Eighty-nine-year-old George Matthew Jr. clambered up a rough-hewn wooden ladder at the very top of the bell tower in Middlebury College‘s chapel to show a visitor the school’s carillon, a set of 48 bronze bells he has been playing for nearly 40 years. Then he descended carefully into a small space below the belfry, seated himself at the carillon’s keyboard and struck one of the rows of levers with his fist. An E note sounded above in the deep, musical voice of a 2,300-pound bell.
“If you ever wondered what the Liberty Bell would sound like, that’s it,” Matthew said.
From this antique arrangement of massive bells, broomstick-like keys and fragile connecting wires, the carillonneur, or bell player, draws music that rings across the campus from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. each weekday during the semester. His repertoire ranges from Johann Sebastian Bach sonatas to Scott Joplin and show tunes.
This year, Matthew is bringing an even greater diversity of music to campus: He has set out to play the national anthems of every country represented in Middlebury’s student body — 70 in all — to help those students feel more at home. Now, at lunchtimes, the campus air is filled with anthems from places such as Bosnia, the Faeroe Islands, Ukraine, Lebanon and Mongolia. He plays them on rotation at a rate of about seven a day.
Matthew was inspired, he said, by a homesick Ecuadoran student who came to hear him play last Christmas Eve. The elderly musician found a book of carols from Ecuador in his vast collection and began to play.
The student was entranced, according to Matthew: “The biggest smile I’ve ever seen.”
The anthem project comes naturally to a musical omnivore who has played for synagogues, studied South Indian music and enjoys playing traditional melodies from Afghanistan. Matthew, who worked for many years as a teacher and church organist, has played the carillon professionally since the 1960s. He’s been the bell player at Middlebury, where he holds the title of lecturer, and Norwich University since 1985. At nearly 90, he continues to play the organ at St. Thomas & Grace Episcopal Church in Brandon, where he lives, and to offer occasional recitals.
“I’m still busy every Sunday,” he said.
Because it’s an unusual instrument and job, Matthew is well practiced at explaining the carillon. But when it comes to his own life story, Matthew expedites the telling by handing out a three-page written summary.
His love affair with the carillon, it says, started with his first glimpse of the instrument in 1939 at the World’s Fair in Queens, N.Y. He was about 5 years old and was seated on his grandfather’s shoulders.
“I saw an old man dressed in white, pounding away on an instrument of bells that made the most glorious racket,” Matthew wrote.
Almost any sheet music for piano or organ can be interpreted for the carillon, according to Matthew, which is how he learned the anthems. The most fascinating so far, he said, is that of Bangladesh, which was written by poet Rabindranath Tagore, who also authored the Indian national anthem.
“The Bangladesh anthem has an almost magic flow to it, that is hard to describe,” Matthew said in an email. “I’ve never heard anything like that, in vocal or instrumental music anywhere.”
There are more than 700 carillons at work in more than 30 countries, according to the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting the art. But in Vermont, only Middlebury and Norwich have bell carillons, Matthew said.
The University of Vermont has an electronic carillon in 165-foot-tall Ira Allen Chapel, which sits across from the university green. To Matthew, that’s not the same thing at all: “No bells, just loudspeakers.”
He thinks UVM could do better.
“The tower is just perfect and in the perfect location,” he said.
Doug Thornton, Norwich University’s music director, said he recently heard Matthew playing the theme from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera — which stood out from his usual repertoire on that campus.
“A lot of the time, he plays hymns and marches,” Thornton said.
Matthew typically plays at Norwich on festive occasions, such as graduation or alumni weekend. He also plays on Veterans Day or other observances.
“The kids often want a popular song of some kind. If I can, I play it on the carillon.” George Matthew Jr.
His performances are a little more eclectic at Middlebury, where he chooses melodies from all over the world and mixes things up with the pop requests that come in from students. His favorite composer is Bach.
“The kids often want a popular song of some kind,” Matthew said. “If I can, I play it on the carillon.” His wife, Sherri, 56, is a music producer. She converts the pop songs into sheet music for the carillon.
“I have a fantastic wife,” Matthew said. “If it’s online, she’ll get it.”
In 2020, during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, Matthew played gospel music, said Pieter Broucke, who is Middlebury’s associate dean for the arts and Matthew’s supervisor. With his music, Broucke said, Matthew expresses the college’s identity as a place that values tradition while striving to honor other cultures.
“He’s using a very Western and traditional instrument to inspire and engage underrepresented groups,” said Broucke, who is from Bruges, a Belgian city with a strong carillon tradition.
“You just don’t know, as you’re playing, if you have very many people listening or none.” George Matthew Jr.
Minutes before ascending the 75 stairs of the bell tower to demonstrate the carillon to a reporter and photographer on November 22, Matthew took a seat in the chancel to deliver a thunderous pipe organ performance of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor for some chapel visitors. The small group listened quietly as the organ reverberated around the century-old structure, and they thanked him warmly afterward.
The sociable Matthew doesn’t often see reactions to his live performances. He’s at the keyboard high in the tower while his listeners are walking through campus or sitting on the lawn.
“You just don’t know, as you’re playing, if you have very many people listening or none,” Matthew said. But he said he’s fine with that. “You just do the best you can.”
The carillon is a contradiction in that way — an instrument that’s invisible to most but heard by many. It’s audible all over campus and in town. When the wind is right, Broucke can hear the bells at his house, a mile north of the chapel.
Matthew’s contract with Middlebury runs through 2027, and he doesn’t plan to retire anytime soon. But when he does, Matthew hopes one of the two students he is teaching the instrument will carry on his work.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Campus Carillonneur | An octogenarian musician serenades college students with a rare instrument”
This article appears in Dec 4-10, 2024.
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