Birdsong and carillon, outside Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, Chicago, USA on Sunday 19th December 2021 – by Eleanor McDowall

“I’d wanted to hear this sound again for years. On an autumnal day, nearly a decade ago, it had caught me by surprise – reverberating off the surrounding buildings, filling the air with the sound of bells as if they were pouring out of the walls. This time I walked alone to the chapel. The doors were locked and no one was in sight. I stood disappointed for half a minute until magically the carillon started to play. It fell in and out of the silence, in concert with the birds outside.”