As he walks to the University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel, briefcase in hand, carillonneur Richard Siegel bears the lost-in-thought look of a college professor. But this holder of doctorates in both sacred music and law doesn’t speak in scholarly or technical jargon of his hobby. He talks about the carillon in terms that are easy to understand, clearly loving his subject.
The carillon in Rockefeller Chapel, where Siegel, 45, plays on Wednesday evenings during school terms, is accessible only by climbing more than 200 steps to the bell tower. Visitors ascend a dimly lit, single-file spiral stairway that turns to the left, but by the time climbers begin to feel like tightly wound springs, Siegel assures them that the next stairway turns to the right so they will feel “evened out” at the top, which is about 18 stories high.
On the way up, visitors can stop to view the 8-foot-high, 18 1/2-ton bourdon, or bass bell, the largest part of the carillon dedicated by John D. Rockefeller Jr. to his mother, Laura Spellman Rockefeller, in 1932. The 72-bell carillon, the second largest in the world, was cast by Gillett and Johnston of Croydon, England. (The largest instrument, in the tower of Riverside Church in New York City, also was donated by Rockefeller in his mother’s name.)
Siegel is one of only 500 carillonneurs in the United States. He also composes music for the instrument that consists of at least 23 cast bronze cup-shaped bells arranged in chromatic progression, with sharps and flats to accommodate music in any key in a six-octave range.
Many people assume that the carillon is electronically controlled and, indeed, the hourly chiming often heard from church bells usually is automatic, churned out on a set of gears. However, the carillon is powered entirely by the force of the performer’s hands and feet, which in Siegel’s case seem custom-made for the job: His 6-foot-2-inch frame gives him the reach to span the keyboard’s 5 1/2-foot width and the power to strike its batons (keys) and foot pedals. Batons are struck with loosely clenched hands, and it is not easy work. Before playing, Siegel places protective coverings on his smallest fingers to prevent blisters.
The instrument has a carved oak keyboard with action rods above it that are connected to the bells’ clappers. It looks somewhat like a wooden altar with a loom on top. The bells themselves do not move; sounds are produced by the clapper striking the inside of the bell. Because the carillon has no dampers, each sound remains when a new pedal is struck; this is what gives carillon music its soulful, plaintive quality, Siegel explains.
The carillon originated some 500 years ago in what is now the Netherlands, Belgium and northern France, also known as the Low Countries of northern Europe, where nearly 400 carillons are still in use.
Carillon music has been found dating to the 17th and 18th Centuries. The instrument came to the United States at the turn of this century, but during the world wars production halted because of the unavailability of metals. According to Siegel, the instrument and the music for it have gone in and out of fashion, but since World War II, composers have begun writing carillon music again.
The bell tower holds more than a dozen chairs for those guests willing to make the climb before the free concerts that are held at Rockefeller Chapel on Sunday evenings from June through August each year. Fifty to 100 people of all ages listen from the chapel’s landscaped lawns during the series of concerts. Many bring blankets and picnic foods. The carillon can only be appreciated from the outdoors; Siegel says the music created at 200 feet in the air heads sideways, not down.
Siegel’s life always has involved music. His mother, Marie Wallace Siegel (who died in 1989), taught foreign languages, primarily Spanish and French, at the College of St. Francis in Joliet, Joliet Junior College and Loyola University in Chicago, and played the organ in church. Her son began his music career as a chorister at the Cathedral of St. Raymond in Joliet and as a 6th grader began studying organ at the College of St. Francis while attending grade school at St. Raymond’s. He went to St. Charles Borromeo High School in Lockport and got his undergraduate degree at the College of St. Francis.
After he taught music for four years at Joliet Central High School, the music department was reduced and Siegel decided to go to law school, earning a doctorate in civil law from Northern Illinois University. He worked in private practice, later was an assistant state’s attorney in Will County, and eventually became an assistant to Illinois Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan.
