian Stephen M.
Fry to devise a system for classifying this special collection. The library
functions as both a performance collection as well as a resource for the study
of historical and technical aspects of bells and bell instruments. Helena
Caldwell served as librarian until her retirement in 1991. The catalog of the
collection is currently being converted to computer and will soon be available
on the Internet.
Education
Endeavoring to perpetuate the vision of its founder, the Bok
Tower Gardens Foundation sponsors numerous educational, cultural, scientific,
horticultural, and conservation activities. In the 1930's there was a
cooperative program between Bok Tower Gardens and the Curtis Institute of Music
(which was founded by Edward Bok's wife, Mary Louise Curtis). The conservatory's
curriculum included carillon study, for which students went to Florida. Three
composition students--Nino Rota, Gian-Carlo Menotti, and Samuel Barber--took
advantage of this program in the winter of 1931. Several of their resulting
carillon works were published by G. Schirmer in 1934; this was the only
estimable music written in America for the carillon before World War II.
A scholarship program for study at Bok Tower existed briefly
in the 1970's. Bok Tower Gardens has most recently announced the establishment
of a new, post-graduate Carillon Scholar Program for the advancement of
scholarly research, composition, and other activities relating to the art of
the carillon.
Visit Bok Tower Gardens! 2>
Live carillon recitals are
played on Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays at 3 pm, from December 1
through April 30 and from late June through Labor Day. Recorded recitals are
provided on the remaining days of the year at the same hour. Recorded
selections are played on the hour and half hour each day. Visiting artists,
moonlight recitals, and other special programs are given periodically during
the summer and winter seasons. The annual carillon festival features an
international slate of performers each February.
Bok Tower Gardens is located
near the crossroads of U.S. Hwy 27 and S.R. Hwy 60. It is open to the public
every day of the year from 8 am to 5 pm. For information on membership or the
Carillon Scholar Program, please note the new address: 1151 Tower Boulevard,
Lake Wales, FL 33853-3412.
As the president of the Bok
Tower Gardens Foundation, Jonathan Shaw, stated, "Bok's dream remains--a
place where everyone can discover, in the serene beauty of the Gardens, that
art and nature and humanity itself are not antithetical but a single harmonious
whole."
