Day 4 - Let the Classes Begin

In a letter to Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang’s father, dated 11, September, 1778, Mozart said “I assure you that without travel we (at least men of the arts and sciences) are miserable creatures.  A man of mediocre talent will remain mediocre whether he travel or not; but a man of superior talent (which I cannot deny I am, without doing wrong) deteriorates if he remains continually in one place.”  I am by no means a man of superior talents but I can certainly understand Herr Mozart’s point.  In my second full day in Vienna I find that I am more energized towards my work than I’ve been in years.  Two informative lectures, a fascinating art museum, fantastic food, leisurely strolls throughout the city, a foiled mugging and friendly company!  Could you ask for a more complete day?

Where shall I start? Chronological order would make the most sense, but I could group it by activity. . . meals together, lectures together, and like that?  Or perhaps. . . .  Do you know I can almost hear some of you sitting in front of your computers saying “Mugging?  What happened?  So okay, I will start with the “lead story tonight.”

After class a few of us decided to go to have a light lunch and then the art museum.  We crossed the street to a small grocery store to purchase sandwiches.  I had eaten a large breakfast and wasn’t very hungry so I purchased a soda and waited outside for my colleagues.  While standing there I hear a ruckus behind me and turn around to see a man in his mid 30’s(who for the sake of this story I will call Hans although I do not know his true name) beating the expletive out of a younger man who looked to be mid 20’s ( and for the sake of the story I will call him Franz.)  Hans was yelling something at Franz and then yanked on   Franz’s backpack taking it from him.  Franz ran off down the street without his backpack.  Hans than began rummaging through the pack.  He pulled out a green wallet said something to me and handed me the wallet.  I replied “Nein” although I don’t know what it was he said to me.

Another man standing on the corner with me had his back to this event and was digging through his own pack.  Hans tapped him on the shoulder and asked “Ist das Ihre?”   (At least I think that’s what he said.)  The man replied “Ya, Danke, Sehr” (I know I got that one right.) And finally what I had witnessed made sense to me.  Hans did not mug Franz.  Franz picked the pocked of the man looking through his pack.  Hans saw it happen and tried to stop Franz.  There weren’t any police around and this private individual stood up for a complete stranger.  Franz got away. . . with nothing and Hans made a complete stranger happy.

Now, on to the rest of my day; and what a great day it was!

I was up very late last night working on the blog and didn’t crawl into bed until around 1:00 am.  The alarm was set to go off at 6:15 am.  Not a great night’s sleep, but I’ve had shorter ones.  At 5:45 the morning sun came streaming through the window and I woke up to a lovely morning feeling amazingly refreshed.  I cleaned up, and went to breakfast.  The hotel provides two kinds of sausage, bacon, eggs, yogurt, granola, cereal, tea, coffee, assorted breads and Danish, various jams, jellies, fruit compote and my personal favorite, chocolate hazelnut cream, along with fresh fruit and various other things.  It’s substantial and allows you to get the day started without much fuss.

I was the first of our group to arrive at breakfast and was soon joined by Dick and Julane (the director and his wife), Jim (the institute secretary), Eric from Albuquerque (not to be confused with Eric from Hawaii), Tina from the US Virgin Islands and John from Missoula Montana.  All of them are teachers of some sort or another but I won’t bore you with their individual expertise.

We made small talk, ate well, and planned to meet at 8:30 for the walk to the classroom.  Our classroom is in the Schottenstift.  It is an historic church and monastery that has been around since before Mozart’s time.  

                                

The monastery was founded in the mid 1100’s but I am unable to find the exact date of construction for this particular building.  Mozart died in 1791 so the building is more than 200 years old.  If one of you adventurous people with more time on your hands would like to look up the construction date, please leave it as a comment so we will all know.

Our first day of class started with a guest lecturer from the University of Vienna, Dr. Thomas Fröschl.  Dr. Fröschl is an historian and specializes in the enlightenment in Vienna.  Today he discussed what Vienna was like in that time, complete with maps of the area.  It turns out that, although buried in a pauper’s grave, Mozart was not actually poor during most of his life in Vienna.  He maintained an extensive subscription from wealthy patrons, taught lessons, and received commissions from the Emperor Joseph II.

Joseph was a bit of an enigma.  He was devoutly catholic, yet believed in many aspects of the enlightenment.  He encouraged his subjects to consider themselves equal to the nobility, but crushed what little self government the people had.  He loved music and was a strong patron of the arts, yet described The Abduction from the Seraglio as having “too many notes.”  He was king of Austria, an inherited position, and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, an elected position.

