![]() ![]() A perfect peal would consist of a group of bells in which all these harmonic conditions were perfect in every bell, and in which all the bells were in perfect musical accord with one another. No science can prescribe the exact conditions by which this adjustment can invariably be secured and no art seems able to correct a defective adjustment when once a bell has been cast. The sound of a bell consists of not less than six individual tones, more or less distinct to an acute and cultivated ear and the quality of the note emitted depends upon the harmonic adjustment of these several tones. Of all musical instruments, a group of bells is probably the most difficult to select. ![]() “Find two or three persons to join me in the matter,” said he, “and we will put four or five bells in place without cost to the University.” This suggestion was acted upon… The requisite money was put at my command and I received direction to make a selection of bells. In the spring of 1882 President White of Cornell University volunteered to be one of three of four persons to place a peal of bells in one of the towers of the new Library Building. I make the suggestion with the understanding that the old bell is not to be taken down till the new ones are in working order. The balance (and perhaps the whole,) will, of course, be turned into the University Treasury, in case the Regents authorize the sale. I expect to put the new bells in their place in the tower without any cost to the University whatever but, in case the fund in my hands should be insufficient to pay for the mounting, I should be glad to be authorized to supplement it from a part of the proceeds from the sale of the old bell. Meneely should take the old bell with its hangings at full price in case the University should desire to dispose of them. In the contract for the peal of bells ordered for the Library Building, it was agreed that Mr. Thirteen years later at a meeting of the Board of Regents on January 3, 1883, in reference to the installation of the Library chimes, which were used for more than half a century, Professor C. Finally, they stole the bell and threw it into the old “cat-hole.” Another time they turned the bell upside down and filled it with water so that the clapper was frozen in ice. Students in the upper classes, objecting to being awakened by the same bell which woke the freshmen, on one occasion wrapped up the clapper so that it could not ring. ![]() It was rung mornings and on other occasions. Pretty-man of the class of 1885, related that during the seventies there was a bell, perhaps a foot or eighteen inches in diameter, on the north wing of University Hall. What final disposition was made of the bell is not known, but Horace G. Thus, for a period of twenty-five years, the question of purchasing a bell for the University was under consideration. ![]() Apparently, the University finally purchased a bell, for on March 28, 1865, appears the following item: “For the Bell … $526.09.” Five years later, on June 27, 1870, it was ordered, “that the Steward be instructed to procure a new bell, of the same weight as the old one, exchanging the old one and paying the difference from the general fund” (R.P., 1870-76, p. On June 28, 1864, almost twenty years later, “the Executive Committee was authorized to procure a bell for the University, not exceeding six hundred pounds in weight.” The matter evidently was of a controversial nature for the resolution was considered and tabled. They “borrowed” it, however, promising to return it “on demand.” On January 14, 1845, Regent Kearsley reported that the committee on finance to whom had been referred the matter of the bell and hangings belonging to the Central Railroad, which at that time were being used by the University, “believing said bell to be too small for the permanent purpose of the University,” considered its purchase inexpedient. The first official mention of music by the University was in reference to bells. The history of the University Musical Society is so interwoven with the development of music in the University, and with the affairs of its subdivisions, the School of Music and the Choral Union, that in order to record the history of any one of these, it is necessary to consider it in relationship to the others. ![]()
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