After Professor McGrath clarified conditions of the Scavenger Hunt taking place on April 4th, I became interested in the relevance of the Bell Tower and the quotes that are engraved on it. While the Scavenger Hunt requires a Biblical allusion, I thought the Bell Tower would be a creative way to not only fulfill blog post requirements, but satisfy my own curiosities about the structure.
Upon further investigation, the Bell Tower is officially named the Mrs. James Irving Holcomb Memorial Carillon Tower. The Carillon Tower was created as a memorial to James Irving Holcomb’s wife, Musetta, who happened to have died in 1957. When Mr. Holcomb dedicated the Tower he said, “that in his estimation, Butler would never be the largest university in Indiana, but he knew of no reason why Butler could not be the most beautiful university in the Midwest.” Butler’s beauty is one of the reasons I personally chose to come here for my undergraduate. The Carillon Tower’s legend of kissing your sweetheart at midnight leading to your destiny for each other, as well as its striking music, is a sweet reminder of the Holcomb’s own love.
Mr. Holcomb might have dedicated the tower to the memory of his late wife, but concerning the quotes engraved on it, “[h]e intended for the tower to serve as homage to a college education, thus engraving it with quotations from well-known poets, authors and political figures.” There are a total of four different quotes on the pillars of the tower, marked on the six available sides of the three pillars which make it up. In order to make this post as accurate as possible, I visited the tower recently and recorded each of them. These quotes include:
“Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blessed skies.” –Tennyson
“How soft the music of those village bells falling at intervals upon the ear in cadence sweet!” –Cowper
“This is my father’s world and to my listening ears all / Nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres.” –Babcock
“And the night be filled with music and the cares that infest the day shall fold their silent tents like the Arabs and as silently steal away.” –Longfellow
The Babcock quote extends onto two adjacent pillars, due to its length. I thought it was interesting all authors happen to be men, and the dedication was made to a woman. The juxtaposition was a bit puzzling to me, honestly. However, I was unable to find the exact reason J.I. Holcomb chose these particular quotes. Due to this lack of information, it could also be supposed they were some of Musetta’s own favorite artist.
When it comes to the tones which the tower is able to play, there happens to be a method behind this phenomena. While I had thought there were only three bells which rung from the tower, there actually are “three large outdoor bells visible from the ground, and several other smaller bells in a housing box on top of the tower.” The bells are not only able ring out different music due to an automated chime system, but also from a carillon located inside of it. A carillon is “a musical instrument contain[ing] at least 23 tuned bells” and “is played from a keyboard that allows expression through variation of touch. The keys are struck with the half-closed hand.” Butler’s own carillonneur, William Engle, who graduated in 1965, and has been controlling the bells for over forty years. To acquire the skill to play the carillon, Engle took a class over the course of four semesters here at Butler. Over the summers after he completed the requirements, Engle was given permission from his professor to perform concerts. Included at the bottom of this blog is the full story from The Collegian on Engle’s journey becoming and later being “[t]he man behind the bells.”
Even though there is not a direct reference to Christianity in the quotes on the Carillon Tower as I had originally thought, there is room for speculation in a few of them. Through this class, I have become more aware of the music that surrounds us on a daily basis, and to question the origin of it more often.
Works Cited and References:
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