As students stroll along campus walkways far below him, senior Roy Lee sits alone high inside Harkness Tower and begins playing "Londonderry Air" on the Yale Memorial Carillon.

A hawk perched on a high tower ledge begins to cock its head up, down and sideways as the carillon's bells begin to sound. Far below, a student shields her eyes from bright sunshine as she glances up toward the tower while making her way through the Old Campus High Street gate.

Immersed in his playing as he sits at the organ-like console, Lee is unconcerned whether anyone pays attention to the tune that rings out from the bells as he strikes the console's wooden batons with his half-closed hands and depresses its pedals with his feet. From where he sits, all that is visible through the tower windows is the city's skyline. Above him are the carillon's 54 bronze bells -- some fairly small (weighing about 20 pounds) and others massive (weighing up to seven tons). The batons and pedals on the console control the clappers that strike these stationary bells, ringing out the notes Lee plays.

Lee makes the trek up the long, winding Harkness Tower stairway twice a week to perform on the carillon during lunchtime. And while applause doesn't routinely follow his performances, there can be no doubt about his skill as a "ringer" of Yale's famous bells.

In a highly competitive audition this summer, Lee -- along with Yale Freshman Chorus director Ellen Espenschied '97, '99 MUS -- became a full member of The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (GCNA), a professional organization of carillon performers, composers and other devotees of the musical instrument. Third-year School of Medicine student Frederick "Frecky" Lewis, a 1998 Yale College graduate, earned that prestigious honor last year.

For the three, election to the GCNA is an especially notable achievement: Unlike the students at most campuses with a carillon, Yale students learn how to play the instrument from each other, rather than under the steady guidance of a professional carillonneur.

Lee, Espenschied and Lewis got their training in the Yale University Guild of Carillonneurs, an elite group of students who have been passing on the art of bellringing since 1949, when undergraduates were first permitted to make music with the bells -- a privilege once reserved only for the University's curator of organs.

Originally called the Guild of Yale University Bellringers, the group renamed itself as the Guild of Carillonneurs in 1964, when 44 bells were donated to the University and added to the original 10 carillon bells installed in 1922. Competition to join the Yale guild is fierce: On average, the group has about 20 members. Every autumn, between 60 and 80 students sign up as "heelers" -- the name given to auditioning students, who are generally freshmen. They are trained to play on a practice carillon on a lower level of Harkness Tower, and audition to become guild members by performing on the tower's larger Memorial Carillon before Thanksgiving break.

Lee, Espenschied and Lewis were attracted to the carillon because of the uniqueness of the instrument, and were among the lucky handful to be chosen as members of the Yale guild. As such, they perform at least once a week on the carillon, which is played daily at lunchtime and dinnertime. Free to select their own music, Yale's carillonneurs "ring out" compositions ranging from traditional carillon pieces to ragtime, jazz and popular music arrangements. They are also responsible for the training of at least one student who is vying to join their group.

Periodically, the Yale guild invites master carillonneurs to campus for performances and discussion of carillon art. Every three years, members travel to Europe to visit other carillons and meet with professional carillonneurs. In addition to France and Germany, these visits are often to the "Low Countries" -- Belgium, Luxemborg, The Netherlands -- where the greatest number of carillons are located, some dating back to the 15th century. Guild members also visit carillons within the United States.

Like most members of the Yale Guild of Carillonneurs, Lee, Espenschied and Lewis had some keyboard experience prior to auditioning for the organization (all that is required is the ability to read music). However, few of the guild's members are intent upon professional music careers. This year, for example, most of the students in the group are majoring in the sciences.

"It's a special experience to play the carillon just because it is so different from a lot of musical instruments," says Lee, who is majoring in history. "Many people don't even know what a carillon is, or think that Harkness Tower has an automatic chime. But even though we are anonymous to those below, we do have a 'captive' audience; anyone in the vicinity has to hear us. So we take our playing very seriously while also making the experience fun for ourselves and our listeners."

In fact, one of the ways that Yale carillonneurs attempt to capture their audience's attention is to perform pieces that might seem uncharacteristic for a carillon, or those that make them feel they are communicating with the passersby below. Yale's carillonneurs, for example, have been heard performing the theme song from "Sesame Street" and other popular television shows, as well as famous rock songs.

For Lewis, who manages to squeeze one carillon performance a week into his busy schedule at the medical school, a particularly rewarding moment came after his performance of a Dutch folk song.

"As I left the tower, I heard someone whistling the tune," recalls Lewis. "That's a great experience for a carillonneur. It made my day."

Lewis, Lee and Espenschied say their distinction as full members of the GCNA more than makes up for the hundreds of times they have performed without any audience recognition.

To become GCNA members, the three went through a rigorous audition process that began with making a 30-minute tape recording of themselves playing required pieces, as well as compositions of their own choosing. They were then invited to perform on the carillon at the GCNA's annual congress. During the past two years, less than 20 people from the United States and Canada have been invited to audition.

For Lewis, recording his performance before the audition was almost as intimidating as the actual performance. "Recording took a long time because I got very nervous," he recalls. "The further I got into a piece without making a mistake, the more nervous I became. I did finally nail down good recordings of the pieces and sent my tape in -- and then prayed."

Espenschied's most anxious moments came right before she had to perform in front of the highly accomplished carillonneurs at the congress.

"It was very nerve-wracking at first," she admits. "But once I got up into the playing cabin, I calmed down. GCNA guild members sit outside on lawn chairs, so once you are in the cabin, there's no one there but you. It was less scary for me once I found myself alone on the carillon, an experience I've had often enough before."

Lee remembers the tension he felt as he waited for all of the auditions to conclude before he was told of his acceptance. For him, one of the most important privileges of GCNA is that it gives him greater access to carillons around the country and beyond.

"It's one thing to go somewhere and say 'I'm a Yale student, and I was wondering if I might be able to play your carillon,' and quite another to introduce yourself as a GCNA member," he says. "It literally opens more doors for you."

-- By Susan Gonzalez

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