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Bob and His Bells am A GMT STOM A OtfAl CITY ftMAlirT9lt.ST.UmiDAnYCOT1MAN4CASTOt 1 CAMOIN TtfNTON MOtllSVMlf vX I I Carillonneur excited Russians at World's Fair Gl iV MB fl fc Drip-dry! Half sizes! TT pi HA it if 4 Carillonneur Bob Carwithen also is a church organist. BY EDGAR WILLIAMS RECENTLY a friend of Robert John Carwithen's made a facetious observation. "When Bob gets to the Pearly Gates," he said, "and St. Peter asks for his credentials, hell have no trouble at all. "He can say that he is the son of a Methodist minister, that he was the organist of a Presbyterian church and that he played a carillon in the Vatican Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair.

With all that going for him, he can't miss." Career looks promising Bob Carwilhen considers the thought comforting. Of more immediate promise to this young Philadelphian, however, is his career. For, at 24, Carwithen is regarded as a sort of Van Cliburn of carillonneurs spawned by the electronic age. When he played an American-made electro-acoustic carillon in the Vatican Pavilion at Brussels this past spring, Carwithen became, to twist a term, an international bell-ringer. Visitors from many nations flocked to see and hear him in his twice-a-day recitals.

Ann the supervisor of music in the Russian Pavilion across the street came over to listen to Carwithen. Album of bell music Now Carwithen has started a new phase of his carillonic career. In the past, bell music has not been considered a particularly hot item by the major record companies. Shortly after returning from the World's Fair, however, Carwithen was signed by Decca Records. His first album, Bell on Christmas Morn, will be released for the Christmas trade.

Here's how Carwithen, who is the organist of the Swarthmore Presbyterian Church, became a modern carillonneur. In early 1957, while still a student at the Curtis Institute of Music, from which he was graduated last May, he took an afternoon off to drive to Sellersville, home of Schul-merich Carillons, which manufactures electro-acoustic carillons such as the one in the Vatican Pavilion. Curiosity pays off "I had no big ideas," says Carwithen. "I wanted to find out about these keyboard instruments that produce bell tones." Carwithen found out. He also met Anton Brees, considered the world's greatest carillonneur, who has played the bells in the Bok Singing Tower at Lake Wales, since it was opened in 1929.

Brees took Carwithen in hand. During the summer of 1957 Die two I i ing and playing the organ at Swarthmore Presbyterian where he works with five choirs every week. The elder of two sons of the Rev. Edward Franklin Carwithen, D.D., and the late Frances Jones Carwithen, Bob was born in Philadelphia in 1934. At the time, his father was pastor of the Cumberland Street Methodist Church.

Two years later, Dr. Carwithen accepted a call to Sehring, and there Bob received his early education. Studied at Curtis Institute After graduation from high school in 1951, Carwithen put in three years at Florida State University, majoring in music. In 1954 he was awarded a scholarship to Curtis Institute and returned to his native city. To help pay the educational freight he played the organ first at the Lawndale Methodist Church, later at Tacony Methodist.

He became organist at Swarthmore Presbyterian in late 1956. A bachelor no immediate Carwithen likes to rebuild old organs, collects coins. He is a baseball bug, addicted to the Phillies. "People seem to think it funny that a musician should be batty about baseball," he says. "Man, when the Phillies lose, I bleed.

I lost a lot of blood this season." worked together at the Bok Tower. Carwithen followed Dr. Staf Gcbruers, official carillonneur of Ireland, at the carillon in the Vatican Pavilion at the Brussels Fair. In the lower of the Vatican Pavilion are two carillons, played at different times: traditional cast bells and the electronic "Carillon Americana." Most of the European carillonneurs had protested installation of the U. S.

carillon, signing pledges "never to play an electronic carillon." "But I found," says Carwithen, "that some carillonneurs who had signed pledges were dropping in to examine our instrument. They'd look around to make certain they weren't being watched, then sit down at the console and play a few notes." Red maestro intrigued The console is in a glass-enclosed room, and long before Carwithen began a recital the hallway outside was jammed with visitors. A regular visitor was Ignace Andrey Volodin, music supervisor at the Russian Pavilion. One day, Volodin took Carwithen to the Russian Pavilion to play a Russian-made instrument that, by means of electronic tubes, produces the sounds of an orchestra. Carwithen's engagement in Brussels lasted a month.

Since his return Bob has been busy recording, giving demonstrations, teach Caldwell's "Rambler" roams the globe, in Arnel jersey! io. Stained glass colors on Arnel jersey, a Celanese Triacetate fibre that washes, drip dries! Fit for a queen, packs like a wash cloth. Gray combines with blue, pink or turquoise. K'j to 24'2- Doyiime Dresses (187) 2nd Floor Alio all ttorat FASHION BONUS: GOLD SQUARE STAMPS THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER MAGAZIME, OCTOIER 12. 22.