Day #82: Dublin

Today we had to begin our trek home to Vienna. But first we spent the day in Dublin! We had breakfast in Galway and trained back to Dublin. I threatened to jump out the window and force my travel companions to tell the world I fell off the Cliffs of Moher and they never found me, while I spent the rest of my years in the Irish countryside around Galway, practicing on the organ at the cathedral and living off of my talent and Irish hospitality. I did get to hear the organ at the Galway cathedral, by the way - we visited it yesterday and  there was an organ concert going on. So I got to hear the organ - the organist was very talented! He played a piece that was based on Psalm 33, which I plan to research a little more when I have more free time. It was one of those modern, dissonant but cool dissonant pieces. 

When we first arrived in Dublin we dropped our bags off at our hostel, then we attempted to find the tomb of the venerable Matt Talbot, a holy man who was a reformed alcoholic. But the church his tomb was supposedly in was locked, so we couldn't go inside. Our next stop was the Irish Writers Museum, where we learned about James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, and other Irish writers. They also had the chair that Handel sat in when they first performed his Messiah, which was first performed in Dublin at Christ Church. The museum also had an exhibit of several paintings by the artist Jonathan Barry, who has done several illustrations for some very famous books from The Chronicles of Narnia to The Lord of the Rings to the Sherlock Holmes novels. They were excellent. I loved his illustrations for Sherlock Holmes. 

We wanted to see if we could go to a vigil Mass at the cathedral rather than rushing back for Mass the next day, so we set out to find St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral. As we approached the cathedral we noted an advertisement for a concert of St. John's Passion by J.S. Bach being performed the next day - naturally, the day we were gone! :-P BUT, when we asked about Mass, which was at 6 pm, the gentleman told us that they were rehearsing the Passion in the cathedral right then. So we snuck into the church, took a back pew, and I got to listen to about an hour and a half of the rehearsal, which was fabulous! The musicians and the singers were very talented! I really hope I can see the St. John's Passion performed some day! Perhaps in Vienna... The music for the Vigil Mass was interesting. I've heard that that the Catholic Church in Ireland is going through a situation similar to that in the U.S. right now, which was noticeable. They did the Kyrie in Gaelic, though, which was interesting. And then some of their hymns I could have sworn I was listening to Celtic Women - hopefully not... But it was neat to have had the opportunity to go to Mass there, and at the end of Mass the organist played Bach's Prelude and Fugue in a minor, which was AWESOME!!!! 

Day 77: London

Today we went to Solemn Mass at Westminster Cathedral here in London. The Mass was said in English with Latin propers and ordinaries. The Cathedral was very beautiful, you can look up some of the music from their choir on youtube - I highly recommend it! Their choir sounds gorgeous! They played a Bach Prelude in Eb major at the end of Mass. I ran into Hannah briefly at the cathedral, but we had to run to get to the British Museum, where we saw the Rosetta Stone!  I got a postcard of Raphael's Virgin and Child (which was originally there, I guess, but now its at the National Gallery), and I also got a mug with some Persian poetry on it. It was much bigger than I thought it was going to be! After the museum we went to Vespers at the Brompton Oratory. They sang Vespers according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite and had Benediction afterwards. The Brompton Oratory was one of my favorite churches, I think. It was a modest Baroque church. When we first entered the church, the air was misty from the incense from Sunday Mass. The music was, again, very beautiful. The organist played Bach's Prelude and Fugue in E Minor "The Cathedral" afterwards, one of my favorite Bach pieces. My organ professor went to both the Cathedral and the Oratory when he lived here in London, and had recommended both of them to me. He used to practice on the organ at the oratory, so it was cool to hear it. After Vespers we went back to the cathedral for a half-hour organ concert. The organist played Buxtehude, Bach, and a more modern composer. They have one of the best organs in the country, so I enjoyed hearing it. We went to a bar and grill for dinner, where two of us got fish and chips. I got a sandwich and a cider, which was pretty good.
I also got a pipe today for really cheap. It's very plain, small, but hand-carved - and since I probably won't use it, it serves its purpose. ;-) We're off to Oxford tomorrow, than we have to travel back to London to take our ferry to Dublin, Ireland. We will be traveling on the ferry overnight. It's going to be a long, crazy day tomorrow, so pray for us!

