John Widmann can play ‘‘The Star-Spangled Banner” with his feet.
When you next hear the sound of the national anthem pouring out of the Joseph Dill Baker carillon tower in Baker Park on a quiet Sunday afternoon, you’ll know it’s him, using his toes and half-closed fists to strike the keys.
At the top of the green, spiraling staircase inside the 70-foot-tall stone tower at Baker Park, Widmann sits at the keyboard to play the carillon, a musical instrument of 49 finely tuned bells arranged in chromatic sequence. The only bells he does not play are the five automatic ones that ring on the hour every day.
Widmann, 44, plays informal half-hour recitals every Sunday at noon for anyone passing through Baker Park, striking the keys that connect to the clappers inside the carillon bells, which can be seen through a man-sized hole in the ceiling.
‘‘You get a thrill out of it in that if you make a mistake, they’ll hear it for blocks,” Widmann said on Sunday.
Widmann has been Frederick’s carillonneur for nearly 16 years, almost as long as he has lived in the city. He is the third person to hold the paid position since the instrument and tower were built in 1941.
Widmann became a certified carillonneur in 1996 after studying under a carillonneur at Washington National Cathedral. On average, he plays 55 carillon recitals a year, rain or shine, hot or cold. These include special city events from the Kris Kringle Procession in December to Frederick’s Fourth in July.
When he’s not playing the carillon or the organ at Frederick Presbyterian Church, Widmann is teaching music at Yellow Springs Elementary and Tuscarora Elementary.
Widmann said he keeps the door open during his recitals for the curious to climb the staircase and watch him play. Choosing from a loose stack of music on the bench, Widmann began Sunday’s recital with a transcription of Johann Sebastian Bach’s ‘‘Overture No. 3,”which was originally written for orchestra.
He plays a wide range of musical genres, from ancient and contemporary original carillon music to hymns and popular music that is transcribed for the carillon. Not every type of music is suited for the carillon since its physical properties differ from other instruments such as the piano, Widmann said. For example, music written in minor keys has a sad quality on a piano, but on a carillon, ‘‘minor music is happy music,” he noted.
After playing the theme to ‘‘Beauty and the Beast,” Widmann brought out the piece of he plays at the end of every recital – ‘‘The Star Spangled Banner.”
‘‘And that brings us to what everyone is waiting for – the end,” he said with a laugh.
By the numbers
Joseph Dill Baker Carillon:
49: number of bells
3,400 lbs: largest bell
100 lbs: largest clapper
22 lbs: smallest bell
