“When they first hear the bells, they think it’s some kind of computer system set up to play music,” she says. “Most people also don’t realize that their university owns the second largest carillon in the world.”

—Lieve Teugels, PhD student in chemistry

The bells of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Carillon (Photo by Lloyd DeGrane)

Hands and feet start to fly as Lieve Teugels strikes at the wooden levers with her hands and presses the wooden pedals with her feet to move the bell clappers of one of the largest carillons in the world.

Out comes the theme from Star Wars, wafting through the air and descending on a busy audience of students, faculty, and staff as they go about their after-hours business. It’s 6 p.m. on a Tuesday, and Teugels, a PhD student in chemistry, is sitting up high in the bell tower of the University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel, playing the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Carillon.

It Takes Coordination

Teugels is a native of Belgium, located in what was known as the Low Countries about the time the carillon was invented in the 15-16th centuries. In fact she and her family used to plant themselves near the carillon in their hometown of Leuven just to listen. Her father is so intrigued by carillons that he published a book about all the bells in Leuven last fall. But by the time she reached graduate school at Chicago, the carillon was far from her mind, until one day a fellow chemistry graduate student urged her to join a tour of the carillon led by University Carillonneur Wylie Crawford, who soon became her teacher. She’s been playing for almost six years now.

“Having a piano background helps a lot, though it was a big adjustment for me to learn to coordinate the pedals with the hands,” says Teugels. “It is not easy to master the delicate nuances of playing the music dynamically.”

Three years ago, she and fellow graduate and undergraduate students cofounded the Rockebellers, a student organization devoted to maintaining a regular daily carillon recital series on weekdays during the academic year, helping to organize Rockefeller’s summer Carillonathon! recital series, leading tours of the carillon tower, and even training new carillon players. Now she instructs undergraduates in the special art of bell ringing.

Yes, There’s a Person Up There!

Teugels loves it when people discover there is a real person playing real bells up in the tower. “When they first hear the bells, they think it’s some kind of computer system set up to play music,” she says. “Most people also don’t realize that their university owns the second largest carillon in the world.”

The Art of the Bell and the Clapper

For Teugels, playing is a true art, and she’s still learning. “You need to be physically near the bells to play them, otherwise you’ll lose control,” she says. “You hit the key or lever and these pulleys and wires go up to the clapper when the key hits the bottom. That’s the moment when the clapper strikes the bell. You can do dynamics. You can phrase music and make it melodious.”

And the sound gets “reasonably loud” in there, she says.

Teugels has fun playing popular themes as well as well-known hymns and more traditional carillon music. She played Irish tunes in March in honor of St. Patrick’s Day and spooky tunes for Halloween.

For a little under a year, the carillon was under renovation. The bell tower itself was under renovation for 1 ½ years, making the carillon inaccessible. But it’s now back in its full glory.

“It’s now easier to control,” says Teugels. “They cleaned the bells too, and replaced and repositioned most of the clappers. I think it sounds a lot better now; you get a much crisper sound. They did a wonderful job.”

The anonymity of playing bells in a bell tower might seem a bit lonely but, says Teugels, there’s definitely an up side.

“If you’re having a bad day and you screw up completely, nobody knows it’s you!” Still, she says, “It’s fun to think that people far away might hear you and stop and listen.”