Day 14 - Back to Beauty

The Abduction from the Seraglio was Mozart's first opera in Vienna.  I may have mentioned that before but it deserves mentioning again.  He was desperately trying to impress the emperor with the quality of his music and the speed at which he was able to compose.  He wrote numerous letters to his father, Leopold, back in Salzburg describing many details about the opera.  In one letter, dated Sept. 28, 1781 Mozart wrote "Now about Bellmont's aria in A major.  "Oh how anxious, oh how passionate!" do you know how I expressed it? - even expressing the loving, throbbing heart? - with two violins playing in octaves. - This is the favorite aria of everyone who has heard it - It's mine too.  - And it was written entirely for Adamberger's voice; one can see the trembling - faltering - one can see his heaving breast - which is expressed by a crescendo - one can hear the whispering and the sighing - which is expressed by the first violins with mutes and one flute playing unisono. - "  As a young man adventuring out on his own Mozart sent numerous letters home looking for guidance, advice, acknowledgement and approval.  Because of this, we have a greater understanding of what Mozart was thinking while composing The Abduction than we do of any of his other compositions. Mozart may have liked Belmonte's aria, but I'm partial to Martern aller Arten  if for no other reason that the vocal dexterity required to sing it.

This morning's class was all about Act II of this wonderful opera.  I strongly encourage viewing the Royal Opera Covent Garden production from 1988.  I haven't seen many productions at this point, but this one is pure entertainment from beginning to end.  It's available through www.kultur.com  and can be borrowed from Netflix.

Following class we went to the Austrian National Library. The library started construction in 1723 and was finished in 1726. It was designed byJohann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and completed after his death by Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach. The frescoes in the dome were painted by Daniel Gran in 1730.  I took a bunch of pictures and posted them here but I think you get a better idea of the grandeur of this place by looking at the video.  The library is in the process of digitizing the entire contents.  The central section of the library was bequeathed by Prince Eugene of Savoy.  You may remember his name as being the owner of the Belvedere.  When the donation was made the books were estimated at 150,000 Guldens.  At the time the Belvedere was worth only 100,000 Guldens! The library has hidden study rooms.  The doors to these rooms are the bookcases themselves.  In this picture you can see the open bookcase door going into the room.

This is by no means the biggest library I've ever seen, but is the prettiest.  It also has that musty smell of old books.  I love that smell.  The library is part of the Hofburg and is attached to the royal wing.  The emperor had his own private entrance should he desire a little light reading in the middle of the night.  He didn't have to leave his home.

I could have spent a lot more time at the library but unfortunately I was feeling a little under the weather today.  I had to return to my hotel to rest for a while.  Around dinner time I was feeling a lot better and decided to go out.  I joined Kathy and Marilyn for dinner.  They were considering going to the opera tonight, something I too had planned.  We were hoping to sit outside on the platz and watch the production from the outside viewing screen.  Katya Kabanove by Leos Janacek was being performed tonight.  The weather turned cold, rainy and windy so we had a change of plans.  

We ended up at a very nice little restaurant not too far from the hotel.  On the way there we passed a Holocaust memorial.  On a very plain little street corner, with no fanfare or signs is a glass case built into the sidewalk.  Inside the case are all of the keys, labeled with their original owners names, that belonged to the Jews from the community who were driven from their homes during WWII.  It was a very subtle, moving and sobering memorial.  

The bank and I were having a disagreement as to what my PIN number was and I had been locked out of my account. So, thanks to a short loan from Kathy, I was able to enjoy a great meal and some friendly conversation.  The meal started with some liquid refreshment.  I have no idea what was in this glass, but it sure was pretty.  

I decided that since it was a cold blustery night that I would have something simple like soup and salad.  Then I decided to do it the Austrian way!  I had Apfel Suppe and Kartoffelsalat.  That's apple soup and potato salad.  It may not sound like much, but it was superb!

 It's hard to believe that my trip is half over.  I've got a long list of things I still want to do and see.  I've got to get back to the palace and see the rest of it.  I want to polka through the Liechtenstein.  I still haven't gone to Mozart's Todhaus or to the cemetery where all the musicians are buried.  I would like to go to the Arnold Schoenberg Institute.  We are still planning, as a class, to go to the musical instrument museum and we have a cocktail mixer scheduled at the American Embassy with some Viennese teachers.  I'm hoping to catch another performance of the Requiem Mass that is going to be performed on authentic period instruments.  Somewhere in here I'll still have to take another day for laundry, but I'll take pictures next time so that the MRS. doesn't poke fun at me.  So much to do and so little time.

