Man who played Duke Chapel bells for 50 years dies

Duke University says a musician who played the bells at its iconic chapel at the end of each academic day for over five decades has died

Obit Duke Bell Musician (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

A musician who played the bells at Duke University’s iconic chapel at the end of each academic day, marking the end of class for countless students over five decades, died Thursday at age 73, the university said.

J. Samuel Hammond died in Durham according to a university news release.

Hammond, who graduated from Duke in 1968, began playing the 50-bell carillon his freshman year. Hammond, who also worked for four decades as a music librarian at the university, retired as university carillonneur in 2018.

The bells at the Gothic chapel are played by striking wooden keys by hand and pressing foot pedals, similar to a piano, according to a university news article. The keys and pedals control cables that cause hammers to strike the bells, which range in size from 10 pounds (4.5 kg) to more than 5 tons (4.5 metric tons).

“The carillon marks the rhythm of our days here at Duke, providing a shared experience that — sometimes subtly — connects us with one another, with traditions that stretch across centuries and continents, and even with God,” the Rev. Luke A. Powery, dean of Duke Chapel said in 2018 when Hammond retired. “The person who has carried on that tradition at Duke for decades, faithfully and unassumingly, is Sam.”

Hammond came to Duke from Americus, Georgia, in 1964 and learned how to play the carillon his freshman year. In addition to weekdays, he also performed for Sunday chapel services and university events.

He recalled in 2018 that he met a student carillonneur while the two were studying organ together. Hammond said he was invited to see the bell instrument “of which I knew nothing” and was guided to learn to play by an “intrigued interest in such an unusual instrument,” according to the university article about his retirement.

The university said he played music on the bells an average of 300 times a year, estimating his performances exceeded 15,000. On weekdays, he’d play a selection of hymns and other music for about 15 minutes. The repertoire included the theme songs from Star Trek and Star Wars, as well as the Duke fight song on the day of its rivalry games against the University of North Carolina. When he retired, two other musicians took over his duties.