St. Paul’s Carillon

By Bonnie Smith

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (and Gainesville) was blessed with a generous gift of a Schulmerich Bells “Generation 4 ™ Mid-Range Carillon.”  John David Monroe gave this carillon to St. Paul’s in honor of his mother, Mary Ann Lang Monroe.  It was installed in the summer of 2002.

It chimes the hour and half- hour, in automatic position.  This happens from 9:00 a.m. through the 6:00 p.m. time.  At the hour chime, it plays the Westminster chime, peals the hour, and plays “Angelus,” which is a bell to announce a call to prayer.  Then, at certain times of the day, the carillon also plays a hymn on the hour.  That was all it did.

Conversations with Schulmerich about our situation confirmed that we didn’t have any extra equipment that any of us knew about for the carillon -- no manual, no back-up system cards (crucial if the carillon got zapped by lightning), no keyboard that we could find, and no mini-box that controls the keyboard when connected to the carillon.  I pled my case with Schulmerich, who sent me a $50 manual gratis.  I spent a morning “playing” with the carillon and the manual and was then ready for hands-on instruction with the Schulmerich technician, who makes a yearly call, as per our service contract. 

In addition to the previously programmed bell soundings, there is now a 30-second 3-bell “Call to Worship” peal that rings 5 minutes before the two services on Sunday mornings.  It is also now programmed to play seasonal hymns during the appropriate seasons, such as Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and Easter.

It can be programmed to do so many things, such certain hymns before a wedding, followed by joyous pealing afterwards.  We could have this as part of a fund-raiser for St. Paul’s.  For instance, pre-selected hymns could play for 30 minutes before the ceremony, followed by a joyous, 8-bell peal immediately after the wedding.  The $$ would go to St. Paul's.  J  The same thing goes for a funeral.  The carillon can be programmed to play a bell, like the lowest and deepest G2 bell, to peal reverently and well-spaced-out for a funeral.  The programming is the number of tolls and the time between each one.  There are 4 types of bell presentations – swinging, tolling, instantaneous and counted.  There are 8 bells in each of these modes, and you can have these puppies doing it from 1 to 240 minutes.

Here’s an interesting fact that most people do not know about our carillon.  The bell sounds come from two speakers -- one in the church tower and one in the organ pipe chamber above the sacristy.  These sounds are actually recorded from real bells, but we have only the sounds, and not the actual bells themselves.  They can’t get out of tune like a weathered bell can.  The cards selected for St. Paul’s carillon are in the “TrueCast Traditional.”  There are six “voices” of bells provided by Schulmerich.  The technician recommended the more melodic “Flemish and Harp Bells” sound should we purchase any more AutoBellCards.    

Our library consists of 10 “AutoBellCards” (musical themes) that came with the carillon:

1.      General Hymns (1982 Episcopal Hymnal)

2.      Episcopal Hymns (1940 Episcopal Hymnal)

3.      Episcopal hymns (1940 Episcopal Hymnal)

4.      Holy Eucharist Hymns (1982 Episcopal Hymnal)

5.      Hymns to the Holy Trinity

6.      Advent Hymns

7.      Epiphany Hymns

8.      Lenten Hymns

9.      Easter Hymns

10.  Christmas Hymns

We do not have a patriotic bell card.  We have two booklets from Schulmerich that have all the AutoBellCards listed and the songs that each one contains.  Norma has one of them in the church office, and I will have the other with me on Sundays.  If you would like to make a donation in the form of a card or two, the price is $90 for one, and a 15% reduction ($76.50) for additional 2- 5 cards, plus shipping.  The reduction of 25% applies for 6 and beyond. 

John David Monroe

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