Day 13 - Laundry

If you think the title of today's post is boring you've got a pretty good idea of how today went.  There has got to be something wrong about being in Vienna and having to do laundry.  Unfortunately I had run out of clean clothes and it had to be done.  Some of the participants went to a place that does it for you.  In addition to getting their clothes cleaned, they got their wallets cleaned out too.  I ended up at a laundromat.  I haven't used one of those since just after I got married.  My apartment still had a laundry room and Jen and I lived there until our first house was built.

During class (I'm not even going to bother with a smooth transition, so deal with it!) we discussed the majority of Act I of The Abduction from the Seraglio.  It was a decent discussion that went over the heads of a few of the non-musicians.  I know how they felt because some of the enlightenment discussions went a little into left field for me too.

The best part of the day was getting to Skype with Jen and Jade.  That always makes the day better.

That's it!  That's my day.  Now I've got to finish work on my class presentation for tomorrow.  If it goes well, I'll share.  If it doesn't go well. . . . . who really wants to hear about something that fails?

Sorry there aren't any pictures of great scenery, fabulous food or incredible buildings.  Today was just an average workday.  I promise to do better tomorrow!

Day 12 - Essays, Grandiose Goods & Strauss (EGGS)

I went to bed so happy last night because the horrible internet had been fixed.  This institute has a tradition of gathering on the roof terrace at the end of the day.  Discussions range from teaching techniques, what we saw or did today, great restaurants, good wine and other things.  Because the internet was so much faster I was able to complete the blog and join party.  It really was a nice way to end the day.  This morning I woke up to absolutely no internet connection whatsoever.  It could be worse though, another one of the participants rented an apartment rather than staying in the hotel and she came home yesterday to a letter from the electric company to her landlord stating that they had cut off the power due to non-payment.  I guess lousy internet isn't all that bad.

In class this morning we discussed Die Entführung aus dem Serail.  This was Mozart's first opera in Vienna.  I had never listened to it prior to being selected for this institute and it is rapidly becoming one of my favorites.  The production from Covent Garden (1988) is particularly entertaining.  The DVD of the opera is in German but has English subtitles.  A few days ago Dr. Benedum assigned us a little homework. We had to write an essay. I mentioned  the assignment in Sunday's blog.  We didn't get around to them until today.  Several people read theirs out loud and I couldn't resist doing the same.  It was fairly well received, so as I promised here it is.

The six characters within the Abduction each serve a different purpose which makes selecting the most important based on music or libretto an interesting challenge.  Perhaps the best judge of the importance of the character would be to consider whether or not the story could continue without him/her.  There is also the possibility of simply counting arias and ensembles or lines of dialogue.  None of these ideas seem to fully address which character is most important.

The Pasha Selim, for example, cannot be considered musically important because he is a non-singing role.  On the other hand his absence of music might be construed to have a musical impact.  He also wields the power to resolve all of the issues within the plot as he sees fit, making his part in the drama irreplaceable. 

Osmin is merely an obstacle standing in the way of Belmonte and his entourage, but musically, he is involved in more music numbers than all but one character and in fact sings more measures of music than anyone else.  In addition Osmin has an enormous amount of dialogue.  His character does not grow or change in any way, but he does serve as comic relief.  Without Osmin, the sappy sweetness of many of the arias would be overwhelming and the abduction itself would be an easy task for the heroes.

The character with the least amount of singing is Blonde, however, her aria, Durch Zartlichkeit und Schmeicheln  is one of the most obvious lessons the opera has to teach and in many ways foreshadows Selim’s ultimate decision.  She is also supplies strength for Constanze and focus (or perhaps diversion) for Pedrillo. 

Constanze, being the love interest of the hero would seem to be of extreme importance, and her commitment to Belmonte certainly speaks to the ideals of the enlightenment.  Her character does not grow or change at all over the course of the story indicating that this particular yarn is not really about her.  If however, she is the example of how to live, that would make her very important.

Belmonte would seem the obvious choice as most important.  He is the hero, coming in to save the day.  He also fails in his attempt and had it not been for the beneficence of Selim, all four of them would have suffered death or worse.  He does show growth of character when he learns what the Pasha tries to teach him. Maybe the hero isn’t that important.

