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With bells on: NMH move brings carillon to Gill campus
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
BY ARN ALBERTINI and The Recorder staff (Greenfield, MA)
GILL -- Since 1924, the peals of bells have been a symbol of the Northfield campus of the Northfield Mount Hermon School.
That tradition stopped when the school consolidated to the Gill campus in 2002.
But soon the sound of bells will re-join NMH students, this time on the Gill campus.
'When we combined campuses, one the great sorrows for us was to leave Northfield behind,' said Sheila Heffernon, chairwoman of the performing arts department. 'What we're trying to do is bring the spirit of Northfield to this campus.'
'To bring an emblem of Northfield on to this campus will make it all feel more complete to me.'
Last week, the carillon moved out of the Russell Sage Chapel in Northfield and it is being installed in the school's new state-of-the-art Rhodes Center for the Arts, which on track to open next fall.
The carillon's 47 bells range in size from about 10 inches in diameter and 33 pounds to the largest, which is two tons and just over 58 inches in diameter.
The bells, made of copper and tin alloy, were forged at the Paccard Foundry, nestled in a small village of the French Alps. It's the same foundry that forged bells for St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and the replica Liberty bells.
The carillon is a donation of Carl C. and James C. McRoberts in memory of their parents, Mr. and Mrs. William J. McRoberts, who were longtime summer residents of Northfield. It was installed in the Russell Sage Chapel in 1966.
The carillon includes a set of eight bells that had been a gift to the Northfield School for Girls in 1924 and that were re-cast as part of the 1966 donation.
Each bell is named after a biblical figure and each bell reads 'Paccard Me Fecit, Anney 1966,' Latin for 'Paccard made me in the year 1966.'
When the carillon was in Northfield, it was operated by a series of wooden hand and foot levers, which pressed the clappers into the bells.
Some levers, especially the larger ones like the two-ton bell, were a challenge to move, said Heffernon, who began playing the carillon when she arrived on campus as a teacher in 1980. 'When I played, I had to jump on it. It was like working out at the gym.'
Because of the space and complication of the system, once the carillon is up and running in Gill, it will be operated by an electronic system, Heffernon said.
Anyone who plays the piano will now be able to play the carillon and they'll be able to produce a fuller sound, she said. 'You can activate more clappers at the same time because every time you press a finger on the keyboard, it electronically activates a clapper.'
There's no set schedule of when the bells will play, but Heffernon said she envisions them played during graduation, after a wedding at the chapel or perhaps as students go into all-school meetings each Monday morning.
She said she hopes the sound of the carillon will become part of the students' experience at NMH so whenever they hear a carillon they will think back fondly to their time at the school.
The carillon will be played for the first time at its new home at the class of 1958's 50th reunion on the second weekend of June, said Heffernon. The class of 1958 organized the fundraising effort for the $500,000 it will cost to move the carillon.
You can reach Arn Albertini at: aalberti@recorder.com or (413) 772-0261 Ext. 264.
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