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“ Here in earthquake country you don ’ t want to sit under a one-ton bell ,” explains Scott Paulson ’ 88 , on the origins of the nontraditional instrument he plays in a small concrete bunker atop Geisel Library — an electronic carillon . Among his other outreach roles with the library , Paulson is the university ’ s first and only carillonneur , or he who tolls the bells ( which are actually precisely pitched lengths of musical wire ).
Established by a gift from Joe Rubinger in 1989 , the carillon at first played only a short , automated melody before it rang the hour . “ I knew it was being underutilized ,” Paulson says . He ' s since given the chimes a higher profile , playing live for special occasions and inviting music students to compose pieces and perform them for the campus (“ They can be very off-the-wall — we once held the nose of a handheld fan to a wire for a vibrato effect .”) He also actively takes requests from those on campus and off , anything from Pachelbel ’ s Canon to Lady Gaga ’ s Bad Romance . Send yours to tritonmag @ ucsd . edu and we ’ ll pass it along !
Learn how he became keeper of the keys and see the rooftop maestro at work in our behind-the-scenes video at tritonmag . com / chimes
— Jarrett Haley
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