 "Photo: Rebecca Shuford '10")
 "Photo: Rebecca Shuford '10")
The Galen Stone Tower is one of Wellesley’s icons. It is featured on every brochure that is handed out to publicize the school. Seeing the view from the top, which Amy Allport ’10 calls “the best on campus,” is one of the fifty things to do before graduation. Much of the time, however, the tower stands locked and silent, unvisited except by members of the Guild of Carillonneurs, of which Amy is a member. Only the students in this guild, who are required to serve a semester-long apprenticeship, are allowed to play the bells in the carillon at the top of the tower—except for one day of the year, when anyone is allowed to come up and have a try at the bells. This day is the annual Change-Ringing event, held this year on Saturday, May 1, when instead of playing music, visitors and guild-members play mathematical patterns on the thirty-two bells.
Change-ringing began as a secular pastime in 17th century England. The original practice of change-ringing utilized bells pulled by ropes. Each ringer pulls the rope of a single bell in a proscribed order according to the various permutations of an original mathematical pattern. At Wellesley, the process is a little different. Instead of ropes, the bells are played by a sort of keyboard. Smooth wooden batons protrude from the carillon in a pattern similar to that of piano keys: a line of batons, and above them, another line of batons for the sharp and flat notes in groups of twos and threes. Below are a series of foot pedals for hitting some notes if the player’s hands are otherwise engaged. From each baton extends a metal lever that connects to a wire that extends up through to the ceiling where it attaches to the clapper of the bell. As a result, playing the bells is both an intimate moment and a public one. The carillonneur plays at a keyboard in one of the most unvisited places at Wellesley, behind thick brick walls. She cannot even see the bells above her, save through a small trap door in the ceiling, yet the music she makes extends across the entire campus.
The nature of change-ringing is such that “every time you come up here to play it, it’s different,” explained Allport. “There are countless variations,” including changing the key or pattern. For visitors to the Tower, the guild made a color-coded chart for the order of the bells to be played. Each baton in the key being played was marked with a colorful ribbon hair tie. The carillonneurs themselves know the notes by position, of course, but to a beginner trying to keep track of the patterns, the wooden batons all look pretty much the same. The batons are played using the fist instead of a finger or open hand. This is to maintain more control over the note played and also to reduce the amount of interference from other notes while playing one.
Many people can change-ring together. In fact, having more than one person can lead to more complexity in the patterns played. Although the pattern is set, ornamentation can be added as well. So instead of one note played in its turn, a turn, trill or similar addition can be played. Change-ringers may play more than one pattern of notes during the pattern. In the rhythm of the playing, change-ringers may have to lean over and around each other to reach their note. Quickness of mind and hand is a plus. As a result, having too many people on the small platform in the tower can get a “little chaotic,” Allport said. A slow but steady stream up the steep stairs is best so that each visitor can have her chance to play and not be crowded out too quickly.
Aryanne de Silva ’13 and Zijun Pang ’13 also made the climb to see the bells, though Pang confessed she mostly came to “see the view.” “It’s interesting to see how it’s done because you can always hear [the bells] around campus,” de Silva said. Though they both agreed it was fun, Pang added that “it’s harder than it looks.”
Rebecca Ely ’13 brought her mother, Judy, and friends Debbie and Becca Hope from Andover to climb the tower. Judy Ely, who climbed all the way up with a cane, said that it was worth the climb and “well worth the cost of tuition.” “When you’re on the Wellesley campus, you’re in this atmosphere of history, so [playing the bells] is being able to actually experience history.”
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