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 #11: A Vector, Snow, and Palestrina

Guten Abendt! Good evening! Classes are going well! German is my favorite, I think. Professor Franz Schneider teaches it. He's a native Austrian, a sweet older man. Today he gave us Mozart Kogel (pronounced Kool), these little truffle candies with Mozart wrappers, because tomorrow is Mozart's birthday! We went over his dates. He said, "How long did he live? Only 35 years! Imagine what he would have done if he had lived longer!" I turned to one of my classmates and said, "The world couldn't have contained such genius!" Some things I've learned in German class: English is the most dominant language b/c of British Imperialism, and that Germans capitalize their nouns!


Physics is so easy it's hard! The professor doesn't give us any math b/c most people don't like it, so he's just giving us concepts to work with. I guess other people appreciate it, but I don't like it. I WANT Math! It doesn't have to be hard. It's simple formulas. Today we had a little. We had our first quiz today. I think I did okay, but not sure. We were learning about pressure, and our professor did an experiment on camera. I had to laugh when we learned about vectors though. "Because I am committing crimes with DIRECTION - and - MAGNITUDE! OH YEAH!" (Despicable Me reference, FYI)

I'm enjoying Art Appreciation. I know a lot of it already, or a lot of it is at least familiar, so it's nice. We're learning about the Ancient Greek Period. It's cool because the art is divided into four major periods: Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Modern. I know some about the Renaissance period and the dates for the Baroque because of Music History class! It's fascinating how they overlap. Our text book has sections on drama and music along with the art, but we're only supposed to read the specifically art sections. :-( There's so much I want to learn and so little time! I wish I could read them...

Foundation of Ethics is hard, but I like the professor. I have Brian to help me, too, and Joey Walsh. Joey tried to explain the difference between phenomenology and thomism to me a few days ago. We established that evil is the absence of good rather than existing in and of itself. This is what happens when you take a philosophy course: your whole thought process gets turned upside down. Christian Marriage is hard too, but Dr. Asci is a great teacher!

It's been snowing almost every day here. Today and yesterday it was a little warmer though, so it's melted some. To those who live in the Pennsylvania area around Lake Erie, this is like lake effect on crack! SO MUCH SNOW! And it's so pretty! Annie and I walk through the town to go practice at the church in Gaming, and we feel like we're walking through one of those decorative Christmas villages. There's a little winding stream through the village with bridges weaving over it. There's fish in the stream - but you need a license to fish in it. One of the prethes, Josh, is really tempted to fish in it. 


We had our first Music Ministry Mass today with our "traditional" choir as Sister calls it. It went beautifully! I played organ and so did Annie, and we sang hymns and such. I love singing and playing for Mass here: it's like therapy. Our practices are on Monday night, just like Schola back at school! Father Brad, one of the TORs came up to say hi during our rehearsal on Monday and said how lovely we sounded. He asked if we knew any Palestrina and I about died! Palestrina was one of the greatest Catholic composers from the Renaissance Period, although he is rarely heard in the typical Catholic Church these days. He said he loves Palestrina and he wants us to sing some of his music for his birthday! Fortunately I even had a Palestrina piece on hand! We're going to try to learn it, I think. Mark Daniels, Hannah, Annie, Elizabeth, Holly, Brian, and Nathan and I make up the choir. Mark pulled me aside last night, excitedly, and said he had found a Victoria Ave Maria for free online, and he was hoping to try it! It made my heart happy. He and I are looking forward very much to the new translation of the Mass in Advent. 

We're going to be singing for the Friday Mass in Salzburg this weekend, and the bishop might be there! Yikes! Sister is trying to get permission for Annie and I to play the organ. *fingers crossed* I'm excited that we might get to play it, but I hope I don't embarrass myself in front of the bishop of Salzburg! We may get to meet with the organ professor that Dr. Weber put me in contact with while we're in Salzburg as well. I might just stay in Salzburg the whole weekend, rather than going to Munich on Saturday. We'll see. I hate being dragged from one church to another without really SEEING them.