CLASSIC COMEBACK

By SARAH PAINTER KOZIOL, ARTS '92

Mark Konewko sighs as he remembers the day a journalist accompanied him to the carillonneur’s cabin to watch him play the bell instrument housed in the Marquette Hall bell tower. As he struck one of the keyboard’s wooden keys, a piece snapped off and flew across the room.

For the rest of the song, he played that note by yanking on the metal wire attached to the bell’s clapper. It may have been embarrassing, but it was hardly unusual.

Konewko’s Wednesday performances became much easier following the first phase of the carillon’s three-stage restoration. Completed last October, it included installation of a new keyboard. He is thrilled that the nearly 40-year-old instrument is getting the attention it deserves.

“This carillon is a gem,” he brags. “It’s not meant to be shoved away in a corner.”

Nor drowned, he might add. For years, the instrument suffered substantial water damage because of a missing umbrella rack, the tube system that prevents water from seeping into the keyboard’s wires.

Konewko inherited the declining instrument and role of carillonneur from William Geisheker, who played the carillon from the late ’60s until his death in 1999. Geisheker often glued parts together to keep it functioning, recalls Dr. Nick Contorno, Marquette’s former director of university bands and orchestra.

Thanks to meticulous restorative work, Marquette can set the glue bottle aside.

It takes a specialist
“The (first-phase) improvements were the most pressing to get the instrument back into fully playable condition,” says Richard Watson, who repairs carillons across the country. There are nearly 200 in North America; three in Wisconsin.

Watson installed an umbrella rack to prevent further water damage, replaced the wires that connect the keyboard to the bells’ clappers with new stainless steel rods, and supplied new adjustable springs that control the clappers. He also provided new isolation material for the upper bells, tightened the bells to the tower’s beams, cleaned and lubricated the transmission bars, and improved the alignment of the clappers’ actions.

For the six lower bells, Watson installed new outside-striking hammers that are operated by the keyboard.

“The original hammers were of a clumsy design and undersized, giving these bells a thin and harsh quality,” Watson explains.

The restoration’s next two stages will likely include adding a new practice keyboard and mechanizing the operation of some bells, which would allow the carillon to play hymns and seasonal music automatically.

French connection
Konewko hopes the complete restoration will lead to greater access to the instrument and the opportunity to teach carillon lessons. He says the door is always open to students who aren’t intimidated by steep staircases and dizzying vibrations.

The brave won’t be disappointed. Marquette’s four-octave carillon comprises 48 bells, weighing from 24 to 5,000 pounds, cast by the Les Fils de Georges Paccard foundry in Annecy-le-Vieux, France. It was a gift from Mrs. John C. Dwan, a former member of the university’s board of regents, who donated nearly $100,000 to have the instrument made in 1967. According to Special Collections and University Archives, Dwan intended her gift “to call attention to the cultural and intellectual pursuits of the university. Because of its urban location, the beauty of the carillon’s voice will be shared not only by the university family but also by community residents, further emphasizing the partnership between the two.”

For Konewko and Contorno, that statement still rings true.

“So much of campus is for the eyes,” Contorno says. “But the carillon music is a feast for the ears.”

• Listen to carillon