Music at Augustinerkirche

The Austrian flag on the boat taking me to Hallstatt.

 
Right now, I'm eating some pasta, drinking some tea, and thinking about this morning.  I went to the Augustinerkirche in first district Vienna to hear my friend Bert sing in the choir for the Hummel Mass in Eb major as well as some Mendelssohn and Haydn during the offertory.  First of all, a little information on the Augustinerkirche.  It is quite well-known for putting on a full orchestral mass every Sunday.  That's right--orchestra, chorus, vocal soloists--every Sunday.  Since I'm working on both Hummel's and Haydn's trumpet concertos, as well as doing research on Haydn and enlightened absolutism as part of my travel grant here, I knew this was a must-see.  I enjoyed hearing the mass in the context of an actual mass.  It gave it a whole different feeling from hearing a mass in concert.  When I first came to Vienna, I came with some reserves toward the late eighteenth century classical music because it can sometimes sound too stuffy, too nice, too neat and organized.  I came here thinking I preferred the thick brooding chords of Bach and the drama of Handel.  Since being here though, I also have come to love equally the light runs and surprise crescendos of the eighteenth century classical style. The classical style has it's own drama, although it is sometimes not easily recognized under the comedic scenarios of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro or the musical jokes in Haydn's Surprise Symphony.  Despite its initial intent for appealing to a broad audience as light entertainment music, the classical style that developed is powerful and serious enough for liturgical music.  We hear it in Mozart's Requiem, and I also heard it in the Hummel mass today.  It was thrilling to listen to but also went deeper in a way that I used to think only baroque liturgical music could.

Walking back afterwards, I noticed a giant red bow being positioned on one of the builidings across from the opera house.  It is the size of a minivan!  It has been fun to watch Vienna transform into the holiday season.  Lights are being hung across Kartnerstrasse, small Christmas trees now line the Sacher Hotel, wooden stalls are popping up here and there selling warm chestnuts (maroni) and punsch (warm wine with fruit floating in it).  My friend Scotty visited last weekend from France, and we hit up the Christmas market in front of the Rathaus. There were lots of stalls selling toys, candy, candles, and warm hats.  We both stayed at one stall that had those metal puzzles where you try to separate the pieces from each other for a good fifteen minutes.  After that, we went and heard our favorite vocal group perform, The Real Group.  They blew our minds, simply put.

We also got to meet them afterwards!!!  Only 5 people are in the group but they sound like 15 when they sing because they are so tight and you hear the overtones and everything grooves like clockwork. Soooo good!

Normal picture...

We also went to a ball last weekend and saw some waltzing...and a bunch of random Austrians we didn't know!!

...Aannd our awkward picture!!!

It was nice to catch up with Scotty and talk about a cappella music since we both sang together last year.  Yeah, I missed that Geezer.

My friend Lindsey and her three friends (also from SCU) also visited a few weekends ago, but from London!  I had a great time showing them around Vienna!  I'm glad that I got to meet a few more girls from SCU and that we were able to see museums and eat Sachertorte together before they had to fly back.

Back in Vienna with Lindsey, Adrianne and Vyvynce! Michelle was taking the picture in this one but she was definitely there too!  I'll try to find a picture with all of us in it here...

Here we all are! This is at Cafe Central before they returned to London.  I made sure they had some Mozart coffee before they left.

What else is new?  Since I last wrote...oh! I turned 21 here in Vienna and went out to dinner at a gasthaus near St. Stephens.  My first legal drink was some house bier.  I was thinking I probably should have paid attention to what it was so I could tell people what my first drink was, but I guess I'll never know. Bier, that's it. I also had Halloween here and was Justin Bieber...this was a few days before the whole scandal about that woman claiming Justin Bieber was the father of her child...kind of crazy stuff.

"Oh my God it's Justin Bieber!"--"Oh my God it's an Austrian farmer!"

Speaking of crazy stuff, I watched the video about UC Davis and was completely appalled at the UC Davis administration and the police for turning peaceful protest into violence.  I cannot believe how the police acted--forcing some students to open their mouths and spraying pepper spray down their throats! Oh my God.  Watching that video made me realize how intense the situation is getting in the US.  I don't want to romanticize the protesting by any means because I realize that the UC system is bankrupt and is struggling with the pressure, but the top 400 wealthiest Americans could pay off ALL student loans (see the video at http://forgivestudentloandebt.com/content/400-richest-americans-can-pay-all-student-loans-and-still-remain-billionaires), and I think that it is great that students and professors are also taking a stand on this disproportion of wealth and opportunity in the US.  I mean, if you are a college student, you are already in the 10% of privileged people lucky enough to receive higher education, but the economic crisis is hitting education hard, and particularly the institutions like the UCs that are more economically feasible.

The movement has begun to take hold here in Europe, but not in Vienna as far as I've seen.  In comparison, a higher education (undergrad, grad and doctorate) is free here.  There are higher taxes and it is competitive naturally because of this, but if a student is qualified, money won't be what prevents them from an education.

I've gone off track a little bit from what I was initially going to say, which is that I have some pictures from Salzburg and Hallstatt, so I'll put them up here and now.

 A poor and unfortunate-looking adopted von Trapp child listening to the musical lessons of Maria in Salzburg

Salzach River, which runs past the Altstadt of Salzburg

On the boat to Hallstatt with the Austrian flag blowing in the wind

The view across the lake from Hallstatt

One poet wrote that he couldn't think of a more dangerous city than Hallstatt to be drunk because the ground turns into roofs, and roofs into ground.  It is true that some of the buildings are built practically into the mountainside.

View towards the town of Hallstatt.  The city itself is the oldest known area in Europe, with findings dating back to the Neolithic Stone Age, 12,000 BC.

This was our view from where we got lunch.  We think that the building across the way was a summer home of the Habsburgs Franz Joseph and Sissi.

Ninja cat at our restaurant!

Swans were imported to Hallstatt Lake because the Habsburg Princess Sissi was apparently very fond of them.  Swans are there to this day.

The buildings in Hallstatt look overgrown, almost like they could blend into the beautiful landscape.

Kelli, me, Peter and Bert at Hallstatt, playing freeze with the cars...it was quite fun actually

Kelli, Peter and me on our hike up to the waterfall.

Karlskirche.  Yi and I went up into the dome because they are doing construction and have an elevator to it right now.  I didn't like the height, but it was cool to see the paintings up close.  Just makes you baffled at how they built and painted something like that so long ago.

Yi took this picture of me in front of the Karlskirche

Christmas market at the Rathaus

 As I did with my first blog entry, I'll depart with another picture of the Rathaus, but this time with Christmas lights.  Hard to believe that it is already that time of year again, and that it was still summer the last time I took a good look at this building.  I've been abroad for over 100 days now and will be returning home for Christmas in about a month now.  I have to decide about an internship opportunity here in Vienna in the spring really soon, but in the meantime I'm treating every day like I only have a month left here.  Until next time, thanks for reading!