*Location:

   McFarland Memorial Bell Tower
   University of Illinois
   South Quad
   Urbana, Illinois, USA
   LL: N 40.10289, W 88.22718

Site locator map

*Player:

   Prof.Stephen A. Taylor
   School of Music
   1114 West Nevada Street
   University of Illinois
   Urbana, IL  61801
   T: (217)333-3712
   E: staylor7@illinois.edu

*Contact:

   Chad Wahls, Facilities Manager
   School of Music
   E: cwahls@illinois.edu

*Schedule:

   None; rarely played.
   Cambridge (Westminster) quarters

*Remarks:

   Construction of the 185-foot tower
   began in July 2008; bells installed in
   early October; dedicated 22 Oct 2010.
   Addition of a baton keyboard seems
   potentially possible.

*Technical data:

   Electric-automatic carillon of 48 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is unknown
   Transposition is not applicable
   Keyboard range:     ----  /    ----  
   The arrangement of tones and semitones is unknown.
   The whole instrument was installed in 2008
     with bells made by Petit & Fritsen
   No auxiliary mechanisms known
   Tower details not available
   Year of latest technical information source is 2013

The Website of the player does not include carillon in his list of performances.

An article (21 Feb 2017) on this instrument's first major "concert," with a link to the "song that terrorizes the campus."

News article (1 Jun 2013) on maintenance safety measures for this tower, with a side-view photo of it.

News article (20 Oct 2012, archived) with photo of the completed shell before installation of the bells

Article (7 Oct 2008, archived, text only) about the bells arriving to the campanile

An extract from the Design Brochure for the tower includes a tower drawing, ground-level floor plan, site plan, and campus map location.

Photos as of 17 Sep 2008
Photo record of construction

Blog with photos of bells in place, with one clickable closeup

Clickable photo of one frame of bells ready to be hoisted into the new tower

News story on the donor of the tower; with photo of completed (but bell-less) concrete shell of tower w/interior cross-braces

Eye of Sauron prank article (23 Sep 2008, archived) and image

Photo of Sauron's eye on tower?

Where this work lies in the sequence of output of the Petit & Fritsen bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.

Ranking among all North American non-traditional carillons by pitch (weight).
Ranking among all North American non-traditional carillons by size (number of bells).
Ranking among all North American non-traditional carillons by year of completion.

Index to all tower bell instruments in IL.

   This page was built from the database on 14-Dec-20
   based on textual data last updated on 2020/12/12
   and on technical data last updated on 2013/06/05