BYU’s iconic bell tower gets a mid-century makeover.
Students walking on campus may have noticed that the BYU bell tower’s hourly refrain of “Come, Come, Ye Saints” sounds a little different this fall—two notes lower, in fact, thanks to the addition of a new three- and-a-half-ton bell.
Cast in Holland, the new bell bears the inscription: “May these bells proclaim forever our gratitude to those who founded and to those who sustain Brigham Young University.” It’s known as the Bourdon, says music professor emeritus R. Don Cook (BMu ’80, MMu ’82), “which is what they call the biggest bell in a carillon.” The first bell to be added since the tower’s construction, it was installed in July 2025 as part of BYU’s sesquicentennial celebration.
The bell’s deeper tones will be especially noticeable when it strikes the hour, Cook says. “It will sound a little more massive.”
Built in 1975 for BYU’s centennial, the bell tower houses an instrument called a carillon—a set of bells. Cook has played BYU’s instrument for nearly as long. “I started taking [carillon] lessons when I was a student in 1979,” he recalls. He continued to play it as a master’s student and later trained others on the instrument as a professor and the university’s official carillonneur.
Cook sees the new bell as a perfect gift to the BYU community: “When I talk to people about their time on campus, they say, ‘The few times I’ve been back to BYU and I’ve heard the carillon, it reminded me just how much that contributes to how it feels to be on campus.’”
Organ student and carillonneur Jeffrey J. Nilsson (’27) says adjusting to the new bell has been straightforward.
“The biggest issue is that there’s not a lot of music written that uses that bell,” he says, so he’s been transposing current pieces into lower keys.
“I love using my musical talents and abilities to brighten people’s days and to bring joy into their lives,” says Nilsson. “With such a public setting, I don’t think there are many other opportunities where I could bless as many people.”
