Rang the NCSU Chimes Tuesday

Tuesday was the semi-annual board meeting for the Friends and Alumni Advisors of PAMS at NCSU. What is all of that you say and what does it have to do with the chimes?

PAMS is the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. This is the one that I received my Statistics degree from. NCSU is North Carolina State University.

Now for the chimes. When I was at State I served as the University Carilloneur from the Fall of 1974 through the Spring of 1976. For the 74-75 year, I played the chimes 3 days each week at 5 PM. For 75-76, I played 2 days and a couple of others played the other days. This way the chimes rang each evening.

Before the meeting this week, we had a tour of the Bell Tower. Tom Stafford began the tour at the front of Holladay Hall. This was the first building on campus. We then walked around the building and went in where I used to go in to access the carillon. For those that do not know, there are not any bells in the tower. It has always been played by a machine in Holladay Hall’s basement. I played from the keyboard in there.

We went into the room. It was a little different. The control box was bigger when I played. The keyboard is now in front of the window and one can look out the window while playing. While there, Tom showed the group the books with the notations of what they played. I think mine were in a larger notebook and for some reason I used a different one than the person before me had. I have to hunt that.

Anyway, while we were there, the 2 PM hour chimed. Then Tom said Nancy will play 6 notes. I at first thought the keyboard and what could I remember. Thankfully, what I played were 6 buttons on the box that were marked “bells”. It came back to wait for the chime to sound. One has to count when one plays chimes/bells or there will be a lot of ringing.

Then we went to the Bell Tower. We got to go inside and see the memorial to the alums that died in World War I. Then it was on to attend the board meeting.