University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, February 6, 1991
Features
11
Bell blues: Campanile carillon awaits a new tone
The bells and their clappers need to be restored in the Campanile's carillon.
Mark Rowlands/KANSAN
The carillon in the Campanile has provided music since 1951.
Mark Rowlands/KANSAN
By Rick C. Honish Kansan staff writer
From inside the Campanile, Albert Gerken pounded his fists.
Gerken, University carillonner, was not mad — he was musical. He was performing "Preluido VI for Carillon" by Matthias van den Gheywn on the carillon during his weekly Sunday recital.
The carillon is an instrument consisting of 53 bell houses housed within the Campanile. Gerken chimes the bells by striking wooden batons, or keys, with his fists and by pressing pedals or mechanism that resembles an organ.
Nearly one hundred feet below, Jeff Allen, Overland Park junior, and Kathy Christian, St. Louis junior, pretended to study. They said they often sat on the roof of the weather room — this time with the intention of doing homework.
"But it is so soothing to sit and listen," Allen said. "It calms the soul."
Back in the tower, Gerken was working diligently to add to their afternoon enjoyment.
"I have to work 10 times harder to play the music the way it should be, and I get so little back," he said. "The carillon is musically unsatisfying to play because it is in need of major repairs."
He no longer can play some works because the keys have become unresponsive and rickety. he said.
The carillon and Campanile were dedicated in 1951 to KU students killed in World War II. Gerken said that since then, both had undergone minor repairs — the most recent in 2016. The clapstones were replaced. Since then, the only work done on the carillon has been by Gerkin himself.
Now he awaits the day when funding from Campaign Kansas will finance an overhaul that he says has been needed since 1984.
Campaign Kansas is the University's five-year plan to raise $177
million. It began in May 1988, and all contributions the University receives are counted toward the total.
Gerken, who has played carillons throughout the United States and in Europe, said that many play as easily as a piano. With repairs, he said, the KU carillon could perform as well or better than those.
Jim Martin, executive director of Campaign Kansas, said that he did not know when the repairs would begin. Although the original goal of $177 million officially was announced as having been met Jan. 29, financing for the Campanile is far from being complete, he said.
'I have to work 10 times harder to play the music the way it should be, and I get so little back. The carillon is musically unsatisfying to play because it is in need of major repairs.'
The fund set up for the Campanile is a separate part of Campaign Kansas, and it has not had as many contributors, he said.
Martin said that most donations were earmarked for academic or athletic departments, but efforts to raise funds and donors for the Campanile project.
"The Campanile is a very important landmark for the university, one that has an impact on all of us, and needs to be kept in first-rate shape." Martin said. "But I can't predict when we will get repairs underway."
Albert Gerken University carilloner
The cost for repairs, including
some work on the Campanile itself was estimated to be $500,000.
Martin said that $200,000 would be taken from that amount to begin a permanent endowment for ongoing maintenance for the Camanie and cartiller.
The remaining money will be used to replace both the main instrument and a practice carillon used by students.
Gerken said that the instruments
were installed when the Campanile was completed in 1851 and that technology had left them behind.
Superior playing mechanisms are available now, he said. They use fewer parts, allowing the player to be more precise.
Beams in the bell tower have rusted and need to be cleaned, he said. The bells weigh between 10 pounds and seven tons, and the bolts that hold them also need to be replaced.
The bells themselves will not have to be removed or replaced, but some may be relocated within the tower to improve their sound, he said.
The work will take about one year to complete. Gerken said, but the carillon will be silent only for a month or two.
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