Pedrillo is the character who does the most.  Prior to Belmonte’s arrival Pedrillo did not have the necessary tools to effectively obtain their escape.  With the addition of a ship he quickly obtains the sleeping draught and the ladder, and communicates with the women what roll they have to play, while at the same time manipulating Osmin, his mortal enemy, into trusting him enough to drink the potion.  His is involved in multiple ensembles and two arias.  He does not sing the most, but he does have quite a bit of dialogue and stage time.  Pedrillo is important!

In summation, Belmonte would seem the most important unless you consider the lesson being taught through the music in which case Constanze wins the title by demonstrating steadfast commitment in her arias. Though we can’t ignore Blonde since she stands up for women’s rights. Textually, Pedrillo seems to get the job done as it is his dialogue that pushes the story forward, until you consider that Selim gets to decide everyone’s fate.  Of course, Osmin, talks and sings more than anyone else and is possibly the most entertaining of the six.

Perhaps a better analysis of the characters comes from the observation that there are just as many characters as are needed to tell the story.  Each character is required and none of them are more important than the others.  Isn’t that one of the ideas of the enlightenment?  Isn’t it also an idea that mankind has been arguing about for centuries.

The essay got a round of applause and a few snide remarks.  One person chided me for not making up my mind to which I responded "I did make up my mind. The question is faulty!"  One of the English teachers really appreciated the fact that I thought outside the box and said she wished her students would do that.  The best part was my friend Kathy, the German teacher.  She came up with basically the same idea I did.  So remember that kids, if you got a choice between 1 & 2, sometimes it's better to choose A.

Following class we attended Johann Strauss's operetta Die Fledermaus at the Volksoper. The opera is a little difficult to describe.  If you are really interested in the plot here's a good place to get started.  The production was superb.  The sets were beautiful, the singing was beautiful, the costumes were beautiful, even the orchestra was beautiful. (Name the piece of musical theater I'm paraphrasing and I'll buy you a cookie!)  The only thing that wasn't beautiful were the hundreds (almost the entire audience) of school children who hadn't been taught to not talk during the performance. After praising the Viennese yesterday, I wanted to break out the duct tape today.  I wasn't alone.  All of us in the institute were annoyed with the little brats.  I feel like I have to say it.  Thanks you, all of my students, past and present, who are reading this, you've never acted like these little heathens when I've taken you out. (Of course, if you had I would have TAKEN YOU OUT!) 

I decided to do a little sight seeing (I almost typed sight singing! LOL) before heading back to the hotel, but today just wasn't my day.  First I thought I would take a look inside the Votivkirsche.  We looked at the exterior of this church on our first walk through the city and I wanted to know more.  When I got to the door of the church it was closed.  So I'll have to try again some other day.  That did not deter me however.  I strolled through some of the city parks and snapped some photos because Jen had mentioned that she wondered if Vienna was covered in flowers.  I would imaging it is more so in the spring, but YES, Vienna is definitely green with explosions of color everywhere.

My wanderings brought me to the Rathaus.  I know what you're thinking!  RAT HOUSE?  Like filthy rotten disgusting vermin?  No, the Rathaus is the City Hall where all of the politicians work. . . . . .. . . . . . . . too easy.  Usually you can take tours of the city hall, which is a magnificent late 19th century building in the Gothic revival style.  But not today. There was a sign stating that tours had been canceled for today and apologizing for any inconvenience.  Strike Two!
I wondered as I wandered all over the town where I might be able to find a museum or tour to take today.  Museums in Vienna are like Mormon's in east Mesa.  You don't have to look very hard to find them and if you find an interesting one, you're in for hours of fun.  I ended up at the Hofburg.  The Hofburg is the imperial home inside the gates of the city.  It's counterpart is Schloß Schönbrunn that I went to over the weekend.  Here I was able to tour the imperial apartments again (Once again, no cameras or video) and tour a museum that displayed the royal china and silver (some of which is gold.)  It was a massive collection and something I wish my wife could have seen.  I've posted all of the pictures in the photo album. 


I did manage to get a couple of bad videos for you again.  Please don't ask me how.

All in all it was a pretty nice day.  No exotic foods, but I did buy Jenny an Austrian cook book!  Maybe some of you can cajole her into inviting you over for an authentic Austrian meal!

