Chemnitz tower carillon - The Carillon
The Chemnitz Carillon is a playable carillon in the town hall of Chemnitz.
The carillon was installed in the tower of the new Chemnitz town hall by the Apolda bell foundry in 1978. Originally, the carillon was to be installed in the listed tower of the old town hall. However, this was not possible due to the heavy load.
With 48 bells, the Chemnitz carillon has a range of four octaves. The largest bell weighs 957 kilograms and has a diameter of 1.12 metres. The smallest bell weighs 9.5 kilograms. All the bells together weigh 5200 kilograms.
The carillon is played by hand. The carillonneur sits at the console, a bench similar to an organ bench, and operates the keyboard with his feet and traditionally clenched right hand and open left hand. There is a key for each bell. The keys are larger than on a piano. They are connected to the clapper of the bell by a long steel wire. Only manual operation makes it possible to strike the bells both loudly and softly and with gradations.
The carillonneur usually plays every Wednesday and Saturday from 10 to 10.30 a.m. and on Fridays from 4.30 to 5 p.m., at the annual Christmas markets and on other special occasions. Peter Franz has been teaching carillonneurs since 2003 and they are now continuing his work.
Together with the brass band and the tower warden's call, which can be heard from the Old Town Hall tower, the Chemnitz carillon is known as the "Ringing Town Hall".
Interested citizens can view the instrument by appointment. Please send an e-mail to: chemnitzer-glockenspiel(at)web.de.
Special sounds from lofty heights
Sounds that come from above. But very few people know who plays the melodies. "People look, but they don't know what it actually is," says Franzpeter Uhlig, one of the three musicians responsible for the sounds from the tower of the New Town Hall. Together with Cornelia Blaudeck and Sebastian Liebold, he plays the carillon - a glockenspiel - high up, 60 metres above the market square to be precise.