Day #15: More Salzburg and Mondsee

Our last morning in Salzburg, we attempted to go to a Mozart Vespers Service, but it ended up being a Mozart Mass, or Vespers selections in the context of Mass? I don't know. It was beautiful music though. We could only stay for part of the Mass though as we had to book it to get to the Cathedral for the Mass the school was attending. The Mass at the Salzburg Cathedral was also gorgeous, and also featured a Mozart orchestral Mass. I think it was in C Major (Joey Walsh thought it was no. 11, I'm not sure where he got that number). The Credo had a Circle of Fifths progression... 

*note-to-self: Must look up Mozart orchestral Masses in C Major...

The organ was absolutely gorgeous, and it was wonderful to hear Professor Metzger play that huge instrument in the choir loft. His chorale preludes were fun to listen to as well. After the Mass it looked like a tour group was going to have a private Mass. There was an organist and a clarinet player (or oboe, I forget which) that ascended the organ loft on the left (see the above photo), and started to play this beautiful, modern, ethereal sounding piece. Salzburg is just full of beautiful music and experiences! I wonder what would happen if you just sat in the cathedral for a Sunday afternoon what sort of music you would hear!

After Mass we climbed onto the buses to return home to Gaming, but not without making a stop at a small town called Mondsee. We had lunch, which included an apple strudel!

 

After lunch we were given an hour to explore the city. The city featured a lake and a beautiful church dedicated to St. Michael, which was where they filmed the altar for the wedding ceremony in The Sound of Music! The cloister part of the movie was built in Hollywood, but the altar is featured in the movie. It was a beautiful church, with lots of gold, black, and pink, which I thought gave it a bit of a Spanish feel. There were so many side altars! My favorite one is featured below. It was towards the left of the Church, with a painting of the Holy Face on the altar, and a painting of the scourged Christ. There was a bouquet of roses before the image of the Christ. This altar was my favorite part of the Church. 

I wish I could have seen the lake, too, but I was glad to spend most of my time in the church. There's so much to see and so little time! It's not fair. :-( The trip back was long and tiring. It was good to be back home away from home in Gaming.

Day #13: Salzburg

The St. Francis Church in Salzburg

Gruss Gott! I had a lovely weekend in Salzburg, Munich (yes, I decided to go), and the small Austrian town of Mondsee!  We left for Salzburg at about 8:00 on Friday morning. The drive there was positively stunning! It looked like a magical winter wonderland with the snow covered pines blanketing the mountainsides, with the snowy peaks of the Alps in the distance. I ended up sitting in front of a good friend of mine and we ended up discussing beauty and the liturgy for a good part of the trip.