Day 11 - Habsburgs, Architecture and Miscellaneous (HAM)

Dr. Karl Vocelka

As far as this trip goes, today was a let down.  Part of it is my own fault for not remembering every detail that is said in class, so I ended up re-visiting a place I'd already been.  On the other hand I went with an expert this time so I learned a lot more.

 We started off the day with an interesting lecture about the Ottoman and Habsburg empires,  Our guest lecturer, Karl Vocelka, is from the Historical Institute at the University of Vienna.  Dr. Vocelka is and expert on the Habsburgs and has written several books about them.  He spoke at length about the history of these two families, how the Turks influenced Viennese culture and how the hardest part of historical study is trying to get past the bias of the historian and look at both sides of the issue.

"History is written by the victor."  I don't know who said it, and apparently neither does Google, but it is very true.  In America when we think of the Revolutionary war,  we think about how rotten King George was, but in England they thought the colonials were being unreasonable.  Ironically, the U.S. still has territories today that pay federal taxes and yet don't have federal representation.  That, of course, is a topic for an entirely different blog.  Even the U.S. Civil war still has people arguing about the actual catalyst.  It seems that most people believe it was about slavery, but many southerners would argue it was really about economics and yet others would insist it was about the state's right to secede.

During the Ottoman/Habsburg conflicts, the Western Europeans (esp. Catholic Austrians) thought the Turks to be "Godless Muslims who killed children and pregnant women" while completely forgetting what happened during the crusades.  If you don't know what happened during the crusades look it up.  I'm not going to discuss it because I'm snacking on my dinner right now.

It was really nice to hear someone publicly state that the most important thing when studying history is to try and find documentation on the subject and decide yourself.

Following Dr. Vocelka's talk we continued our walking lecture of the city with Chris Otto.  First we went to the Austrian National Library, only to find out it is closed on Mondays.  Then we went to Karlskirche.  You may remember I went there yesterday.  I wouldn't have gone had I remembered we were going to go as a class, but we've discussed so many churches I'm not always sure which ones we are going to see.  Dr. Otto did point out a few things about Karlkirche that certainly deserve repeating here.  

 Karlskirche was designed by Fischer von Erlach.  You may remember him as the designer of Schloß Schönbrunn.  The most interesting thing was the variety of architecture incorporated into one building.  The easiest way to see this is by looking at the pictures below and then looking again at the picture above.  

Greek temple

Asian Pagoda

Roman Dome

Egyptian Columns

French Facade

This certainly proves that the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts. 

I took a few more pictures of the inside of the church and was surprised to see a very large plaque that I missed yesterday that indicated that Anton Bruckner, one of my many favorite composers, premiered his Te Deum in this church.

The chapels surrounding the main alter are really interesting.  Each one has it's own lower dome that has a hole in the center.  When you look through the hole the dome is completed by the fresco on the upper level.  

After Karlskirche we returned to the Belvedere for more on it's architecture. One of my classmates noticed something strange about the coat of arms.  Dr. Otto wasn't sure what the significance was so I think I'll just chalk it up to weird.

Why would you want a dead ram hanging in your coat of arms?

When I returned to the hotel I got to Skype with Jen and Jade for about 90 minutes.  I gotta say I love this technology.  

I had just returned from the local grocery store with a few things for a light dinner and realized how differently they do things here.  First there is the money thing.  Not that it's Euros but that the smallest denomination of paper money is a five!  The coin denominations are 2 Euro, 1 Euro, .5 Euro, .2 Euro, .1 Euro, .05 Euro, .02 euro and .01 Euro.  I would love to see a coin counter piggy bank here. In addition many of the things we pay a lot for are very cheap here.  Today I bought a large wedge of Brie, six croissants, a huge bunch of green grapes, a bag of my favorite European cookies that I usually pick up at World Market and a bottle of sparkling wine for only 6.10 Euro.  At home the wine alone costs more than that.  

Another curiosity is that all of the drinking glasses here are labeled with the amount of liters the glass holds.  For example, you don't order a glass of wine, you order 1/4 liter of wine or 1/8 liter of wine. Soda, and you all know how addicted I am to my cola, actually costs more than an average bottle of wine.  

When you attend the opera in the standing room section (yes, they actually have a standing room section) you are supposed to tie a scarf to the pole you want to stand next to.  This indicates that that space is taken. Then you can go off and get a bite for dinner before the opera begins.  Can you imagine going to see an opera in the U.S. and doing the same thing?  Someone would come by and take all the scarves and sell them!  

