An array of loudspeakers broadcasts the bell sounds of the carillon recently reinstalled at the Enterprise Community Congregational Church on Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022. The system has been out of service for a couple of years.

ENTERPRISE — After a couple of years of silence, the bells at the Enterprise Community Congregational Church are ringing again, since a new carillon was installed Thursday, Feb. 10.

Church member Stacy Green said the old carillon ceased to work a couple years ago. A carillon is a set of bells in a tower, played using a keyboard or by an automatic mechanism similar to a piano roll. According to the Guild of Carillonneurs of North America there are 166 traditional carillons in the USA and Enterprise has one of those.

The carillon, installed by Skip Pepers of the Verdin Co., who drove up from Boise, Idaho, is largely the legacy left by longtime musical director and pianist at the “Big Brown Church,” Gail Swart.

“We have had a carillon, according to Verdin’s records, since 1964,” Green said. “Verdin replaced the 1964 model in the 1990s and that lasted until a couple of years ago. We were trying to repair it and we couldn’t repair it and we just decided we needed a new one, but that was $12,000, so it was a big expense.”

Swart was instrumental in getting the new sound system in place.

“It was something that was important to Gail Swart, who was our longtime music director. Gail passed away Jan. 28,” Green said. “She helped raise the money. She sent out letters and put the word out that we were trying to raise the money. That was last fall. Shortly after that, she was diagnosed with cancer. This was a project that was important to her and she was thrilled to know that it would go forward.”

Ken Holt, chairman of the church’s board of trustees, recalled Swart’s longstanding commitment to music at the church.

“She started playing here when she was 12 years old,” he said.

Mark Green, Stacy’s husband, said the success of the fundraising showed the church’s and the community’s affection for Swart.

“People just got together and made it happen,” he said. “Personally, I was skeptical we were going to be able to, but it’s a testimony to who Gail was.”

Stacy Green agreed.

“It’s about honoring Gail as a member of the church,” she said. “She played piano here most of her life. It’s being done in her honor.”

The carillon

The carillon has no real bells, Pepers said. He replaced the electronics: the control system and the amplifier, which sends a digitally recorded sound of bells through four large speakers mounted on the church’s roof.

“They’re actually all digital,” Pepers said. “They’re not real bells. Even the old system was all digital; they’re not real swinging bells. What’s up on the tower are four big horns that are in an array facing out. … It’s a complete digital system with recorded bells on it.”

As for the times the bells will ring, that will be up to the church leadership.

“We’ve talked about doing it at noon and at six,” Mark Green said.

The church likely will keep it limited to those two times. There have been times in the past when middle-of-the-night bells disturbed church neighbors.

“We already did that and it didn’t work out so well,” Stacy Green said.

“We had some young families with babies that were awakened,” Holt said. “That’s why we thought midnight and 3 a.m.” were not suitable.

“That’s what got us the most heat was when the programming was dying and it was going off in the middle of the night,” Mark Green said.

But that was an anomaly, his wife said.

“We didn’t have any trouble that I heard of when it was functioning normally,” she said.

Unlike what some people have thought, the carillon isn’t played from a keyboard or an organ, Stacy Green said.

Pepers said some models of carillons the company makes can be played by keyboards, but not this one. However, Stacy Green said, the church can alter its sound to coincide with special holidays, such as Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July.

She said the Enterprise community has missed the carillon since the old system quit working and will be glad to have it working again — properly.

“We’ve gotten very positive comments from the community,” she said. “We did check with the city of Enterprise before getting a new one, and with the neighbors. The only problem we’ve ever had with the carillon is when our last one got misfired and was going at midnight, 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. That did not make us any friends in the neighborhood.”

Many people in the community donated toward the new carillon, many in the memory of someone they cared about and others to honor Swart, Stacy Green said.

“We hope every time people hear the bells, it’ll bring joy to the neighborhood,” she said.