A miniature of the St. Francis Church Organ

I had read an article for Art Appreciation titled, "On Beauty," written by a professor of Notre Dame University, in which he stated that beauty is objective, and compared it to the sweetness of sugar. Sugar has the objective property of sweetness, regardless of whether or not the person is able to taste it. The person may be sick so he tastes the sweet as sour, or he may have a poorly developed sense of taste, but that does not change the fact that the sugar is still sweet. Similarly, something can be beautiful and a person not appreciate the beauty of the object. He may need to develop a taste for beauty, or he may in fact have a liking or a tendency to like ugly things - that can happen, too, you know. I think that the tendency to like or appreciate ugly things is rampant in our culture these days. But it is such a controversial issue: some people think that beauty is subjective, while others believe that it doesn't matter. I'm not sure which is worse. So what happens when people like Beethoven, Mozart, Joshua Bell, Itzaak Perlmann have dedicated their lives to Beauty. What's the point? Are they wasting their time, their efforts? Hardly, I should think. Beauty is objective, like truth and goodness. Beauty clothes the truth and draws the heart to it. It is the beauty of the liturgy, of the truth that draws people to it. Sorry, some food for thought, I suppose.
When we arrived in Salzburg, we could see the castle overlooking the city, built on the hill, a vast white monument to the history and beauty of the city. I followed Sister Joan Paul to the Fransicanerkirche where we were supposed to have Mass. I had been told that I was going to have the opportunity to play the organ there before and after Mass, so I wanted to get there early enough to check it out and play around with the stops. When we arrived, the dulcet tones of the organ were sounding the last note. A model of the organ stood near the front of the church. Sister took me to the sacristy where there was a little German Franciscan friar. She asked him in German where the stairs to the organ were, and he pointed to a door at the other end of the sacristy leading to a long stairway. The sacristy was located all the way to the sanctuary, so the stairs reached all the way from near the sanctuary to the far back of the church. Through a hallway lay the magnificent instrument. It was a newer instrument and kept in good condition! We passed a small private chapel where an organist was seated at a smaller organ. I ended up having to ask a Franciscan friar to help me turn on the instrument, and the organist came in and kindly told me in German the different manuals and couplers. I nodded though I only understood only a few words, like Ruckpositif and Couplers. Then I sat down to play Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus (of course) with some flutes, and moved on to Bach's Prelude in E Minor (The Cathedral), when a bell rang right as I went to the second page. Mass was starting! And the Bishop of Salzburg was there! Our Music Ministry started singing Be Thou My Vision and their lovely voices reverberated through the church. I felt like I was stepping back in time to another century, with the Baroque elegance of the church and the sweet notes of the hymn.
It was the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas, so after Fr. Brad gave the homily the bishop came up and said a few words on the importance of reason to the Catholic faith, which I felt was perfect as my friend and I had just talked about the necessity of reason to Catholicism today. He told a story from Chesterton's Fr. Brown anecdotes, where a man had pretended to be a priest and said Mass nearly perfectly, but Fr. Brown caught him. "How did you know? I thought I did it perfectly!" the man said. "You did," Fr. Brown responded, "But you preached against reason in your homily, and that is not Catholic."

The organ at St. Francis Church

After Mass, I let her fly, fifth gear full throttle! Started with a Baroque piano piece I had learned a long time ago - take it slow, build it up. Plus I knew I couldn't mess that one up too badly if the bishop was still listening... Then I did the Prelude in E Minor, which doesn't have too hard of a pedal part. (I haven't touched a real pedal board in weeks), and finished with the Fugue in C Major from BWV 545, one of my recital pieces. It was rough, but not too shabby, and by that point I didn't care, it was just fun to play that instrument! What a sound! Sister said having two organ majors here is certainly making it a memorable semester! *Sigh* I would love to get the music program over here. This would be such a unique opportunity for students to experience. Maybe some day.

The streets of Salzburg!

The Church where the bread turned to stone

The bread that turned to stone!

The cemetery which inspired the scene in The Sound of Music. They built the set in Hollywood.

The fountain from the Sound of Music, but it's all covered up. :-(

The oldest restaurant in Europe (381 AD), also where the Mozart family would come to dine.

After Mass was lunch and a tour of the city. We saw a statue of St. Florian one of the patron saints of the city, and visited a few churches. One of the churches had a loaf of bread that had been turned to stone when one of the parishoners decided to stay home and bake bread instead of go to Mass on Sunday.  then went to check in to our hostel. The hostel was super nice, def. not like the ones we'll be staying in on our own trips, I'm sure, so I enjoyed it while it lasted. The room was small, but clean and warm and bright. During our free time, a few friends and I went to the Mozart Museum. There are actually two, but we went to the one which was the birthplace of Mozart, No. 9 on the most famous street in Salzburg. It had an original manuscript of one of his Kyrie's ( I think from his Mass in Eb Major). I sight read the soprano part through the glass and Elizabeth laughed at me. "You can't keep it from me that easily!" We could only stay an hour there though, as I had a very important appointment at the Cathedral with my friend Annie.