Public transit tickets! You can buy them for each trip you take or you can buy a weekly card.  Here's the catch, no one forces you to stamp your card when you get on or off the trams.  It's all on the honor system, and the Viennese are honorable.  Only once in the last week have I seen anyone checking tickets and one of the institute presenters who has been here several times said it was the first time he'd ever been checked.

Even the graffiti here is different.  Some of it is quite beautiful.  It isn't just tagging of rival gangs who can't even spell the name of their own gang properly.  It really is graffiti art.  Sure, there is still the random senseless tagging, but most of it stays up because it is so beautiful there is no need to paint over it.

Finally, the Viennese are exceptionally polite people.  The three words I've heard more than anything else are Entschuldigen, Danke and Bitte.  Entschuldigen means excuse me, Danke means thank you and Bitte means both please and you're welcome. 

There is just so much we could learn from this country.  It is centuries older than we are and doesn't have nearly the same number of rules or regulations.  The biggest difference is that most of the people do what they are supposed to do because they are supposed to do it.  If you spill a cup of hot coffee on yourself and get burned, it's because you're clumsy not because McDonald's served you a hot coffee that you didn't know was hot. I'm sorry to be getting political here, but if we're going to survive as a nation we need to look at what much older nations are doing right and adopt some of their ideas.  It's the whole respect your elders concept. In many ways they know better because they've already made the mistakes.  Don't get me wrong, I adore the U.S.A. and I don't want to emigrate, but I would love to see us cooperate with each other as well as these people do.

Day 10 - A Day Off

This week has just completely exhausted me.  I can't wait to do it again!  I did, however, decide to take a little time off today.  First I slept in until almost 9:00 am.  It was a good thing I didn't sleep any later or I would have missed breakfast.  After breakfast I came back to the room, did a little laundry, finished yesterday's blog and caught up on some reading.


Just after eleven I thought to myself "Du lieber Himmel! Wenn ich nicht bekommen, da draußen und etwas tun, muss ich nichts zu schreiben!" (Bonus points to the translators, but I'm not doing it!)  So I looked at a map and decided to stroll the Graben and perhaps make my way over to Karlsplatz to look at Karlskirche.  I'm glad I did.  By the time I got to the Graben . . . . Have I explained what the Graben is?  I don't remember!  Well, Graben literally means trench and it refers to where and ancient Roman canal used to be.  Now the Graben is one of the busiest and most touristy places in the old city.  It also intersects with Stephansdom which is where St. Stephen's cathedral is.  I strolled there for a while looking at all the "reel 'em in and rip 'em off" shops, watched a few street entertainers and around noon I decided it was time for lunch.  


I know several of you have been more interested in my dining habits than anything else, and do I have a treat for you today!  I went to a place that is internationally known for it's cuisine.  I was surprised that it was only moderately priced.  I actually discussed eating at this particular restaurant with a few of the students prior to going, but I just wasn't sure I could afford it.  Feeling a little homesick may have prompted me since this place is well known for its American and French cooking.

Scroll down for the surprise!

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The names were different, but the product was the same!

Following lunch I hopped on the subway for the short trip to Karlsplatz.  In Karlsplatz stands Karlskirche.  You can find out all about Karlskirche and take a virtual tour of your own here.  A few years ago during a restoration scaffolding was installed for the workers to have access to the ceiling.  They began selling admission to the scaffolding! The most interesting and scariest part was climbing the scaffolding up into the dome and getting a close up look at the frescos.  They are beautiful at a distance but when you are right up on top of them they take on an entirely different feeling.  You get a new respect for the artist, not to mention how scary it would have been to climb on less secure scaffolding day after day and paint the original.  This was definitively a once in a lifetime experience because I'm not going back up there again!  The scaffolding wiggled with every step anyone took. 

The funny part was this sign that translates to "Running and Jumping can cost you your life! Screaming is uncool!"  It is posted on the base platform 2/3's of the way up the dome.  If you look at the picture above, you can see the arched windows in the cupola. That's where the scaffolding stops.  You might also want to take a closer look at the people next to the church so you can get an idea of how high up that really is!                                              

Next door to the church is Karlskirche Polytechnical Institute where Johann and his brother Josef Strauss both attended.  I spent quite a bit of time wandering through the church and as usual you can find the photo album here.  

