George Leggiero interviewed on WCLV, WCPN, Channel 5 about Bells for Peace and The McGaffin Carillon

On Monday afternoon, 22 December, George Leggiero was interviewed live on Cleveland Radio Station WCLV.  Mark Satola talked with Mr. Leggiero about the Christmas Eve Bells for Peace Commemoration and about the McGaffin Carillon. The ten minute interview has been posted on the station website. Click here to listen to the interview.

WCPN ran a piece on the Christmas Truce of 1914 and The McGaffin Carillon commemoration. Click here to hear the interview.

Channel 5, WEWS also reported on The Christmas Truce and The McGaffin Carillon. Click here to see the additional video they posted online.
 

A Meditation with Bells





Across Euclid Avenue from the McGaffin Tower is the University Hospital's Seidman Cancer Center's Healing Garden. Within that garden is a labyrinth. The garden and labyrinth is a calming place for patients, families and visitors. On Tuesday 16 December 2014. George Leggiero will provide music from the McGaffin Carillon during a candlelight Labyrinth Walk. The walk begins at 4:30 and all are welcome.
View of the Seidman Center and Labyrinth from the tower.

“Bells for Peace” Commemorates the 1914 Christmas Truce

“Bells for Peace” Ring on Christmas Eve for All the World to “Sleep in Heavenly Peace”

Soldiers in World War I impulsively laid down their weapons and sang carols together on the battlefield 100 years ago this Christmas Eve, December 24, 1914. In memory of this famous “Christmas Truce,” and in honor of those seeking peace throughout the world, the bells of University Circle’s carillon will join a global musical event by playing the carol best known to English- and German-speaking troops a century ago, “Silent Night,” this Christmas Eve, December 24, 2014, at 7:14 p.m. EST, or 19:14 in military time. The McGaffin Carillon is located at 11205 Euclid Avenue, in the block between Severance Hall and MOCA Cleveland.

All are invited to bundle up and listen to this playing of the carol from the Church of the Covenant lawn and parking area or the University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center Healing Garden across the street. Members of the Church of the Covenant Choir will lead singing of the carol afterward. From 7:30 to 8 p.m., University Circle Carillonneur George Leggiero will play a recital of other carols mentioned in soldiers’ diaries and letters about the experience. Cookies and cocoa will be provided between 7 and 8 p.m.

This is part of the project “Bells for Peace,” in which carillons throughout Europe, North America, Australia, and elsewhere will play “Silent Night” at 19:14 in their time zones. Leggiero’s 7:30 p.m. recital precedes an 8 p.m. prelude and carol sing and 8:30 p.m. candlelight service at the Church of the Covenant.

The Christmas Truce involved vast portions of the war’s Western Front, including German troops with British, French, and Belgians. Soldiers on both sides observed an impromtu ceasefire, tentatively emerging from their trenches, singing carols, trading gifts from their care packages, and wishing one another well in the other’s language as best they could, with at least one Christmas day makeshift soccer game documented. Bells for Peace is part of the larger Christmas Truce and Flanders Peace Field Project, whose center is the little city of Messines, Belgium, near where a soccer game took place.

Friends of the McGaffin Carillon has recently been formed to fully restore and expand the activities of this unique true cast-bell carillon within the City of Cleveland.

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More about The Christmas Truce                                                          

 Christmas Truce
Wikipedia article about the history and background of the truce and activities that took place on Christmas Eve 1914 along the front
Christmas Truce Commemoration Program
Since August there have been commemorations along the former front lines including the dedication of the Flanders Peace Field and "Peace Games" remembering the informal soccer matches between the troops as well as concerts and educational programs.On December 6 there will be a Goodwill Gathering convened by Desmond Tutu.
Statement by Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Patron of the Christmas Truce and Flanders Peace Field Initiative. 4 February 2013
The 1914 Christmas Truce Education Pack
An Education pack created by The British Council and several UK Football Leagues.
World War I: Christmas Truce Re-enactment
A group of students watch actors reenact the first world war Christmas truce in this video resource designed for use in secondary history lessons. Costumed actors dramatize the truce that took place between British and German troops in 1914 on the battlefields of Ypres in Belgium. 

Program for the Groningen Carillon Duo Concert Friday August 8 7pm



The McGaffin Carillon
The Church of the Covenant
University Circle
Cleveland, OH
August 8, 2014   7p.m.




A Carillon Concert by The Groningen Carillon Duo
Adolph Rots
Auke de Boer
Before each group, a bell will toll the corresponding number
1.            Baroque Music
                 a. Sonata in d                                              - Dominico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
                   b. Menuetto                                                 - Johann David Scheidler (XVIII)  
                 c. Minuetto moderato                                  - Carl Ludwig Traugott Gläser
                                                                                                               (1747-1797)

2.            Original American Carillon Music
                Concerto for two to play                                - Ronald Barnes (1927-1997)
Allegro moderato
Andante
Allegro 
               
3.            Hymn melody                                                    - Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
    Variations on a Shaker Melody                
          from ´Appalachian Spring´

4.            Classical Music
    a. from Symphony no. 94  ‘the Surprise’          - Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
         Andante
          Menuett
                b. Marche Militaire opus 51:1                           - Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

5.            Some other good stuff from the old box                                            
                  a. Jazz Pizzicato                                            - Leroy Anderson (1908-1975)  
                    b. Fiddle-Faddle

6.            Encore
        Perfect Day                                                       - Lou Reed  (1942-2013)
Arrangements: Adolph Rots

The best locations for hearing the concert are on the lawn west of the church or on the Case campus behind the church, including the Harkness Chapel and Mather courtyards. The audience can greet the performers following the concert near the tower entrance on the Euclid Avenue side of the church.

