Music Dept. lecturer Wesley Arai pictured at the Storke Tower carillon at UC Santa Barbara.
By Melody Li
At exactly 2 p.m. on Sunday the bells in UC Santa Barbara’s iconic Storke Tower rang out melodiously to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Storke Tower and its carrillon.
The recital, performed by the university’s official carillonist and Music Department lecturer Wesley Arai, featured a wide range of songs including pieces that were performed at the first dedicatory recital of the carillon in 1969, as well as world premieres of two pieces that Arai specially commissioned for the 50th anniversary.
“Both of the composers, Emma Lou Diemer and Aaron David Miller, have written some great pieces for the carillon before. The two have very different styles, so we ended up with two very different new pieces,” Arai said in an interview.
A carillon is an instrument that consists of at least 23 cup-shaped bells. UCSB’s instrument consists of 61 bells cast in the Netherlands, weighing from 18 pounds to 2.5 tons and spanning five octaves. Performers are able to control the volume of the carillon depending on how hard or soft they strike the keys, much like the piano. Instead of fingers, however, the carillon is played with fists and feet.
Arai began playing the instrument when he was an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley and served as associate carillonist there after passing the carillonneur examination. Currently, he performs on the weekends and passes on his craft to music students. He hopes that more people will gain an appreciation of the unique instrument and its role in campus culture.
“There are only six carillons in California and about 170 in the United States, so I think we’re very fortunate to have one at UCSB,” Arai said.
John Majewski,, Dean of the Humanities & Fine Arts Division, spoke at Storke Tower’s 50th anniversary carillon recital on Sunday.
Before the official recital began, Dean John Majewski of the Humanities and Fine Arts Division also spoke about the important role that Storke Tower plays in the community.
“To become what UCSB is today, the campus had to be more than a collection of scholars and students,” Majewski said. “It had to become a community, and this leads to the importance of Storke Tower and the vision of Thomas Storke in creating this magnificent structure and the carillon that goes with it.”
While the campus already had an environmental distinctiveness, Storke Tower added an architectural uniqueness that was complemented by the bells of the carillon, he said.
“The bells literally set the rhythm to our daily lives here on campus. It is unsurprising that the carillon is especially important during convocation, when students start their UCSB careers, and at commencement, when these students end their academic careers here at UCSB,” Majewski said.
Although this is only Arai’s second year as University Carillonist, he’s been amazed to learn about those who played the carillon before him and is proud to be part of such an historical moment.
“The carillon at UCSB has a rich history and I think the 50th anniversary is a good opportunity to appreciate this history and to look forward to the future,” he said.
Arai’s next formal carillon recital for the 50th anniversary of Storke Tower will be on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2019 at 11 a.m.
Melody Li is a third-year Communication major at UC Santa Barbara. She is a Web and Social Media Intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts. Click on Li’s video below for a sample of the recital.