Incidentally the Holy Roman Empire was not holy, not roman and not an empire.  It is much better described as the Christian confederation of predominantly catholic principalities that succeeded the Roman Empire.  Somehow that title just doesn’t trip tenderly on the tongue now does it?

More information on Joseph II can be found at http://www.nndb.com/people/636/000101333/

Following Dr. Fröschl, Dr. Benedum read from several of Mozart’s letters to help us get a better understanding of Mozart.  We discussed a tour that Mozart undertook with his mother.  During the trip she got severely ill and, after a bloodletting to purge the bad blood, she, amazingly enough, died.  Mozart was so concerned over his father’s response to her death that Mozart hid it from his father.  Mozart wrote Leopold for several weeks telling his father that his mother was getting progressively sicker so as to soften the blow of her death. 

Leopold Mozart saved virtually all of the family correspondence.  Thanks to his diligence we have a far clearer understanding of Wolfgang and the Mozart family than we do of many other important musicians.

Class dismissed around lunch time and we all discussed our lunch time plans.  My group decided to have a light lunch and go to the Kunsthistorisches Museum.  First we stopped at a grocery store to look for sandwiches, but found little of interest other than the mugging.  We ended up looking elsewhere for food and lunch consisted of a sandwich purchased from a small shop in the tram station.  It was called ei spitz.  (Pronounced eye shpitz)  It was basically an egg salad sandwich on a pretzel bread with sesame seeds.  It was great.  I looked up the recipe to include on this blog only to discover one website proudly displaying 41 varieties of ei spitz.  Find your own recipe and if you like it let me know  Maybe together we can find one similar to what I had. 

One tram ride and a short walk and we were at the Art History Museum (right) and the Natural History Museum (left).  These twin museums were built by Emperor Franz Joseph in the latter half of the 19^th century.  Don’t confuse Emperor Joseph II with Emperor Franz Joseph!  Two different time periods.   I took lots of pictures and have put them in an album here.  Please bear in mind that although I was allowed to take pictures, I was not allowed to use a flash and the result is. . .  Please be kind.

This monument to Empress Maria Theresia stands in the courtyard between the museums.

The collection is largely based on the private collection of the Hapsburg family.  I found three parts of the museum to be particularly interesting other than the museum itself which is indeed a work of art.  I am a true lover of the term rubenesque.  It is a term for full figured, slightly plump women and is derived from the artist Peter Paul Rubens.  He used models that were round where a woman should be round and steered clear of the thin, sharply angled, figure-less torsos that dominate so much of the modern concept of beauty.  Ironically, the first Rubens I encountered had nothing to do with his trademark beautiful substantial women, but instead one of the most infamous mythical women in history, Medusa.

The second part of the museum that I fell in love with was the sculptural exhibit.  I have never had the opportunity to get close to real marble and granite sculpture before.  American museums tend to keep all of their exhibits 10-20 feet away behind glass.  Here you could walk right up to the sculptures and see the fine grain of the stone.  I found myself mesmerized by the sheer beauty and skill demonstrated by craftsmen centuries ago using only hammers and chisels.  I was particularly impressed with the carved sarcophagi and two different statues of Bacchus, one made of marble standing over eight feet tall dating from the 2nd century and one made of bronze standing only 30 inches tall and dating from the 5th century.

Throughout the museum were pieces by a contemporary artist named Jan Fabre.  His pieces were scattered  in very unexpected spaces.  His primary medium was blue Bic pens on paper, although his largest piece was on silk.  The juxtaposition of Danish and Flemish masters next to blue ink on paper made for intriguing conversation.

Upon leaving the museum we took a short tram ride back towards the hotel stopping at a grocery store for supplies.  I decided to skip an expensive dinner and eat in my room.  I found this crunchy, soft, slightly sweet French bread style roll, paired it with a charming cranberry Wensleydale cheese and threw in a little dried fruit for good measure.  I filled a small glass with some of that Proseco from last night and sat down to an existentialist meal in front of the computer typing this blog.  My roommate went out to dinner with Dick Benedum and some others so I’ve had the room to myself for several hours.  It’s been nice to unwind, but I think I’ll join the gang on the roof for a nightcap before getting to bed at a decent hour tonight.