Baala Shakya, Contributing Photographer

Most Yale students have paused at some point in their journey across campus to hear the toll of the Harkness bells — the deep, resonant rings that fill the quiet moments between classes and provide a grounding soundtrack to daily life. 

However, the carillon’s chimes, while so present and familiar, remain a mystery to many. Who are these students daring to climb the narrow winding staircase to strike the bells each day? Who decides the tunes that drift across campus? 

The answer: The Yale University Guild of Carillonneurs.

“The Guild of Carillonneurs are a group of students who are responsible for playing — as well as sort of maintenance and upkeep of — the carillon instrument in Harkness Tower,” said Eric Wang ’25, a co-chair of The Yale University Guild of Carillonneurs. “We play every day from 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.”

The Guild is composed of 26 undergraduate and graduate students who have undergone five weeks of  “heeling,” the colloquial term used to reference the recruitment process for becoming an official member of the Guild.

Signups for the Guild take place throughout the first week of school.

“[Heelers] then sign up for a slot with a teacher, a current upperclassmen member, and then they’ll meet with that teacher every week over the course of five weeks,” said Wang.

Wang explained that the heelers must also sign up for practice slots on two practice instruments available inside the Harkness tower to hone their two audition pieces: “red” pieces are easier and played on the real bells during auditions, and “blue” pieces are “slightly more difficult” and played on one of the practice instruments in the second part of the audition.

Darren Kao ’25, a member of this year’s new class, explained to the News that he found the upperclassmen teachers, who would rotate taking notes on how students were playing every week, to be a very valuable resource throughout the heeling process.

He noted that the Guild members would provide feedback on how to improve articulation and dynamics or properly place hands on the keys to improve performance.

Peter Zhang ’25, a co-chair of the Guild, said that heeling also involved many social events.

According to Zhang, the five-week heeling process typically culminates the Sunday before Fall Break, when a full day of auditions takes place.

Kao and Cecilia Sun ’28, who is also a member of the guild’s newest class, both reflected fondly on their heeling process. They noted that having a musical background in playing the piano and having the ability to read sheet music made learning the carillon easier.

“The piano to carillon learning curve wasn’t too bad, but the practice carillon to real bells learning curve was kind of bad because, in the real bells, every key has weights that vary because the string is attached to the metal. But on the practice ones, there’s no weight,” said Kao. 

Kao explained that the bells are connected to keys similar to a xylophone and that hitting low notes is therefore really easy on the practice carillon but much harder to press down on the real one.

Zhang told the News that the vast majority of people who audition for the Guild have no prior experience with the bells, which he said is to be expected.

“The first thing that I had to get used to was orientation on the instrument: where the keys are and how to coordinate my limbs to play things correctly. It definitely wasn’t easy for me,” Zhang said.

Zhang also noted that the carillon has a full set of pedals that require extensive coordination. Additionally, unlike most instruments, the bells keep ringing until they naturally stop, not just when the musician stops playing. Thus, prospective auditioners are taught to control their volume, Wang said. 

“The instrument is also weighted and because the keys are connected to bells of various sizes, you have to get used to the difference in weights between the lowest bells and the highest bells. You have to refine your touch with the instrument because it is very sensitive and has a huge dynamic range.”

Sun explained that being inside Harkness Tower and knowing that the students of Yale who are listening outside have no idea who is playing the carillon eases the pressure of playing such a loud instrument.

“Playing up there, when you’re sitting at the instrument, I don’t really think about the fact that everyone’s listening to it,” said Zhang. “The instrument is situated in a playing cabin and the bells are outside of that, so there is a degree of separation that makes it feel a little bit more personal. In the back of your mind, you would still have to realize that a lot of people can hear you, but it’s still pretty personal up there.”

Without a set repertory list, playing the carillon is also personal to the Guild members as each has complete reign over what they play. Kao explained there are no limits besides “Happy Birthday” or a national anthem. On his “first ring,” the first shift of a new member, he played a part in a Genshin Impact soundtrack.

Wang explained that the Guild has historically played a lot of pieces originally composed for the carillon specifically from places like Belgium and the Netherlands. However, he noted that the Guild has worked to expand its repertoire to include more contemporary music.

“[The music played is] definitely a sort of blend of… a lot of classical stuff, but it’s also always fun to play recognizable songs… That’s what oftentimes people will stop and film or sometimes reference on Fizz,” said Zhang.

Wang noted that because he and Zhang are both “pretty big Swifties,” a lot of Taylor Swift arrangements have been played recently.

Yale students are also welcome to submit song requests through the Guild’s website. Wang said the group gets a lot of requests.

“There was this one couple, on their first or second date, and the guy had requested a song beforehand. They came up for a tour of the tower and the song was playing,” Wang said. “He emailed us after and was like, ‘The date went well, thanks guys.’”

Song requests for the Guild members have ranged from playing Jurassic Park when the Peabody Museum reopened to spooky Halloween songs for their annual Halloween Concert, which will take place this Thursday from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.

This Friday, Nov. 1, The Yale University Guild of Carillonneurs will be playing “The News” by Paramore at 12:30 p.m.