The Mozart Museum + his birthplace

My organ professor Dr. Weber from school had put Annie and I in contact with an organist and teacher at the Mozarteum, one of the finest conservatories in Europe located here in Salzburg. (BTW, the von Trapp house used in the Sound of Music is actually one of the dormitories for the Conservatory). Thus, we were able to arrange a visit with the Professor to go and look at the different organs in the Salzburg cathedral. We met him in front of the Cathedral around 5 pm. He was a little man dressed in black with a cute German accent. At first I wasn't sure it was him, but we finally approached him and asked if he was Professor  Metzger, which he was, of course. He was happy to see us, although he had been expecting a whole group of students, not just the two of us. But he was happy to shepherd us into the cathedral. We walked to the center of the nave, near the sanctuary above the dome, where there were four organs on little balconies surrounding us, and then the big organ in the choir loft in the back. He asked us, "How many organs do you see?" We counted five. "There are actually seven," he said, and pointed to one of the balconies which had two little organs, and then there was a tuning organ near one of the side altars. The organs were all either well-tempered, mean-tempered, or equal temperament (FYI, there are different ways of tuning instruments. Most pianos are equal temperament). He gave us a brief history of the instruments and the cathedral, then, rubbing his hands together gleefully asked, "Now, where shall we start?"
We decided to start with the organ on the far right corner (in reference to the sanctuary). There were two organs there, a really small one and then a "less" smaller one, but still pretty tiny. It was well tempered, and get this, it had two different keys for the D# and the Eb, and a few other sharps and flats. I had never seen anything like it before in my life! The organ had a lot of Italian stops (not sure what makes an Italian stop, will find out). The last five notes on the left of the keyboard were arranged differently though to be five notes of a scale, so what normally would have been an F, F#, G, G# was actually a C, D, F, E, G. It's really bizarre but it's supposed to be for base note reasons, I think Professor Metzger said. The next organ we visited was a replica of the one that Mozart would have played during his years working at the cathedral. It was located on the right closest to the sanctuary, across from the one we had just visited. This one had two manuals and a pedal board, which was the same size as the one here in Gaming (only in tune, LOL, whatever that means). Then we got to see the king of the organs, the big one in the choir loft. The organ was magnificent! This one was tuned to equal temperament, too! I got to play my Prelude and Fugue in C Major BWV 545 on it. THAT was one of the most incredible experiences of my life! That instrument was so beautiful. When I finished the last chord, it drifted slowly, slowly into silence as it reverberated against the walls of the church.
Alas, after that we had to go to get dinner before the Mozart chamber music concert that evening. But it was such a great opportunity to get to meet Professor Metzger, he was so kind to show us around. I could tell he was enjoying it just as much as we were, though. You could see in his face how much he loved sharing the cathedral, its instruments, and its music with us.

The first organ we saw. Notice the extra key for the D#, Eb, and for the A#, Bb.

Annie playing the Mozart organ, w/ Professor Metzger

The big organ!

We got dinner at a little Italian cafe. It seemed like a popular hang out for musicians. There were so many different languages being spoken around us: Italian, German, British English, French. It was so interesting!

The Italian cafe. I like the Venetian touch: San Marco (the cathedral in Venice). Has a nice musical connection, no?

