James R. Lawson, who climbed to perches in towers
-- including one in Riverside Church on the Upper West Side of
Manhattan -- to make exquisite music by ringing bells, died on Tuesday
at a nursing home in Cody, Wyo. He was 84.
Mr. Lawson was a
carillonneur, one of the best known in the United States and one of only
a handful of masters of the carillon, the largest musical instrument in
the world and the only one played exclusively outdoors. It dates back
more than five centuries.
A carillonneur sits at a carved oak
clavier, an organlike cabinet with shafts of wood, called batons,
instead of keys. By pushing the keys with the side of his fist and
pushing foot pedals, the player transfers mechanical force to clappers,
which strike the stationary bells, which are tuned to specific notes. At
Riverside Church, where Mr. Lawson presided over the carillon for more
than a quarter of a century, the largest bell is the size of a baby
elephant and the smallest weighs a few ounces.
People outside hear
the songs the bells create in a tradition that began in the lowlands of
Holland, Belgium and northern France and flowered when Low Country and
later English bell forgers learned to make bells that played specific
notes, rather than trusting to chance. At Riverside Church, concerts
have always been a bit more problematic because of the street noises.