Community of the Transfiguration

Bethany School Chapel at the Community of the Transfiguration

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The 25 bells in the original carillon were cast by J. Prower Symons at the Vanduzen foundry in Cincinnati and installed in the Bethany Home Chapel at the Community of the Transfigurstion in Glendale, Ohio. Symons apparently also raised the funds for the carillon. The instrument was in place by February 1934 but the exact date of installation is unknown. The bells are reported to have not been properly tuned and were later removed and sent to be recast into the current carillon by Petit & Fritsen.

The refurbished carillon was dedicated on August 2, 1950 and a second dedication after the addition of nine more bells was held on Trinity Sunday, May 20, 1951 with a concert by Percival Price

References
1933 The New Music Review and Church Music Review 32:367
Members of the Chapter were the guests of the Sisters of the Transfiguration at Bethany Home, Glendale, Ohio, on May 15. Following an excellent supper Prower Symons, F.A.G.O., read a paper on the Carillon giving his hearers a large fund of interesting information as well as a delightful account of this studies in Belgium under "The greatest of all carillonneurs."

1933 "The Carillon," by John Prower Symons, Bethany Home Chronicle (June - October 1933)
"An address read before the Southern Ohio Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, at Bethany Home, Glendale, Ohio, May 15, 1933, and published in the June, Sept. and Oct. 1933 numbers of the Bethany Home Chronicle". In three parts.

1934 "Song of the Carillons," The Cincinnati Post, February 7, 1934, Page 9.
J. Prower Symons, Who Plays at Bethany, Grew Up With Bells Abroad.

1937 John Prower Symons (24 Nov 1870 - 21 Dec 1937) grave

1940 "A Tribute to the late John Prower Symons," by Percival Price, Bulletin of the Guild of Carillonneurs of North America 1:12 (October 1940)
In 1933 he dropped into my study in Ottawa, on his way back from Mechlin, and showed me a large amount of music he had learned to play.
Shortly after, he "borrowed" the old Van Deusen foundry in Cincinnati, cast twenty-five bells, and tuned them himself. They were placed in the Episcopal Convent of the Transfiguration at Glendale, north of that city.

1950 "Carillon Bells Are Blessed," The Cincinnati Enquirer, August 4, 1950, Page 6.
The 26 carillon bells from Holland which are to be placed in the chapel of Bethany Home, Glendale, conducted by the Sisters of the Transfiguration, were blessed yesterday. The Rev. Canon Gilbert P. Symons of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio blessed the largest bell, which is a memorial to his brother, the late John Prower Symons. Sister Ruth Magdalene, Assistant Superior of the Glendale community of the Sisters of the Transfiguration, is seen at the right. The largest bell has been named Christus in honor of the Divinity and the remaining 25 bells have the names of various saints. Bethany Home, which houses 80 children, was established in 1898 by the Sisters of the Transfiguration.

1951 "Carillon Bells To Ring," The Cincinnati Enquirer, March 31, 1951, Page 28.
The first program on the carillon bells at the Chapel of the Transfiguration of Bethany Home for Children in Glendale

1951 "Dedicate Carillon at Glendale Home," The Cincinnati Inquirer, May 13, 1951, Page 6 - Section 3
Percival Price to dedicate new carillon of 36 bells at Bethany Home in Glendale.

1965 Music Educators Journal 52(1):169 (September - October 1965)
TINTINNABULATION. A carillon duet was staged at the Bethany School in Cincinnati last summer, using the school's 35-bell carillon with a 35-bell mobile carillon developed by the I. T. Verdin Bell Foundry in Holland. The two instruments, representing over seven tons of perfectly tuned, cast bronze bells, provided a stereo effect, and a rare opportunity for the audience to see how a carillon is played. Wendell Westcott of Michigan State University, author of an instructional book on carillons, played the mobile carillon. Albert Meyer, an electrical engineer with the D. H. Baldwin Company, and a well-known carillonneur, played the Bethany instrument.
There are approximately a hundred carillons in the United States. Several are at the World's Fair. A 41-bell, Dutch-cast, baton-played instrument at the Belgian Village strikes the quarter hours as well as playing concerts. Schulmerich electro-mechanic carillons are heard through amplifiers from the Coca-Cola Pavilion, the Vatican Pavilion, the Protestant and Orthodox Center, and the Court of Stars.

1996 Carillon: the evolution of a concert instrument in North America, by Karel and Linda Keldermans | also here |
Page 104, note 47: Price first worked with John Prower Symons on the Glendale carillon in 1928.
Page 135, note 21: In addition to Frederick Mayer, there were a number of other men whose advice was sought on early carillon installations. Among them were Melvin C. Corbett, who advised on Meneely installations, and John Prower Symons (? -1936), who used the VanDuzen foundry in Cincinnati to cast the bells for the Glendale, Ohio, carillon in 1930. Symons also built a carillon keyboard for this instrument. Many of the measurements for the keyboard (e.g. , utilizing a key spacing of 1⅞ in.) reflect the influence of Percival Price, who assisted Symons in this endeavor.
Page 241-242: The original 25-bell carillon at the Convent of the Transfiguration had been cast in 1928 at the E. W. VanDuzen Co. by John Prower Symons. Sister Ruth Magdalene, the first Carillonneur of the Chapel Carillon, reported that these Symons bells were "dreadful," but apparently they served to interest the community in the sound of hell music. The Symons bells were used by Petit & Fritsen to provide bronze for the new carillon. Percival Price made drawings for the P. & F. instrument, cast in 1950. Twenty-seven bells were purchased and sent from the Netherlands to Glendale, where they sat on planks at the north side of the tower until additional money was found to purchase 9 more bells, making a complete 3-octave instrument. Price was invited to perform the dedicatory recital on August 2, 1951.
As the result of a gift in memory of John Gerald Allen, the carillon was renovated by Verdin in January and February of 1991. Included in this renovation was a new playing keyboard designed by Richard Watson, who also moved and rehung some of the bells and added roller bearings. The new pedalboard was enlarged to include 1½ octaves. The sound of the bells in the top octave seems to have been much improved in this renovation. Watson found that Petit & Fritsen had used the old Symons clappers-which had been improperly shaped and striking at the wrong points on the bells-in their original installation. Albert Meyer played a re-dedicatory program on Transfiguration Day, August 6, 1991. Meyer has played Monday recitals for about 30 years.