The concert was incredible, the performers were top-notch - of course, after all, it is Salzburg! They played a Mozart chamber piece, some selections from his operas Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute, then transitioned to the Romantic Period with a Beethoven Concerto for piano and violin, and a Cesar Franck Concerto for the same instruments. The Cesar Franck concerto was definitely my favorite. It was a neat contrast to compare Beethoven, Mozart, and Franck's pieces in juxtaposition to each other.
After the concert we went to the Augustiner Keller, a famous brewery in Salzburg. You had to pick a half or full pint off of a huge shelf, pay for it, then rinse it out in this fountain and take it to the bar tender who filled it from a huge keg. It was pretty good, for my first beer! The brewery was interesting, too. It was kinda dark and smelly. It reminded me of what would happened if you took the Golden Hall of Theoden King in Rohan and transformed it into the Prancing Pony. Definitely a great day! No wonder Mozart and Bach wrote such good music, they had great music all around them, great landscapes for inspiration, and good brewed drinks to go along with it. ;-)

Day #4: Gaming, Organ News!

Today was definitely one of my favorite days so far, despite the rain, and yes, it does have something to do with music. ;-) We started with another Orientation meeting about the school-sponsored trips around Europe, then we got our books and our laundry baskets. Today's highlight was a little tour of the city of Gaming, thus today I learned the locations of the illustrious grocery store, Spar (pronounced Shpar in German), the local pub, Urs, the ever so important ATM machines, and Book Mountain. During the tour I walked with a girl named Justina, an LCI student from Lithuania who is studying English and Theology at the Kartause. She will be in my Art Appreciation and my Christian Marriage classes. She was super nice and her English was excellent! The city itself is very cute! There's a little stream that runs next to the shops.
The highlight of the tour was Mass at the church in Gaming. The church is very, very old, older than the Kartause (which was built in the 1300s, to give you an idea). I didn't get to look around at the actual artwork much yet, or take many pictures, so hopefully those will follow soon.  After Mass we met the parish priest, Father Franz, a cute little German man, who was gracious enough to permit us to practice on the organ!!!! It's a small yet beautiful instrument, and the pitch isn't that off! It's better than the piano in the St. Francis Hall or the organ in the Maria Thron! Annie and I went up to look at it and try it out. The stops are very old, of course, but you had to pull them out and they were little blocks of wood with knobs on the end. You could hear the stops working behind you in the wind chests! The pedal board goes from E2 to A3 (I think, don't quote me on that though), which was better than I had hoped. The keys are harder to play, but I expected that. It was so wonderful to be able to play it though! Annie and I are hoping to go down and practice a lot, but we'll see how it goes with classes and such. We were elated though: we got to play on an organ that Mozart played on!!! How cool is that?!
Classes start tomorrow: Christian Marriage at 8:40 with Dr. Asci, followed by Foundations of Ethics with a new professor they brought in. We also have Mass with the bishop tomorrow! Sister Joan Paul asked me to play the final hymn on the organ in the Kartause, as they've never had an organist here! Wish me luck and say a prayer for me! Pictures will soon follow!

Day #3: The Kartause

This afternoon we went on a tour of the Kartause (which actually means Charter House, fyi). We started the day off with an Orientation meeting, meeting some of the staff, and a tour of the dorms and the classrooms. The tour was given by my Art Appreciation professor, Prof. Healy. We began in the chapel titled Maria Thron (pronounced “Maria Trone”) which means Maria Throne. This is demonstrated particularly in a statue within the sanctuary itself which depicts Mary with the Child Jesus in her lap. God is enthroned in her lap. Also, though, Mary is enthroned in heaven as Queen. The statue is a copy of an original statue at the most famous Marian Shrine in Austria, Mariazell, which I may be visiting later in the semester. 

The original ceiling was a Gothic ceiling built in the 1400s and was fifteen feet higher than the ceiling in the Maria Thron now. The Gothic style was focused on lifting the eyes and the mind towards heaven, so the church is in fact three times as high as it is wide. The second ceiling was built later as the Carthusian monks were claiming that the draft was making them sick because of the cold. 

The dome over the sanctuary of the Kartause was from the Renaissance Period, but it is only apparent on the interior of the chapel : outside it is  a Gothic steeple. The dome was built because it is circle and a circle was representative of heaven, and it is in the sanctuary that heaven touches earth during the divine liturgy. 

