Every holiday season since 1979, Robert Gift has plinked out Christmas and Hanukkah songs on the wooden keyboard that controls huge bells in the tower of Denver’s City and County Building.
But this year, he’s looking for a little help with the holiday standbys, played in 10 notes in the key of C.
“We need fresh meat, new ideas and someone to share in the joy of it,” said Gift, who works as a chimney sweep and emergency medical technician.
Gift has moved farther away from the bells, donated to the city by Kate Speer in memory of her husband, former Mayor Robert Speer, so he’s cutting back his hours at the console.
Over the years, a few volunteers have helped put peals of holiday music into the air around Civic Center, but their ranks have thinned. Now the city is seeking new volunteers who have experience playing the piano or organ to help fill in the gaps.
The search for volunteers began in August when Suzi Latona, facilities manager for the city, began asking local churches and Denver Public Schools for help, but she got nowhere.
But word got out. Latona’s office received dozens of offers Wednesday from people between the ages of 14 and 83 willing to spend a few hours making the big bells — the C weighs 5,000 pounds — sing.
“No less than 10 people under age 17, who are musically talented kids, have offered to play,” Latona said. “I told them they’d have to learn how to tweet some of the music, but they said they’re accustomed to doing that.”
Gift, 58, discovered the bells 30 years ago when he stopped to look at the holiday lights at the building and overhead a conversation about the bells.
The classically trained organist wrote a letter to Mayor Bill McNichols asking permission to see the bells, some of which have been around since 1932 but were used only to mark hours and quarter hours.
Imagining he would find that the magnificent bells were played in the clock tower, Gift instead found a dust-covered wooden keyboard that had been placed inside a small closet with an old vacuum-tube intercom system that took two minutes to warm up before the bells could be heard ringing in the tower four stories above.
But Gift was still pleased. He offered to play summer tunes at noon, but the mayor thought it would be best if he played when the holiday lights were turned on in December.
Since 1979, Gift has played Christmas standards such as “Jingle Bells,” “Joy to the World” and “Frosty the Snowman,” tossing in the occasional Hanukkah song.
He also has played on nonholiday occasions. In honor of Johann Sebastian Bach’s 300th birthday, he played, “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring;” on Cinco de Mayo, “La Paloma;” and “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” when the city was in the process of wooing Major League Baseball to town.
But playing tunes on the carillon, which marks time with the famous “Westminster Chime of Cambridge” each day, isn’t easy. The instrument has only 10 notes and has left some volunteers struggling.
“This organ is best suited for songs in the key of C,” Gift said.
Annette Espinoza: 303-954-1655 or aespinoza@denverpost.com
Ring it on!
Volunteers who are at least 18 years old or are younger and can be accompanied by a parent and who have their own holiday sheet music and the ability to play the songs in the key of C can sign up by e-mailing their credentials to Suzi Latona at suzi.latona@denvergov.org.
The shifts run 45 minutes Monday through Friday at noon, and at 7:30 p.m. daily, Nov. 26 through Dec. 25.
Assignments will be made on a first-come, first-served basis. Training will occur on a Sunday, date and time to be determined.
Robert Gift will be at the controls at least part of the time. He’ll play during the official lighting of the holiday lights at the City and County Building on Nov. 27, and then the evenings of Dec. 11, 12 and 13, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
