Tour the Cook Carillon Tower December 9

Many students hear carillon bells ringing across Grand Valley’s Allendale Campus every 15 minutes from the Cook Carillon Tower, but few have gotten a look inside the massive musical structure.

On Tuesday, December 9 from 1:30-3 p.m., Julianne Vanden Wyngaard, Grand Valley university carillonneur, will give open tours and demonstrations of the tower on the Allendale Campus.

“I will play the carillon to demonstrate the instrument, its construction, capabilities and limitations,” said Vanden Wyngaard. “All that is woven around a discussion of its history in other countries and in this country, specifically in Michigan with our rich history and collection of 14 carillons.”

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Cook Carillon Tower being a focal point on the Allendale Campus. The tower was named for major donors and longtime Grand Valley supporters Peter and Pat Cook, who died in 2010 and 2008 respectively.

Built and installed in 1994, the tower stands 100 feet to the top of its spire. Showcasing a clock face on each of its four sides, an automatic play system chimes every quarter hour. The tower houses a carillon consisting of 48 bronze bells created in the Netherlands. The size and weight of each bells determines the individual tones. The bells range from 7.5 inches to more than 51 inches, and weigh from 14 to nearly 3,000 pounds.

Arranged in a chromatic series, a carillonneur plays the bells after climbing 61 steps to the playing cabin, just below the bells and clock mechanism. Cables connect the bells to a keyboard and pedal board that permit loud or soft tones through a variation of either hard or soft strikes by fists and feet.

Vanden Wyngaard will also hold a holiday carillon concert on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus December 24 at 9:30 p.m. On Christmas Eve, the Beckering Family Carillon will join carillon towers from around the world to celebrate the so-called Christmas Truce of 1914, which occurred during World War II, during an international symphony of bells. Carillonneurs from Belgium, France, Ireland, Japan and Grand Valley will perform their own renditions of “Silent Night” on the same evening.

For more information, contact Grand Valley's Department of Music and Dance at (616) 331-3484.