Day 7 - Corpus Christi

Cardinal Christoph Schonbörn

Today is Corpus Christi day in Vienna. Corpus Christi is a festival in honor of the Eucharist and has been celebrated since 1246. Corpus Christi is Latin and means the body of Christ. In most European countries it is celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday.  This event commemorates the Last Supper on the day before Jesus’ crucifixion, as described in the Bible and is primarily a Catholic holiday.  Austria, being a primarily Catholic country, celebrated it in style.  Schools and government offices were closed, and so were most businesses. Today's celebrations began with mass and I was happy to participate in the celebrations.  I should point out that this wasn't just any church and it wasn't just any mass.  It was presided over by the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Maria Michael Hugo Damian Peter Adalbert Graf von Schönborn. (Yeah, I had to look it up!  You gonna make something of it?)  Now, if your not Catholic, let me tell you that attending mass bresided over by the Archbishop is a big deal, but attending mass presided over by a Cardinal is even bigger.  But wait, there's more.  Mass was held in St. Stephen's Cathedral!

St. Stephen's Cathedral was dedicated in . . . are you ready? . . . 1147!  That's right 864 years ago!  The church remained under construction until 1160.  Then they started the revisions and expansions and those lasted until 1511.  Yes, the church took 364 years to build.  Usually tourists only get to go part way into the Cathedral  but today I wasn't a tourist!  

 All the pictures can be seen here.    

Would you believe that isn't all!  They had a full orchestra and choir today and they performed Mozart's Missa brevis in C "Spatzen".  Spatzen means sparrow and the mass takes this name from a musical figure in the violins during the Sanctus.  While the mass is not one of Mozart's most famous masses, and it has been derided by some musicologists who called it "his weakest, his most Salzburgian, church work" (Alfred Einstein).  I none-the-less enjoyed it thoroughly.

How's that for a morning?  How would you feel if I told you there was still more?  There is.  Near the end of the service the ensemble performed one of Mozart's most famous and most beautiful choral pieces.  His Ave Verum Corpus, which was written specifically for Corpus Christi day.  I managed to get a very brief snippet on video!

You would think that would be enough for a morning wouldn't you, not for me.  I got to chat with the conductor briefly and then upon leaving the church I was fortunate to have a chance to talk to the soprano soloist, Birgit Plankel.  In fact we had such a nice chat that she invited me and several other of the institute participants to come to her house on the other end of Vienna for a weekend while we are here.  I don't know if we're going to take her up on it, but I'm certainly going to send her an e-mail and get more information.

Wow! What a great morning!  But I had a great day!  I spent some time meandering around the city.  I found a building called the Kinsky.  The Kinsky has been turned into an auction house, but it still has some incredible statuary in the doorway. The doorway actually does have a wooden door and this statue is in the vestibule along with several others.  The vestibule opens to an interior garden that is now used for a restaurant.  When I was leaving I took a closer look at those doors.   Take a look at the ornate carving of those door knockers! The Kinsky is right across the platz from the monastery that houses our classroom.  Does any remember the name of the monastery? . . . . Anyone? . . . . . Anyone? . . . . Bueller? . . . . . That's right!  It's the Schottenstift!  Today I actually got to go inside the sanctuary.  Like all the churches in Vienna, it's amazing.  Unfortunately I couldn't get very far into the sanctuary.  They had large iron gates that pretty much kept us lookie-loos in the narthex.  If you don't know what a narthex is, go look it up.  I've already done enough work!

The day ended with a wonderful concert of Mozart concerti.  The concerti were performed on a Fortepiano with a string quartet.  Concerti is the plural of Concerto and the Fortepiano is the predecessor of the modern piano.  It isn't quite as loud, doesn't have any foot peddles, and is about the size of a harpsichord.  The music was glorious and it was a truly wonderful end of the day.  

I know what you're thinking!  He didn't mention any food.  Well, yes I did indeed eat.  I had one of those HUGE Viennese breakfasts before the mass.  For lunch this American boy with German roots bought this Chicago style pizza (it wasn't but they said it was) from a New York style pizzeria (it wasn't but they said it was) from a middle eastern gentleman (he wasn't . . . a gentleman that is . . . actually he was kind of curt but he was middle eastern.) in the metro station in Vienna! (it really was Vienna!)  I felt like a world traveler.  The pizza had huge chunks of beef that tasted like it had been slow cooked until it started falling apart, yellow and green bell peppers, onions and spices with a minimal but adequate amount of cheese. It was a huge slice, about 1/4 of the whole pie.  I forgot to take a picture at first so the picture is only 1/3 of the original 1/4, and the picture really isn't very good, so instead I'll show you the torte that I had with Chris in a coffeehouse.  Later still, Chris, Eric and I stopped for refreshments before the concert.  As I said before it was a truly wonderful day!