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Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts installed a carillon with 30 bells from the John Taylor Bell Foundry in Loughborough, England. The carillon was donated by Samuel Lester Fuller to honor the 87 Phillips Academy men who had been killed in the Great War.
The bells were first played on Armistice Day, November 11, 1923 and dedicated on December 1. Seven Taylor bells were added in May 1926. The top 18 bells were replaced with new bells from the Petit and Fritsen Bell Foundry.
The carillon was silenced in 1993 due to structural problems and was completely demolished and rebuilt in 2004 with 49 bells including 17 Taylor bells and 30 new bells from the Royal Eijsbouts Bell Foundry. The rebuilt instrument only has an electro-mechanical playing mechanism. The manual clavier was removed due to fire code issues meant to insure the safety of the carillonneur.
References
1923 "Andover
Carillon," Transcript-Telegram, November 16, 1923, Page 12.
The new carillon just Installed in the new Memorial tower on Andover
Hill which will be dedicated on Saturday afternoon, Dec. 1, is tho second
to be completed in tho United States the first one having been dedicated
in Gloucester a year ago last summer. The characteristics of the
carillon as distinguished from the usual chime is that it consists of
approximately three or more octaves containing the semitones so that music
of quite an elaborate nature can be performed upon it. The Andover
carillon consists of thirty bells which are played from a console
consisting of thirty hand levers and twenty foot pedals, tho twenty larger
bells being duplicated in tho pedal. Four of the large bells will be
connected with the tower clock and will play the Westminster chimes on tho
quarter hour. The console is placed immediately beneath tho bell-chamber.
1978 "The Andover Carillon," by Sally Slade Warner, Bulletin of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America 27:88-97 (1978)
1982 "The Bells Are Ringing in Cohasset and Andover," The Boston Globe, August 5, 1982, Page 74.
2004 "Sound
decision dismays bell ringers," The Boston Globe, July 15,
2004, Page 131 | Part
2 |
The landmark bell tower at Phillips Academy
2006 Memorial Bell Tower Rededication Booklet, June 10, 2006.
© 2022 Morris A. Pierce