Every day at 12:30 p.m. sharp, the carillon atop the Middlebury College Chapel tolls a melody of song throughout campus. You may have heard the rings on your way to class or to the dining halls for lunch. But have you ever truly stopped to listen and think about them? Introducing 89-year-old George Matthew Jr, who has been Middlebury’s Carillonneur since 1985.
A carillon is a musical instrument played with a keyboard and is composed of at least 23 bells. The bells are cast in bronze, hung in fixed suspension, and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniously. To make music, the carillonneur strikes the keys, and the wires connecting them trigger the corresponding bells to ring. With over 60 years of carillon experience, Matthew is a master of the instrument and its history.
Matthew is a highly skilled musician that can play a variety of instruments from the carillon to the mellophone to the veena.
“My parents started me on violin when I was five, it didn't work. They started me on piano when I was six, that didn’t work either. When I was seven, my parents bought me a mellophone, and that did it!” Matthew said. “I really wanted to play the organ, my father had this great big organ he played that thundered and rolled and so forth.”
However, Matthew realized that he would have to try the piano again to learn the organ, so when he was eleven, he took up the instrument again.
“I worked very hard, and they let me take up organ when I was twelve,” Matthew said.
At thirteen, he had his first job as a church organist; he can still be heard playing the organ today at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Middlebury. But the opportunity to play the carillon wouldn't arrive till much later.
Matthew’s parents wanted him to study science, so he majored in chemistry at Columbia University. Post-graduation, Matthew went straight to work, conducting chemical research for fifteen years. For 10 of those years, he was the resident chemist at the Mallory Battery Company (now known as Duracell). Throughout this time, he was still playing the organ.
Then everything changed. Matthew met a man named Dionisio Lind, the first Black professional carillonneur. Affectionately called “Dio” by Matthew and others in the carillon community, Lind gave Matthew lessons and introduced him to the basics.
In 1968, while living in Stamford, CT., Matthew played in the first public performance of the Stamford carillon. A year later, he was appointed Carillonneur and ended up playing there for 30 years. On a Saturday morning in February 1984, Matthew received a call from Emory Fanning, the then-head of the Middlebury Music department, inquiring about a carillon demonstration.
Matthew headed down to the church to meet Fanning and Allan Dragone, the chairman of the college’s Board of Trustees. They told him that Dragone was gifting the college a carillon. As he demonstrated the instrument to them, Fanning and Dragone inquired about the bells and the mechanics of the instrument and eventually appointed him carillonneur of the Midldebury carillon.
The first carillons were invented in 1510 in Germany and the Netherlands as a solution for the inefficiency of the church bells at the time. Since then, the instrument has spread across the Atlantic, first through churches and so forth.
“In this country there are 178 carillons. 71 of those are in colleges or universities. It’s truly become a college instrument in this country. And there are only 6 college carillons outside of the U.S. that I know of,” Matthew said.
“This is why I play everything here. I play some sacred music but I play mostly secular music because I feel that is what it’s for. I’ve played music from just about every country. I would like as many people to know about the carillon as possible. It’s one of the great things about this college,” he said.
Matthew aims to reflect the diverse student body in his song selections, which he changes everyday. He mentioned playing Ukrainian songs, Mexican songs, and songs from Afghanistan.
To reach the carillon, Matthew traverses unfinished floors with exposed insulation and beams — fitting for a chapel attic — and ascends several steep staircases. The cozy room, hidden from the world by a charming wooden door, feels like discovering a secret respite after a long journey (yes, there are that many stairs). The walls are plastered with posters and pictures from Matthew’s music experiences, and a single window overlooks the back roof of the Chapel, with Proctor peeking out in the background. Newspaper clippings featuring past students and mentors are wedged between images of foreign carillons, each with a unique design.
One corner of the room houses a dark, wide ladder with four wooden planks. Climb up the planks, stick your head through the wooden hatch atop it, and you will find arguably one of the most glorious visions on this campus. Forty-eight bronze bells, all grouped together by size, hang throughout the tall structure. It is surreal to watch the bells as they peal. The sounds of the formidable bronze bells ringing rush through one’s ears and words dissolve away in awe. So robust and loud, yet bright and graceful.
Students can also learn how to play the carillon; Matthew teaches free lessons to anyone interested in the instrument.“I currently have two students, who are seniors, so I’m going to be losing them soon!” he said.
If you have a specific melody or song that you wish to hear on the carillon, don’t be afraid to email Matthew at gmatthew@middlebury.edu.
“Occasionally I will get requests from students to play this, or play that. And if I can, I do, I mean I can’t do everything up there, but I like getting suggestions,” Matthew said.
