The Carillon

Saturday was full of fall foliage fun.  I prefer meeting up close and personal with individual trees, rather than taking in fall forest vistas from afar, so we walked about admiring the plethora of excellent trees in town.  Bloomington has been designated as a Tree City of the World so we're the perfect spot for autumnal foliage mongering. 

With his color blindness Husbandman occasionally points to a green tree and says, "that one's great."  I try to break it to him nicely most of the time. 

Walking on campus, we were surprised by a carillon recital in the arboretum.  A recital flyer announced, "If it's not baroque, it's not on the program." There were only 15 of us listening, but everyone seemed pleased.  

Carillons are on my mind now.  I wonder how many kids major in carillon?  I would like to think I would have given my full support if carillon had been #1 Son's choice, but I'm not going to lie.  It would have been tough.  On the other hand, the U.S. is considered one of the great carillon countries, sporting 24% of the world's carillons.  There are about 700 carillons on the planet and you can find some on every continent. Hence, carillon grads probably do just fine in terms of gainful employment. 

To earn the title of traditional carillon, your carillon must have 23 bells and you may not have computerized or electronic components.  Metz Carillon in our town is a traditional, GRAND carillon with over 50 bells.   

We left before the end of the carillon concert, which is unfortunate, because I've now learned that we could have toured the carillon at the end of the recital.  Damn it to hell.  A carillon tour would have been the icing on the cake of a super pleasant Saturday.