There are such bells. And there are other bells. “This is a normal chime,” says Leonhard Hell, pointing to the large example in his glockenspiel room in Esslingen’s old town hall. It is made to vibrate and ring with a clapper inside – usually by rope. “And this is a glockenspiel bell.” It’s smaller, looks more filigree and is struck from the outside with a kind of hammer. “That’s why I’m not the bell ringer, but the chime player,” says Hell and laughs.
The bells are struck from the outside with hammers. | Image: Brigitte Gisel
The 43-year-old has been master of the 29 bells since 2021, which send songs from the town hall tower to the romantic old town of Esslingen five times a day. But he also plays live again and again. For example now in the Christmas season. Then Hell intoned the melodies on the keyboard in the glockenspiel room. The rest is modern technology: computer-controlled electrical impulses are sent to the magnets of the hammers on the bells. If the impulses were transmitted mechanically, he would be a carilloneur by profession.
The city affords its own carillon
During the daily performance times, however, the music comes “off the tape”. The 29 perforated tapes with the 216 arrangements of his predecessors have long since been digitized. As the caretaker of the glockenspiel, the employee of the Esslingen cultural office is also responsible for the preservation of the valuable originals.
What sets the Esslinger Glockenspiel apart from many others in other cities is that the city affords its own carillon and keeps the tradition of live concerts alive. After his honorary predecessors, Hell is the first permanently employed carillonneur in the city – part of his working time in the Esslinger cultural office is devoted to the bell room.
For the live concerts he can fall back on a further 290 compositions that his predecessor Eckart Hirschmann arranged for the glockenspiel between 1999 and 2020. It is mostly worldly sounds that can be heard there: folk songs, opera melodies, songs from the course of the year, melodies from the blue Vltava or green May.
Leonhard Hell works at the Esslingen Cultural Office and has been responsible for the live concerts of the carillon since 2021. | Image: Brigitte Gisel
The musical demands on a glockenspiel player should not be underestimated. Hell teaches school music at the conservatory, conducts several choirs in the region and works as an organist, including in the church in Zollberg. He has long since begun to write his own arrangements for the glockenspiel. The first could be heard during Advent. For example, “Now the Gentile Savior is coming” or “Now all you pious people rejoice.” The somewhat happier pieces are close to his heart. “The Germans are very reserved in their musical style when it comes to their Advent songs,” says the musician. On Christmas Eve he will sing “Oh Du Fröhliche” with the bells while the choir sings on the town hall square.
The old carillon table only has as many buttons as the game has bells. The new one is a modern keyboard. But that doesn’t mean that Hell could bring Michael Jackson to the carillon, for example. The instrument determines the framework: chords can only be reproduced in the form of arpeggios, he cannot play more than two voices – and then there are the overtones. If they overlap, it sounds weird. The bells also do not play along with dynamics with loud and soft tones.
The biggest instrument in town
Much is a matter of experience. “An arrangement can be correct in terms of music theory and still not sound dynamic,” says Hell. It’s the city’s largest instrument – and an incredibly public one. Hell got used to it like other peculiarities. “I can’t practice on the instrument,” says Hell. “Improvisation is also rather difficult.” The glockenspiel player practices on the keyboard at room volume or on the piano at home. How that sounds in public only becomes apparent in the concert. “But then you can tell whether people like it or not.”
The old town hall in Esslingen. Carillons ring out from the tower over the city. | Image: Brigitte Gisel
Concerts are part of the tradition of the Esslinger Glockenspiel. It’s not even that old. It was not until 1926 that the glockenspiel was installed in the ridge turret of the half-timbered building, donated by the citizens of Esslingen and consisting of 24 bells. The town hall, which was built as a department store and wheelhouse, was already 500 years old, and the Renaissance façade with the two-storey open ridge turret built by the Württemberg court master builder Heinrich Schickhardt was also more than 300 years old.
Until the 20th century, only the hourly striking bell and the quarter-hourly striking bell hung in the tower. In 1972 the carillon was renewed and expanded. Now it has 29 bells and a pitch range of more than two octaves. The Esslinger Glockenspiel has only one bell less than Stuttgart – and 20 more than Tübingen.
Leonard Hell’s love of carillons was aroused by his predecessor Hirschmann. He was looking for a successor – well over 80 years old. The music-loving Hell listened to him again and again and finally said yes. The Corona period also made public concerts on Rathausplatz more difficult. Now he hopes to be able to organize a new edition of the Turm und Klang festival next year. It is the only international carillon festival in Europe. The last edition was in 2019. At that time, musicians from all over Europe were guests in Esslingen for two days.
Does Hell have a favorite bell? Not that, he says. But tones that he particularly likes when playing glockenspiel. “F major and D major are comfortable,” he says. While in E flat major the frequency ratios are somewhat difficult. Even with the low C he is a bit strange. “This bell has a very special sound. You have to use them carefully.”