NOTES

1a. The Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti lived in Spain as composer of the court. There he wrote over 600 sonatas for harpsichord.
1b/c. Both J.D. Scheidler and C.L.T. Gläser are unknown composers but their Menuettos are very elegant in style and sound.
2. Ronald Barnes, one of the most influential promoters of American carillon music composed the ‘Concerto for two to play’ for carillon duo adapting the traditional and classical sonata form in a brilliant 20th century masterpiece in three parts: fast-slow-fast.
Gary White is another famous composer who wrote several interesting pieces for carillon.
4. After a period of musical experiments in New York Aaron Copland decided to write his music in an understandable artistic way in simple forms. ´Appalachian Spring´ (1944) is one of his finest ballet pieces. The Shaker Hymn is well known as ´Simple Gifts´.
5. The nickname ´Surprise´ of Symphony 94 by Joseph Haydn is due to the forte moment after the simple first lines of the second movement: Andante. In the third movement: Menuett the traditional ABA-form (menuet-trio-menuet) is present.
Franz Schubert wrote several Military Marches for piano duet. Op 51:1 in D is the best known.
3 + 6. Compositions of Leroy Andersen are now part of the popular classical repertoire of many symphony orchestras. They are appreciated because of their nice melodies and sparkling energy. They also sound nice on bells. ´Jazz Pizzicato´ (1938) was such a success that it was followed by a new piece: ´Jazz Legato´ (1939). ´Fiddle-Faddle´ was created in 1947, two years after the successful ´Syncopated Clock´.
Last year the rock artist Lou Reed died. The music and lyrics of Lewis Allen Reed have been controversial but in ´Perfect Day´ (1997) you don´t hear that at all. In 2008 Lou Reed and his wife visited the carillon of the Martini tower in Groningen.
                                                                                                                               --Notes by the Groningen Carillon Duo

The Groningen Carillon Duo
Adolph Rots  studied organ, church music and school music at the Utrecht Conservatorium. His carillon instructor at the Netherlands Carillon School was Bernard Winsemius. He currently is City Carillonneur in Appingedam, Veendam, Winschoten and Groningen.
Since 1983, he has been cantor-organist of the Nicolaikerk in Appingedam on the facinating Hinsch organ. In addition, he teaches music pedagogy at the Hanze Hogeschool in Groningen. He is a member of various professional organizations and has published a number of articles on bells and organs.
Auke de Boer studied carillon with Bernard Winsemius at the Netherlands Carillon School. He also studied organ, conducting and church music. Currently, Auke is City Carillonneur and organist in Dokkum and Groningen and  is employed by Groningen State University and the city of Assen. Other positions include teaching at the music school “de Wâldsang” in Buitenpost and the Liudger College in Drachten. Each year, Auke and Adolph Rots perform several recitals in the northern part of Holland as part of the Groningen Carillon Duo. They have toured Denmark, Belgium, France and the USA. Auke has also made a solo tour of the USA, Canada and Japan.
Since 2002 Adolph & Auke have served as City Carillonneurs at the famous Hemony carillon (1662) of the Martini tower (1482)  in Groningen ( www.martinicarillon.nl)
The McGaffin Carillon
Consisting of forty-seven cast bronze bells, the carillon was made in Asten, The Netherlands by the Eijsbouts Bell Foundry for Schulmerich Carillons, Inc. of Sellersville, Pennsylvania. The bells, made of metal in the proportion of eighty percent copper and twenty percent tin, are tuned to the equal tempered scale. Each bell produces a perfect Flemish bell tone consisting of a strike tone, a hum tone a full octave below, a minor third, a fifth and an octave above the strike tone. Besides being perfectly in tune within itself, each bell must be in tune with other bells of the carillon. The clapper of each bell is connected by a stainless steel wire to the clavier in a room immediately below the bell deck. The weight of the carillonneur's strike on the batons of the clavier determines the loudness of the sounding bells. The actual bell weight of the carillon is around fifteen thousand pounds, with the bourdon bell weighing twenty eight hundred pounds and the smallest bell twenty-nine pounds. Around the top of each bell is a frieze made up of figures of the four gospel writers with their medieval symbols. Also included is the inscription "Schulmerich-Eijsbouts me fecit for The Church of the Covenant, Cleveland, MCMLXVIII." (Schulmerich-Eijsbouts made me for The Church of the Covenant, 1968.)
                                                                                                                       -- from the dedication program of  9 June 1968
The carillon is played every Sunday before and after the 10:00 morning worship and before other services and concerts. During the summer months the tower is open to visitors following worship.