Get with the chimes
Matt Aranda, a music student at North Idaho College, records his composition on the carillon. “I was kind of going through something happy and if you heard it while you were walking around on campus that you would kind of just think about the NIC atmosphere,” Aranda said. “After I wrote it, I thought it kind of sounded like a bird tune, so I called it 'Watch for Birds,' which I think is very appropriate because we have a lot of birds on campus.”
HANNAH NEFF/Press
Music student Joseph Hoisington, center, records his piece “Trepidation” on the carillon while Dwayne Huff, assistant professor of music, left, and music student Matt Aranda watch in Molstead Library on Wednesday. “I thought it would be funny to do a piece that was foreboding as if you were late to class,” Hoisington said. “It’s supposed to kind of leave you hanging a little bit and make you a little nervous to be late.”
Music student Adam Russell records his piece on the carillon in the Molstead Library. “I’m still kind of getting used to composing so I thought it was definitely a good learning experience to get used to writing notes on the staff and then going at the keyboard to play them," said Russell who is studying to be an elementary school music teacher. "It was definitely in a different style being on a carillon versus another instrument, so it was definitely a different experience for me.”
The carillon bell harp chimes produce all of the notes played across campus every quarter-hour. It is housed in the Special Collections room in Molstead Library on North Idaho College campus.
COEUR d'ALENE - For those who hear the chimes sounding every quarter-hour at North Idaho College, new and original tunes courtesy of NIC music students will soon play.
Harmony and theory students, under the direction of assistant music professor Dwayne Huff, recorded original compositions created for the carillon on Wednesday in the Molstead Library where the carillon is housed.
“I thought it was awesome because obviously anyone who has ever been on the NIC campus has heard (the chimes),” NIC music student Adam Russell said. "To think that I could create something that virtually everybody would hear at some point, I thought that was pretty cool.”
The 50-bell symphonic carillon keyboard has 25 keys in two octaves from F to F that allow a person to play live or record into a digital tape built into the system. The sound comes from a set of chimes and is projected from the library roof.
“The keys are very, I guess I’d say, shallow, where you press it, it just immediately hits the bottom so it’s kind of strange to play,” Russell said. “It definitely was an instrument unlike any other that I’ve played.”
Early in spring semester, music professor Max Mendez contacted the carillon’s caretaker, Andy Finney, to discuss a collaboration with the music department. Mendez said he and the late Bob Murray, former dean of general studies, were close colleagues and had talked for years about music students playing the carillon. This year, with the assistance of Huff, they felt they were finally at the point to do it.
“I thought this was the year that we could actually put something together and incorporate and engage the students in actually playing it or creating composition for it,” Mendez said. “With Dwayne’s assistance with creating the curriculum to be able to do that, it just became a really good match.”
Students were given a week to complete original compositions to record. Huff provided guidelines on what works best for the carillon because of the effect of each note ringing longer than a traditional keyboard. Huff said the current topic in the class is writing melodies; since the carillon basically plays melodies, he thought this would be perfect to incorporate into his teaching.
Russell said the assignment was a good exercise to write a melody and see what he could come up with in a limited range because the keyboard is so small.
“It’s really easy to kind of just write things down on a piece of staff paper and turn it into Dr. Huff,” Russell said. “It’s very different though to take what you wrote and then play it so that everyone can hear. That adds some pressure to actually create something good.”
Just after the noon chimes on May 12, the carillon will play seven original minute-and-a-half pieces composed by music students.
“I never played any sort of bells before and it was cool,” music student Matt Aranda said. "I’m excited to hear it.”
Mendez said he hopes the project continues with students playing or creating compositions for the carillon.
“It’s an amazing instrument because its purpose is to communicate to the community,” Mendez said. “Engaging our students to find a creative outlet to create music for that, I think, is pretty cool and a great way to communicate to the campus ‘This is what we do in the creation of music.’”
Mendez said he hopes carillon concerts will become a tradition so the community can enjoy student compositions, and throughout the year when they hear the chimes across campus it will take on a new meaning.
“I think that’s what Bob would have wanted,” Mendez said. “Bob Murray would have wanted people to enjoy and really, really appreciate what the carillon brought to the campus.”