In the early 1700s, the paintings on the ceiling were done of the Carthusian founder, St. Bruno. The Carthusians had inhabited the monastery since the 1300s, but they were forced to leave when Emperor Joseph II closed the Kartause in 1782. The emperor closed down any order that he did not believe was doing anything actively useful for society, such as teaching. The Carthusians are a very contemplative order, thus they were closed. The Kartause thus fell into disrepair and was later desecrated when the Russians came to the city and used it as their stable.

In 1983 the architect Hildebrand bought the Kartuase and began renovating it. He later invited the Franciscan University of Steubenville to found a study abroad program here.

We also saw the Baroque library, which had lots of lovely paintings on the ceiling. The Carthusian monks only slept for 3-hour periods and would get up in the middle of the night for prayer, so outside one of the windows of the library we could see, instead of a sun dial, a MOON dial. You learn something new every day! 

A photo of the ceiling from the Baroque library. The central dome was dedicated to the liberal arts. The group in the center is a group of musicians (Brian called them Baroque music ministry, LOL).

The moon dial

We got to go up above the ceiling to see the original ceiling, the beams and the arches. There were two levels: the topmost level was very very dark, while the other was lit by windows and you could see the decorated original painted ceiling. They let us go around the beams to see through the windows to the outside. I have never been so scared in my whole life! You had to cling to the walls as you scooted around the ledge (and I mean a small ledge) until you reached a small passageway between the windows and walls looking outside and the windows and walls looking inside. There was graffiti from the Russians all over the walls of this passageway - they said the Russians came up here and wrote their names because it was considered a feat to get to this place. I could see why! Fortunately Craig, one of the RAs, was around for me to hold onto when it was a little too much, although I think sometimes Craig was just as scared as I was. 

The top most level of the ceiling

The lower of the roof, where we were walking across the actual ceiling, and the ledge we had to climb across to get to the  tower. SCARY! You can see the guy in the black sweater climbing into the cranny between the outer and the inner wall. The cranny goes all the way around the tower to the other side where you have to creep across the ledge again to get back.

A photo shot from the window inside the layer. 

A Russian autograph in the tower wall.

The next stop was the museum, which contained a few altars from the original church. There was no pictures of the original organ though. :-( The original sanctuary was beautiful though, very dark and ornate compared to the original! They also showed us the two side chapels. One of them was more modern, finished in 2009, while the one above it was much older, but both were very simple. 

The final part of the tour was the Byzantine chapel on campus. This was my favorite part of the tour, I think. The written icons were incredibly beautiful, and the way they made the space seem symmetrical and balanced despite the dissimilarities and the imperfections of the room itself was a great accomplishment! The imagery all over the chapel was wonderful, as well. I think I might come there to pray a lot during the semester! 

I ate dinner with one of the LCI students (people from foreign countries who come here to study Catholicism and learn English). He was an older priest by the name of Father Andrej from Slovakia who was working in Siberia until he had a heart attack. Then his boss gave him a year off to go study and such. He was very sweet, and wanted to know about my family and their names and such. His mother was named Emily! 

We had our organ auditions tonight! They went well, but the little electric organ in the choir loft is also tuned differently, so that’ll be an adjustment, esp. for the choir. The space is magnificent, but we're really going to have to be careful to make sure our vowels are very good, otherwise we'll go flat very quickly. :-P Well, people say that Austria is full of new challenges, I guess I shouldn't be surprised to find them even in the choir loft! Sister also said we could use the electric keyboard in her office for practicing. Yay for middle C, right where it should be!

I guess we’ll manage somehow. Practicing in Gaming is also in the works. I met with the go-between between the Kartause and the Gaming parish church and she said we would need to speak with Father Franz. Perhaps we will meet with him tomorrow when we take the tour of Gaming. Mass tomorrow will also be in the Gaming parish church. Looking forward to seeing that organ!