It seemed like it was time to head back to the hotel because I have some homework due for class tomorrow.  So that's what I did, and as soon as I finish this blog I'm going to write my essay.  I can't believe after all these years I have to write an essay.  If it turns out well, I'll post it.  The prompt is "Consider the libretto versus the score for The Abduction from the Seraglio and argue which character is the most important based on only one of those sources."  If any of you feel like taking a stab at it, feel free!  If it's a good effort I'll turn it into the institute director!

Day 9 - Schloß Schönbrunn

Tonight's blog is going to be relatively short.  I only visited one place and only attended one concert.  The place: Schloß Schönbrunn The concert: Requiem by W.A. Mozart performed at Stephansdom.  

Folgen Sie diesem Link zum Fotoalbum

I left the hotel around 8:00 am, venturing out on my own to someplace I hadn't been before.  This is a first for me in Vienna.  I've wandered around the streets near the hotel and followed the instructions to get to the classroom, but until today I hadn't looked at a map (which is in German) and said "Was zur Hölle?"  It didn't look like that bad of a trip, so I found my way to the subway. This city has an incredible mass transit system, electric trams, multiple tracks of subways, and even busses.  You do not need a car to live in this city. I entered the Friedensbrücke station and I traveled all the way around the city to the Schönbrunn station.  It may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but at home I’ve become very dependent on my Garmin!

After reaching Schönbrunn station it was a very short walk to the Schloß.  By the way, Schloß  means palace, therefore this is the Schönbrunn palace, and the letter that looks like a script B is called an esszett.  It functions like two S's.  Now why the Hapsburgs palace is called Schönbrunn they never told me. 


Walking through the front gates I felt like singing Magic Kingdom in the Sky or It's a Small World.  It was just like entering Disneyland, except that Disneyland is smaller in actual acreage and doesn’t have a zoo, a palace, multiple hedge mazes, a carriage museum, several huge greenhouses that look they might have been built by Eiffel himself.  (I don’t know for sure.), a Japanese garden, a public swimming pool, a bakery. . . . wait, Disney does have those.  The point is I stayed until 5:00 pm and still didn’t see the whole place. 

Schloß Schönbrunn

Even if you’ve never heard of the Hapsburgs, you’ve heard of the Hapsburgs.  Outside of Vienna, Maria Theresa’s daughter Marie Antoinette is probably the most famous of them.  We all remember her. . . “Let them eat cake”? . . . During the French revolution she got a lot shorter? . . She was kind of absent minded. . . . You know the type, she'd lose her head if it wasn't attached.   Well her mother was the queen of Austria and her brother Joseph was Holy Roman Emperor.  When Joseph died his brother became Holy Roman Emperor.  Actually lots of Hapsburgs were Holy Roman Emperor starting with Maximilian I, who began his rein in 1493.  (Do you think they called him Maximilian the first even before there was a second?)  He was followed by Charles V in 1519, Ferdinand I in 1556, then Maximilian II, Rudolph II, and Matthias, who died without an heir which caused the Austrian lands and imperial title to pass to a different branch of the family.  I could go further, but you might find it more interesting to research on your own.  I recommend The Hapsburg Monarchy by Charles W. Ingrao. 

Queen Maria Theresa

Schloß Schönbrunn began construction in 1693 when Leopold I commissioned plans from Fischer von Erlach.  Fischer created the designs for several buildings in Vienna.  When Maria Theresa acquired what was the Schönbrunn hunting lodge, she began the process of turning it into a Schloß and it became the center of court life.  Take a look at the photo album.  It may take a while; I exhausted the battery while snapping pictures.  Even with deleting the horrible ones there are still over a hundred.

I toured the royal apartments but wasn’t allowed to take any photographs or videos.  Partway through one of the rooms I realized that I had left the video camera app open on my phone and had “inadvertently” recorded some of the room.  The quality is horrible, but at least you get to have a look around!  I can't quite figure out how I pressed all the correct buttons in the correct order and managed to hold the camera in the correct angle so that my finger wasn't over the lens.  

This miniature is what the tiergarten
looked like in Maria Theresa's time.

Following the grand tour I strolled through the gardens until I came across the zoo.  The Hapsburgs enjoyed collecting exotic animals and kept a zoo keeper as part of their staff.  Many of the original buildings still exist at the zoo, but happily they no longer house animals.  The cage that used to hold the Lion was as small as my hotel room.  Now they’ve got a brass lion statue in it and you can go inside the cage and have your picture taken behind bars.  Something every parent wants for his/her children.  The collection of animals is quite impressive and the enclosures are so lush that I think the animals are as comfortable as they can be in captivity.


