As graduating students and visitors stroll through campus during the week of
Spring Congregation, they’ll be greeted periodically by the sound of carillon
chimes ringing out from the Ladner Clock Tower in front of Main Library.
A new carillon, an organ-like instrument housed beside the clock tower, replaced
the original last year.
The original electro-mechanical carillon, installed when the tower was built
in 1968, comprised 330 bronze bars which were struck with metal hammers activated
by the organ console.
Fully digital, the new carillon can be played manually or programmed to play
automatically. It is capable of producing synthesized bell sounds including
celesta, harp, chime, cast Flemish and English.
The sound is amplified and broadcast through 12 speakers housed in the tower.
The carillon plays for five minutes three times daily at 10:25 a.m., 12:25
p.m. and 2:25 p.m. It also chimes on the hour and is played on special occasions
such as Christmas.
Suzanne Dodson, facilities and preservation manager with the UBC Library and
a classical pianist, is one of a few people on campus who play the carillon.
“I think it conjures up a sort of sentimental feeling for many of the people
who hear the chimes while walking across campus,” says Chuck Slonecker, acting
vice-president, External Affairs.
Slonecker says that while he gets the odd complaint from people who dislike
either the sound in general or the tunes played, complaints are greatly outweighed
by the number of positive comments he receives.
The clock tower was built in 1968 with a gift from the late Leon Ladner, a
prominent Vancouver lawyer and former member of UBC’s Board of Governors.
On announcing his gift in 1966, Ladner wrote: “When that clock tower is completed
and the clock rings out the passing of each hour, I hope it will remind the
young students that not only does time go fast, but that the hours at our university
are very precious and the use of those hours will seriously affect the success,
the happiness and the future of their lives.”
The Ladner Clock Tower was intended as a tribute to the pioneers of B.C. and,
in particular, to Thomas and William Ladner. It was initially supposed to be
called The Pioneer Clock Tower.
The Ladner brothers, of Penzance, Cornwall, England, arrived in Victoria almost
exactly 140 years ago (May 15, 1858) after five months in a covered wagon on
the California Trail and six years in the gold fields of California. The town
of Ladner, where they settled in 1868, bears their name.
