St.

Mary’s music director says new digital bells ring true in Brookline Village

BR - 08/19/10 - Father Brian Clary blessed the new digital carillon at St. Mary�
Church at Sunday services, Aug. 15, 2010 in Brookline. (Photo by Melissa
Ostrow)

By Laura Paine/staff writer

Wicked Local Brookline
Posted Aug 20, 2010 @ 10:43 AM
Brookline —

After nine years, the bells of Brookline’s St. Mary of the Assumption Church will sound again,
reminding the community to take time out of their busy lives to pause and rejoice. 

The carillon, a digital bell unit, was a gift to the church from the James Tempero family in
memory of Eugene Lyne. The Rev. Brian Clary said there was a request for the church to have a
more “prayerful presence” in the Brookline area, and with that in mind, the Temperos helped to
make this possible.

Listen to the church's new digital bells ringing.

“They brought the idea about the bells being repaired and replaced,” Clary said. “If someone
were struggling morally or ethically, they would hear the bell during the day and think the
church is still a viable place in the community. It is one thing to see the church building, but bells
are an invitation to pay a visit, pray and be united with the community.”

Lyne died several months ago, and Clary said he was a very faithful member of the community
who taught his family about God.

“He was really into the celebration of the sacrament, the liturgy, and one of the marks of
celebration is good music,” Clary said. “He was a very festive fellow and at his funeral, he had,
along with traditional Catholic and Christian hymns, a gospel choir in the church. When the
family heard we were looking to put the bells into the church, they were very excited because it
would be a perfect memorial to [Lyne] because he enjoyed the festival musical end of church
worship.”

There are hundreds of Christian hymns, along with chimes, that can be played on the carillon,
inside or outside of the church. Clary said bells summon people to the assembly when Mass
begins, as well as alert the community to important happenings, and it is a good reminder to
pause, allowing individuals or groups of people to “rejoice in prayer.”

“Our society is so fast-paced these days,” he said. “Religious traditions can cause us to slow
down and pause, in a good way, and these daily chimes here at the parish can help in that. Our
bodies and souls have to have an opportunity to catch up with each other.”

Arthur Rishi, the music director at St. Mary’s, said the carillon has 800 songs programmed into
the system, but with the use of a connecting keyboard, songs can be written and recorded, or
played live. He said he thinks another thousand songs can easily be added to the system.

“It simulates … what would happen if you played more than one [bell] at a time,” Rishi said.
“It’s very, very close to the real thing. I think it would be almost impossible to tell the difference
of a real bell and the sample sounds.”

Verdin, which created the carillon, uses technology that records a bell, and then a computer
analyzes the different frequencies and overtones, which Rishi said are sounds we hear, but are
not conscious of.

“You hear dozens of tones at the same time, which gives it the richness,” he said. “It would be
very impractical to have real bells, which would be up in the tower if we had them, but it would
be hard to tell the difference between the two. I think it is an improvement because of all the
computerized functions.”

The carillon is programmed to know the current season of the church’s calendar, so, for example,
it will not play music intended for Christmas during Easter. It can also be programmed to go off
at a particular time, and in the case of St. Mary’s, members of the community can count on
hearing the bells at noon each day.

Laura Paine can be reached at lpaine@cnc.com.

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