At the top portion of the zoo is a tirolergarten. It’s a working replica of a Tyrolean farm complete with handmade cheeses, meats and breads for sale.  I had a light snack of Prosciutto on whole grain bread with what tasted like an Edam cheese.  It was yummy!

Outside of the zoo I walked through the palm house, the dessert house, the Japanese gardens, the hedge mazes and some more of the regular garden.  

The Gloriette

The gardens at Schloß Schönbrunn rise up to an enormous central building called the Gloriette.  The Gloriette has a café in it now and that is where I stopped for lunch. 

Lunch was exquisite!  I dined on Herrengulasch mit Knödel, Wurst und Ei then had Schwarzwalder kirschtorte for dessert.  (For the non-German speakers, that's beef goulash with dumpling, sausage and egg and for dessert, black forest cake.)  The green bottle in the picture is a brand of bottled water.  One peculiarity here in Vienna is that they don't serve ice water.  If you ask for water you are most likely to get room temperature sparkling water.  If you want non-carbonated water you have to ask for still Wasser and even then you will not get ice.  If you want plain old tap water you have to ask for Normal Wasser.

Herrengulasch mit Knödel, Wurst und Ei

   

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte

After lunch I returned to the hotel to prepare for my concert, the Mozart requiem at St. Stephen’s Church.  My classmate Eric also attended.  I couldn’t ask for a more beautiful place to hear this music.  On the way there, Eric and I stopped for another torte.  There is a picture of them in the photo album.  When we got to the church and looked at the program we had an added bonus in the form of a Mozart clarinet concerto.  The concerto was wonderful.  I have to admit to being a little disappointed in the Requiem.  The choir did not watch the conductor and in a place with a several second decay it is extremely important to watch.  Those of you who sang at Chase Field last year know what I mean. I could see the frustration in the conductor's directing.  He baton technique was very fluid, much more like Leonard Bernstein's conducting.  Admittedly that makes it a little harder to follow him rhythmically, but his beat was pretty obvious most of the time.  Because it is a very touristy venue they did not mind people running video cameras during the performance.  I still felt a little odd but the teacher side of me couldn't resist having a record to share with all of you.  The quality is pretty bad because I just couldn't bring myself to block others views as so many of the tourons did.  (Touron is a eastern Tennessee hybrid word combining tourist and moron.)  I did not record the entire thing, but I got all of the choruses that Mozart actually composed.  I should have recorded the soloists because they were amazing!  I'll try to upload the rest of them to facebook, but this internet service is driving me crazy.  If I can find a better connection, you'll get to see the clips before I return home.

Following the concert I returned to the hotel to type the blog.  See, I told you it was gonna be a short blog . . . . .uh . . .  never mind.

Day 8 - An Architectural Tour and the return of the Fortepiano

“All architecture is shelter, all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts, or stimulates the persons in that space.” - Phillip Johnson


Artistic forms in the mid-18th century had a lot in common. Paintings, poetry, musical compositions and even gardens can be divided up into thematic areas.  One of the more interesting parallels between music and the other art forms is in architecture.  Viennese architecture spans centuries: Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles dominate the skyline with a little modern construction thrown in for good measure.  Some of the most amazing architecture can be found in the churches.  In previous blogs I've mentioned St. Stephen's and the Schottenstift. Today we'll cover a wide variety of private and public buildings along with a few more churches.

Private homes and public buildings have a similar style of architecture in this period.  You will notice a very symmetrical style.    Let's start with a building very close to my hotel, the Liechtenstein Palace. The Liechtenstein palace served as  the summer or country home of the Liechtenstein family.  It was built outside the fortified walls of Vienna.  The Liechtenstein's had a second palace inside the walls, but that is a subject for a different time.  Notice the symmetry of the facade; a division into three vertical sections and four horizontal sections.  Horizontally, the ground floor was primarily used as a reception area.  Look at how, even on the outside, you can see where the ground floor ends.  The first floor, what we would call the second floor in America, is where the family dwells and where some entertaining might take place.  The next level would house servants and the very top level would be used primarily for storage, but might have some servants quarters as well.  Vertically you will note that the middle section juts out slightly in front of the two side sections (although it is hard to tell in this photograph.)  The front entry way is emphasized by use of wrought iron gates.  The facade is heavily ornamented with rounded and pointed pediments and repeated patters.  you might want to compare this structure to that of a basic rondo.  The left side of the building being an A section, the middle being a B section and the right side returning to A.  In addition you can look at the different levels as a kind of theme with variation.  The thirteen ground floor openings, with three windows and a door (left), five wrought iron arches (center), and one door and three windows (right) creates a perfect mirror image of itself.  The first floor repeats the pattern with some slight changes.  We still have 13 opening, but now they are all windows.  But look at the window pediments, they recreate the  pediment pattern of the ground floor.  Meanwhile, the second floor repeats the pattern of thirteen openings but the pediments all match.  The pattern of 4-5-4 returns however by adding additional height in the middle five windows above the pediments.  Many of the buildings throughout Vienna follow this patterns.  Here are a few of them.  See if you can find the patterns.

