Restoration Highlight

The highly anticipated restoration and renovation of The McGaffin Carillon is complete. We are very thankful for the over 225 donors who have made this possible. A list of donors is on the Friends of the McGaffin Carillon website https://www.ucbells.org/friends . In these series of highlights The Friends of the McGaffin Carillon would like to honor some of the major gifts as well as some of the major upgrades to the installation.

The Automatic Play System

Along with the clock chimes, the original 1968 McGaffin Carillon included a mechanism that played tunes after the hour was struck at certain times of the day. This system used plastic rolls—similar to player piano rolls—and we had a tool that could create new rolls, one note at a time. It operated electric hammers that struck 27 of the bells. That system failed years ago.
During the recent renovation, a new automatic play system was installed. It is a pneumatic system that physically plays the levers on the main clavier. The system is MIDI-controlled, allowing us to upload and program tunes using MIDI files. It currently controls 37 bells (three octaves) and plays a tune following the noon chime each day. Eventually, it will also play tunes after the chimes at 9:00 a.m., 6:00 p.m., and 10:00 p.m.

In the video, the clock chimes noon, followed by a Handel Gavotte played by the automatic system.