ASU students and staff will soon be able to take home the sounds of the University’s symphonic carillon, which can currently be heard playing from the Memorial Union on the Tempe campus every afternoon.ASU’s Carillon Society is working with the instrument’s manufacturer to produce its first CD — which will be sold to raise funds for the Society, co-chair Judith Smith said.
The instrument, comprised of 148 bells that ring when a performer plays a keyboard, was a gift to the University from students in 1966 and has been moved in and out of storage several times since then, Smith said.
The society hopes to draw renewed attention to the instrument by producing the CD, she said.
“The carillon was a gift from the students years ago, but the students (now) don’t seem to know about it,” Smith said. “We want students to come and play it, enjoy it and learn about it.”
The Carillon Society will be accepting song suggestions for the CD via e-mail through March 19.
“People have been asking for [a CD], and so we’d like to know what they would like to hear,” Smith said.
The CD will be recorded by the manufacturer using an equivalent carillon, not ASU’s, because the school doesn’t have the appropriate equipment for recording, Smith said.
In the future, the Carillon Society plans to record additional CDs on campus, she said.
So far, only four people have submitted song suggestions for the first CD, all of which were staff members, Smith said.
Administrative associate in student business services Mary Litchfield suggested “Let There be Peace on Earth” — “because it’s universal and I think that campuses all over are an example of many cultures combined into one,” she said.
Litchfield also suggested “America the Beautiful” for similar reasons.
“The country right now needs unity and needs to be reminded of some of those principles,” she said.
Smith said the CD will also include the ASU Alma Mater Song and the Fight Song.
The Carillon Society hopes to have between 10 and 12 songs on the CD, Smith said.
“We could fill the CD right now, but we would love to get more suggestions,” she said. “We would really like to hear from students.”
Business management freshman Brandon Lugo and architecture freshman Alexis Bledsoe said they hadn’t heard of the carillon until recently, but heard the music played outside the MU on Wednesday.
“I think it adds a classy touch to campus,” Lugo said. “Usually when you think of places with bells like that, you think of older places.”
Bledsoe called the music “refreshing,” and said, “there’s really nothing else like it on campus. It’s different than anything I’ve heard before.”
The Society would also like to add speakers so that the music can be heard across the entire campus, Smith said.
“We want students to know that it’s their carillon and it can play more than just religious music or sappy music,” she said. “The sky is the limit.”
Reach the reporter at keshoult@asu.edu
