CityView Magazine

The Bell Ringer The steeple and bell tower of the First Presbyterian Church lord over Cross Creek and the flowery, grassy grounds of Linear Park. Through the shutters of the tower, the bells cast a silhouette against the heavens. A weathervane atop the steeple points the ways of the winds. Charlyne Jones, a genteel, Mississippi-raised lady of 68, greets me at the door. She���s the church organist and accompanist. She speaks softly. She smiles broadly. She lead me down a red-carpeted hallway and up a few steps into a small room with a wooden floor. There, against the wall, is a boxy wooden instrument with a short keyboard ��� only 19 keys compared to the 88 keys of a standard piano. This is a Renaissance carillon, a product of the Van Bergen Company, maker of bells and bell accessories since 1795. Jones and the church���s music director, Marcia Heirman, pick out the hymns, play the hymns, and program the hymns to ensure that the bells toll for us all. ���It���s a human recording, so sometimes you���ll hear a mistake,��� she said, smiling that broad smile of hers. ���You���ll hear a little adlibbing here and there. You might hear two bells where there should only be one.��� Most times she���ll re-record the song to fix the error. Sometimes she���ll just let it be. I, for one, appreciate an off-key bell here and there. In our overly automated and lip-synched world, it���s refreshing to hear a less-than-perfect human touch, even in those heavenly notes. To make a recording in the first place, Jones sits down and plays hymns on the keyboard. Those hymns are recorded onto a computer. The digital recording is sent by fiber optic cable to the 19 bells in the tower. The fiber optic cable signals the bells in the tower to chime in sync with the notes. And the notes go drifting into the ears of some workaday clock puncher in an office parking lot. It���s a 21st Century adaptation of a church ritual that stretches back to the early days of Christianity. Bells have been ringing in the Christian church since about 400 A.D. and became common across Europe by the Middle Jernigan-Warren Funeral Home Family Owned and Operated Since 1933 910.483.1331 | 545 Ramsey Street | Fayetteville, NC 28301 | www.JerniganWarren.com 38 | April ��� 2013

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