Baylor Appoints Lynnette Geary
Lynnette Geary, assistant to the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, has been named University Carillonneur of Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Geary succeeds Dr. Herbert Colvin, emeritus professor of music theory, who served as a member of the Baylor music faculty for nearly 50 years and as University Carillonneur since 1988.
Geary holds both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Baylor, a bachelor of music education degree in instrumental music and band, and a master of music degree in music history and literature. She served as carillonneur at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Waco from 1980–88.
Geary will play the 48-bell McLane carillon in the tower of Pat Neff Hall. The instrument was built by the Paccard Bell Foundry of Annecy, France.
Hunchback at University of Michigan
This year, the reinstatement of the “Seven Mondays at Seven” International Carillon Recital Series at the University of Michigan gave the carillon department a real reason to celebrate the peculiar aural magic of the Charles Baird Carillon, and the desire to do so in grand style. Thus was born the idea of beginning the series with something really different—something which had never been tried before: a silent film accompanied by the carillon.
Free summer film screenings in a local parking structure have been an immensely popular summer ritual at the Ann Arbor Summer Festival known as “Top of the Park” (that is, top of the parking structure!) and have always attracted huge crowds. Early in the program season, it had come to the attention of University of Michigan Carillonneur Steven Ball that, due to a major reconstruction of the parking ramp where the event is usually held, the “Top of the Park” series would be happening at the very foot of Burton Tower.
For some years it had occurred to Steven Ball, an accomplished theatre organist, that the carillon might well be the perfect instrument to accompany a silent film. Ball is staff organist at the Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor, a vintage 1927 silent movie palace, where he plays the original three-manual, 13-rank Barton theatre organ. Like the theatre organ, the carillon is a public musical instrument, highly expressive, and capable of many subtle changes in tonal color. There were, however, enormous technical challenges to overcome if this were to happen. Where did one find a screen and projector? How to advertise? How would the carillonneur be able to see the picture to cue the score during the performance? How to fix the time delay problem between what the audience saw on the screen and what they heard from the bell chamber some several hundred feet away? These were all questions which had to be answered before such an event could ever happen.
There was yet one major question left: which film could possibly fit with carillon accompaniment? What goes well with bell ringing? What do people think of when they think about bells, bell towers and bell ringing? Why who but Quasimodo, of course! The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Universal Pictures, 1923) stars legendary actor Lon Chaney—the “man of a thousand faces”—as the horribly disfigured bell ringer of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. If the massive numbers of costumed extras and scenery didn’t impress, Chaney’s poignant, unforgettable performance and astonishing make-up in his brilliant portrayal of the cathedral’s bell ringer did. And so it came to be that the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, the Michigan Theatre, and the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance combined their technical resources and marketing expertise in the production of an evening’s entertainment that was destined to simultaneously make cinema and campanological history.
Attendance at the event surpassed anyone’s expectations. More than 2,000 people came to experience the late night spectacle. As part of the education of the general public about the carillon, it was publicized that visitors could take a free tour of the bell chamber and learn about the carillon for one hour either before or after the event. Overwhelmed past capacity with more than 600 guests, it was a tremendously successful event in terms of exposing the public to the artistry and music of the carillon.
Send items for “Carillon News” to Dr. Brian Swager, c/o The Diapason, 3030 W. Salt Creek Lane, Suite 201, Arlington Heights, IL 60005-5025. For information on the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, write to: GCNA, 37 Noel Dr., Williamsville, NY 14221.
