There are around 100 steps up to the north tower of St. Stephen’s Church. It is the smaller of the two towers. Pastor Anne Bremer explains that there would be a good twice as many on the observation deck of the south tower. There – at the very top – has always been the “stage” of the Aschersleben tower blowers in recent years. The reason why you choose half the distance this time is that Corona-Pandemie. In the north tower, the required distance rules between the musicians could simply be better adhered to.
Thus, at least the sporting challenge of climbing the tower for the tower blowers on Saturday and Sunday was rather limited. At 6 p.m. sharp – after the bell had stopped ringing – they pulled out all the stops to create a musical Advent atmosphere after the night had fallen as it was every year.
Christmas sounds for three quarters of an hour
About 30 people from Aschersleben wanted to watch the little concert from the “first row”. They had gathered in the Stephanikirchhof shortly before the start. At an appropriate distance. Finally, for three quarters of an hour, they were offered Christmas sounds. In addition to traditional melodies such as “Oh you happy”, “Open the door, the gate opens wide” or “Every year again”, the tower blowers also played lively music.
“Winter Wonderland” and “Rudolf the little reindeer” practically invited people to sing along. By the way, after each piece there was loud applause for the tower blowers from the music fans gathered in the churchyard.
Aschersleben tower blower tradition has probably been around for several hundred years
While some of them kept themselves warm with their mulled wine and hot children’s punch, it was more of a real challenge for the musicians to have the instruments in a perfect grip at a temperature just above freezing point. But – seasoned tower blowers are not fair-weather musicians.
The tradition of the Aschersleben tower blowers has probably been around for a few hundred years. Since the Baroque period, suspects cantor and tower blower Thomas Wiesenberg. Some stone carvings in the tower walls of the Stephanikirche suggested that they were made by former tower blowers.
Joint practice sessions could not always take place
In the GDR era, music was played every day from the church tower during Advent. That is no longer possible today. Because of the many inquiries from the region about concert performances by the musicians, explains Wiesenberg. “So we have at least reserved the weekends for the tower blowing in Ascherslebener.”
This year everything is different for the seasoned tower blowers too. Most concerts fell victim to the Corona crisis. Many joint practice sessions could not take place either. But that’s not a problem because the team has been working well for years. Even if the concerts are played with a changing line-up from time to time.
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Incidentally, on Sunday the performance of the tower blowers could be followed live on the MZ Aschersleben Facebook channel as part of a series of programs from Studio A. In addition, the Aschersleben radio station, Radio HBW 92.5, recorded the concert and will broadcast it to all friends of pre-Christmas music on Wednesday, December 8th, from 6:03 pm. (mz)
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