DUBUQUE (AP) — For the first time in what seemed like weeks, the noonday sun shone overhead in Dubuque.
As Nancy Hessler strolled down Main Street recently, she sang “Walk with Me,” letting the hymn wash over her as it bounced off the facades of downtown buildings.
“I love it,” she said. “I came through the square over there and it sounded like it was coming from that direction, but I knew (where) it was coming from.”
A former IBM employee, Hessler followed her outdoor route nearly every day, passing near the music’s source, the top of the MidWestOne Bank building at 895 Main St.
While traditional carillons rely upon the manual striking of bells, the one atop the bank is an electronic recording broadcast through four loudspeakers that flank the rooftop of the 158-foot high-rise.
Facilities manager Kevin Goranson is its caretaker, but aside from occasionally switching out the memory cards onto which the music is recorded or adjusting the times the chimes will ring, he doesn’t notice it much. He likewise operates the weather tower beacon, which also is located on the roof.
“It’s just part of the daily chores,” Goranson said.
The metal box that controls the chiming is the size of a vintage television and sits in a dusty utility room on the 13th floor.
It plays melodies at 9 a.m., noon and 5 p.m., selecting tracks from a group that includes “The Sound of Music,” “New York, New York” and clips from the “Star Wars” movie score. During the holidays, Christmas jingles become all the rage, and around the Fourth of July, the theme turns patriotic.
Goranson has received requests to change out a memory card, but never a call for a new track.
And so it has gone for more than 20 years.
Before the current, digital carillon was purchased by the then American Trust & Savings Bank — which was acquired by MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. in 2019 — the institution relied upon a reel-to-reel tape system.
Goranson’s predecessor, Greg Fuglsang, does not know when it was installed, but it predated his employment at the bank, which began in the 1980s. Operating the system was one of his job responsibilities.
The machine relied upon a manual clock that would not keep time when it lost power.
“Sometimes it would go off at midnight rather than at noon,” Fuglsang said, chuckling. “The bells would chime and then it would play its two or three little songs. The neighbors would call up and complain because the thing is going off at midnight or 9 o’clock at night. It was always a fun little challenge.”
Other times the carillon would veer off its regular weekday schedule and play on a Sunday — a big no-no.
“People who live on the bluff, they’d want to sleep in and not want to hear it at 9 a.m.,” he said.
Each month, the company would send a new reel. But when Fuglsang could no longer purchase additional tapes, he ordered in 1997 a Novabell III for nearly $10,000 from manufacturer Schulmerich Carillons.
It has been in service ever since, a fact that a company spokesperson said is unusual for a machine of its age.
Fuglsang is unsure why the bank installed the carillon initially, but supposed the premise was to draw attention to the routine of the workday.
A genuine set of bells have been ringing at the Cathedral of St. Raphael in Dubuque since 1876.
At 7 a.m. each day, the carillon in the belfry sounds a hymn, and later it chimes flourishes at noon and 6 p.m., all of which are calls to prayer.
For the Rev. Greg Bahl, associate pastor, the tolling evokes memories of seminary, where he studied at a monastery. There, the monks rang the bells manually.
But like the bank building, the Cathedral of St. Raphael’s carillon is controlled by a machine, which Bahl monitors.
“It’s a little more high-tech than novices on a rope,” he said.
Bahl observed that the songs invoke a sense of mindfulness in a culture that is otherwise a slave to the clock. When the carillon chimes at funerals, it reminds listeners to be attentive to others’ losses.
He calls the music a “song to the city.”
“Bringing beauty to the city is not just about beautiful architecture, but it engages all the senses.”