Siegel later obtained a doctorate in sacred music from Greenwich University in Hilo, Hawaii. During his years of study, he continued to play the organ in local churches. His original compositions and research into various areas of church-related music have been published in the U.S. and Europe. At present, Siegel is organist and choirmaster at St. Joseph Church in Manhattan, as well as founder and director of the Ecclesiastical Choral Society, a professional vocal ensemble specializing in classical church music. He also plays the organ at Holy Cross Church in Joliet. Siegel was admitted to the Pontifical International Society of Sacred Music in 1983, one of fewer than 20 U.S. citizens so honored. The society, established in Rome in 1963, has about 125 members worldwide and acts as an advisory board to the Roman Catholic Church on liturgical music.
Siegel first became interested in the carillon when he attended such a concert in 1995. After he expressed that interest, Wylie Crawford, the university carillonneur since 1984 (the fifth in its history), invited him to the bell tower.
“I was captivated by the sound and the whole environment,” Siegel recalls. “I took three or four lessons with Wylie before he set me loose. You learn mostly by playing the instrument.”
“Dick started carillon in February of 1995 when we were visited by Jo Haazen, director of the Belgian Carillon School,” Crawford says. “He showed up complete with a treatise in hand that he was preparing on the carillon. He was obviously very enthusiastic about the carillon, and I have the impression that’s the way he is about everything in life; he digs in very deep. We’re very happy because he’s a very gifted musician and full of enthusiasm for the instrument.”
During the summer of 1995, Siegel demonstrated his creativity and dedication to music, Crawford recalls.
“We planned an event for carillon and choir. The day of the concert, thunderstorms arrived and we had to go indoors. Dick was going to attend the concert. He said, `I guess I could sight-read the part on the organ,’ ” Crawford says. “The concert was moved inside, and the choir was accompanied by the organ instead of the carillon. He did whatever it took to get the job done, even though he wasn’t supposed to be part of the performance. It’s emblematic of the way he is.”
Siegel, his wife, Christine, who teaches piano and language arts, and their two children live on his family’s original farmland in an unincorporated area just outside Joliet. Music runs through the family. Christine was pianist for The New People, a group founded by Siegel that performed in the Joliet area during the ’70s and ’80s, playing mostly popular music; their 13-year-old son Nick plays piano and cello and recently began joining Siegel in carillon concerts; and daughter Elizabeth, 10, plays violin and piano.
Siegel’s current interest (“It’s an interest binge, so to speak,” he explains) is in historical and textual analysis of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, studies he conducts in his own library. He has a 4,000-book library at home so he can spend time with his family, he says.
“My kids have a research library in their home. They don’t very often have to go outside to find reference materials,” he points out.
Siegel works in a bureau of the attorney general’s office that defends the state and its employees against lawsuits. His supervisor, George Sotos, deputy chief of government representation for the Illinois attorney general’s office, describes Siegel as “easy to get along with; I’ve never heard him raise his voice or become flustered. He’s even-tempered, in control, a very impressive man.”
Sotos adds that he and Siegel share an interest in railroad history and information, another of the carillonneur’s passions. “You have to press him because he doesn’t go around touting these things,” Sotos adds. “He has a profound knowledge of the history of railroads in this country. You have to study this over a period of time to have the grasp that he has, so I was pretty impressed.”
Says Siegel, “I’ve been interested in the stations, routes and equipment that have been used.” He has more than a dozen books on the topic but insists that was a passing fancy: “When you get 50 or 60 books, that’s when I consider that you’re into a topic.”
Former Chief Judge Michael Orenic recalls that Siegel appeared before his court in private law practice and as an assistant state’s attorney in Will County. “He was a good lawyer. He knew the law, and he respected the dignity of the court,” says the retired judge of the 12th Circuit.
Like Sotos, Orenic has known Siegel in a capacity other than professional; the judge plays the violin and accompanied The New People. Orenic has the highest praise for Siegel’s musical virtuosity.
“He’s a superb pianist, a terrific musician,” he says. “If he’s not a genius, he’s damn near it. He composes, he arranges, he directs choirs, he plays the piano at concert level — now he’s become an expert in carillons.”
Orenic theorizes that “law and music are both arts, and it shouldn’t surprise anybody to find lawyers who are good musicians. The way I see the relationship, there are two things that are required of both: self-discipline and commitment. Dick Siegel has both to a very high degree.”