This is the Kinsky Palace 

This building is directly across from the Schottenstift

Church architecture had a very different basic style.  In general, Catholic churches are laid out in a cross.  The altar is at the top of the cross with the nave running from the front door to the altar.  The area just inside the front door is called the Narthex.   Sometimes churches have to alter their altar (hee hee hee) so the church can fit on the land provided.  This is what happened with St. Peter's Church here in Vienna.  Although the front exterior is covered with scaffolding that is covering a section that is being renovated,  you can still get an idea if what the church looks like by the picture superimposed over the scaffolding.  (They have this on all the churches being renovated.)  To fit in to the smaller space, the front entrance was narrowed and the bell towers turned on an angle.  Inside this meant that in order to have enough room for the congregation the central nave has been turned into an oval.  St. Peter's is where I attended the Mozart concert last night.  We were down in the crypt.  No, there weren't any dead bodies down there.  In fact, why don't we go down to the crypt right now and visit with Dr. Richard Fuller.  Dr. Fuller performed last evening and is going to give us a brief speech on the fortepiano.  (Was that a weak transition or what?)

Link to the Photo Album

As I mentioned yesterday, the Fortepiano is the precursor to the modern piano.  It has fewer keys, (this one has only 61 keys), no foot pedals, (It does have pedals that are manipulated with the performers knee), and a reversed keyboard.  It is all wood construction with leather wrapped hammers and leather wrapped dampers.  This instrument was invented during Mozart's lifetime.  The modern Piano did not exist, so this instrument and the harpsichord were the instruments Mozart was actually composing for.  The only real difference between harpsichord score and fortepiano scores is the addition of dynamics in the fortepiano score.  Dr. Fuller explained today that we really don't know which piece was composed for which instrument because publishers of the day would say that it could be performed on either instrument. The excerpt above is  the Rondo alla Turca from Mozart's Piano Sonata No.11 in A Major.  A complete recording of the third movement of the Rondo from the Sonata in F Major can be found here.
 Following the concert we had a brief break before continuing on our architectural tour.

The Jesuit church also known as the University church

The Holocaust Memorial in Judenplatz

 The Holocaust Memorial is a stunning piece of work.  The blocks, upon closer inspection, look like books with the spines turned inward so that we can't see what is written on them.  This signifies the lives of the Jews who were killed in WWII and how their life stories were never completed.  The doors into the structure can not be opened because they have no door knobs leaving the occupants trapped inside.  Written on the concrete outside the doors, in multiple languages is "In commemoration of the more than 65,000 Austrian Jews who were killed by the Nazi's between 1938 and 1945.

Inside St. Peter's church

A small unidentified chapel

This church has architecture that makes it look like a private residence.

While in St. Peter's I lit a candle and prayed for the safety of my family thousands of miles away.

Of course the day had its share of food.  Here is a fruchtorte that I ordered at a sidewalk cafe just off the Graben.  The Graben is a street that runs through the old city.  It is mostly upscale and touristy shops.  Graben means trench or canal.  The street runs along the route where a canal used to run when the Romans were in Vienna.  All over Vienna there are portions of the original Roman roads that are still being used.  

The best part of today food wise, was not the best food I've eaten while here, but it was really good.  One of the things I did to prepare for this trip was to listen to some German Language CD's that Jenny bought.  One section of the CD's covered ordering food in a restaurant.  Unfortunately the only things it taught you to order were Bratwurst mit Brot und Currywurst.  So for dinner today I had Bratwurst mit Brot and my classmate Kathy had Currywurst. The picture on the left is the Currywurst, my Bratwurst mit Brot is that french bread looking thing I'm holding!