There were a couple of music-oriented stories in the news here recently.

A Kansas City TV station did a great feature story about the Scott Joplin
ragtime festival in Sedalia, Missouri.  They not only showed some of the
performers, but also showed people dancing to the music, and gave a brief
history of ragtime.  It was good to see ragtime receiving TV coverage!

The second story was a feature, with pictures, published in the Topeka
Capital-Journal about the Carillonneurs Guild, which met this past week
in Lawrence, KS.  A condensed version follows:

    "Ringing in Summer, Carillonneurs hit KU" by Heather World

Even if you do not know what a carillon is, if you have been to the
University of Kansas during noontime, you have heard its resonant ringing
from the school's campanile.  This week, the 55th Annual Congress of The
Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, met in Lawrence.  They listened
to fellow members play brief concerts, toured museums, and heard
presentations.

"It's a very close-knit group of people," said Albert Gerkin, the
soft-spoken professor of campanology (the art of bell ringing) and music
theory at KU.  "We all know each other on a first-name basis.  We get
together and talk shop."

"The carillon originated in the Netherlands, Belgium and France during
the 16th century.  Its voice is its giant bells.  When a player punches a
key from the two rows of wooden pegs or depresses a foot pedal, a clapper
rings the corresponding bell.  The instrument is difficult to learn and
physically exhausting to play."

"The KU carillon has 53 bells.  The largest weighs nearly 7 tons--a
little more than the average adult male elephant.  The smallest weighs
only 10 pounds.  The carillon recently underwent a $500,000 renovation."

Bob Byrnes, who plays the carillon for the University of Northern Iowa,
became interested in the instrument while he was a student there.  He
watched the carillonneur for two months, who finally gave him his big
break -- he let him play one note.  Byrnes later became the university
carillonneur.

"Players practice on a self-contained carillon, positioned halfway up the
campanile at KU.  The clappers don't ring the bells, so only the player
can hear the music."

Six practice carillonneurs also gave recitals in hopes that they too
would be invited to join the Guild.  As one applicant said, "It takes a
lot of work just to learn this instrument."

Joyce Brite
brite@ksu.edu     http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~brite/