U-M Organ Conference: Alex Johnson, “Knock Knock, it’s 1510, Carillon Time”

Alex Johnson (University of Chicago) performs a solo recital on the 53-bell Charles Baird Carillon. Audiences are invited to enjoy the concert outdoors on Ingalls Mall.

"Good luck finding the beat in these time-oriented selections across the ages of carillon music – 1510 being the birth year of the carillon. In Arthur Meulemans’ Toccata, downbeat versus upbeat clarity is constantly obscured. In Aqua, breath-based time, a series of short gestures separated by a duration determined entirely by listening and breathing. Matthias Vanden Gheyn, the first composer from whom exists written music for a carillonist to perform, wrote a series of preludes that make very idiomatic use of the different registers of the carillon. The result: near perpetual motion in the treble bells. Next, flexible time (rubato): Jef Denyn’s Preludium in D, a highly romantic work by the founder of the Royal Carillon School in Belgium, the world’s first school for carillon. The four movements of Werner Van Cleemput’s 3 Sonneries & 1 Bis each use a different rhythmic or temporal syntax. The first movement makes delightfully clunky use of gestures and accents that obscure the underlying meter, the second movement is freer and airier, the third movement fits very clearly and vigorously into its time signature, and the finale is a constant accelerando. The final piece, Absorptions, is seven systems, seven little worlds into which the performer is to settle and explore before moving on. Each world has a direction, specific enough for coherence, vague enough to allow the performer room to explore, for example: ‘wobbly walking’, ‘a chord, very occasionally’, and ‘turbulent tremolo’. Meditative time."

This event is part of the 2025 U-M Organ Conference, "Ludus Chronalis: Time, Cadence, and Temporality in Keyboard Music and Sacred Spaces": https://smtd.umich.edu/performances-and-events/organ-conference/

You may also like the following events from Carillons at The University of Michigan:

• This Sunday, 5th October, 06:15 pm, U-M Organ Conference Student Recital: Notes from the Clocktower in Ann Arbor
• Next Tuesday, 7th October, 12:00 pm, U-M Organ Conference Faculty Recital: Tiffany Ng, "To The Sun" in Ann Arbor

Also check out other Entertainment events in Ann Arbor, Performances in Ann Arbor, Music events in Ann Arbor.