Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday was relatively interesting....German was pretty normal, Classical Symphony was way more fun because I actually was prepared for discussion (Mike and I listened to the Wagenseil symphony we were supposed to analyze together before class....it was fun, and it's actually a really great piece! but who's ever heard of Georg Christoph Wagenseil? I sure hadn't......). After class he had to do laundry (at IES, since he doesn't have a laundry machine in his apartment), so since I had time to kill we watched a couple of episodes of South Park on my computer in the lobby while his clothes were washing. After he put his clothes in the dryer I convinced him to come with me to music stores to see if I could buy a copy of the Schütz Musikalische Exequien.....I talked to Russell about conducting it in the workshop but I didn't bring my Glee Club score....but I figured that since it is one of my favorite pieces of all time I should really invest in an actual score. We went to the place on Krügelstraße (by the yummy Würstel and Pizza stand) but they didn't have it, so we went to Dopplinger which, although a little farther away (but still in the 1st district) has a much bigger selection. I had been there once before, so I went in and went to the early music section. I was dismayed to realize, however, that there wasn't any chamber or even vocal music in this section. I then realized that they didn't seem to have any choral music at all! This distressed me, certainly, but I decided to ask someone for help anyway. (which, as I'm sure you know, is something I am nervous about doing even in my own country and my own language) I went up to a guy and said "Entschuldigung, können Sie mir bitte helfen? Ich suche der Musikalische Exequien von Heinrich Schütz." (it took me a full minute to gather up the courage to say it, and to make sure it wasn't grammatically horrible) Without a moment's hesitation he said something along the lines of "Ja, genau. Es ist in unsere andere Gebäude" or something.....he said it was in their other building. I sort of stared at him, so he just told me to go out, turn left, and it was the next building down. (since scaffolding obstructs the view of the front of almost all the buildings on the block, this was not immediately obvious, you see.) Mike and I went to the other building, only to find a bunch of pop/rock/soundtrack piano/vocal arrangements and the like, so naturally I was surprised that I was supposedly going to find a 16th century piece of sacred choral music here. Seeing another room in the back, I entered it; it was full of old, used music, some of it strange, obscure, and downright weird. Anyway, I saw a sign that said "Choral Music Second Floor" in German, so I rushed up the stairs. What awaited me was somewhat how I pictured heaven. Imagine, if you will, Ollivander's wand shop from Harry Potter, except maybe a little bigger. Now, replace all the boxes of wands with bins full of choral music, and replace Ollivander himself with two friendly Austrian women. Still somewhat in shock, I asked one of them for the Schütz. She turned and, as if she had the old warlock's encyclopaedic memory of what each bin contained, went right to the right section and retrieved two editions of the Schütz, which she handed to me. I looked at both of them, and ended up choosing the same one we used in Glee Club, partially because the other one, although more "authentic" in the nerdy early music sense, would have been way harder for the vocalists to read, and also because it was half the price of the other one. (I was tempted to start singing it, but I was afraid bins might start flying off the shelves or something.) I paid for it, and as I left I half-expected to see Mike in the doorway with a caged owl and a toothsome grin! (it's funny, because he's also a friendly tall person....) After returning to IES and retrieving Mike's dry clothes, we decided to have dinner and have a South Park marathon at his place. We stopped at my place to pick up yoghurt for the fruit salad and the South Park CDs, and then we walked to his apartment, which is about 3 blocks down the Linke Wienzeile. (it's moderately close....less than one subway stop) We had pizza and fruit with yoghurt, which was very good. I also got to meet his quasi-eccentric landlord, which was fun. We then watched South Park for about 3 hours, after which I went home. JB got home shortly after I did, and he convinced me to stay up with him and watch "Airplane!", so we watched it.

Today I had an interesting schedule: Tour, Work, Tour, Work! I woke up a bit late and had to rush to Stephansdom for the AA&A tour, which was very, very interesting. I won't go into all the details, but it was fun to hear about the history of the church's construction, and also all the little legends behind all the relics and statues and things. After that I had to run back to IES to work at the library, and right after work I met the rest of my music history class for our tour of the Figarohaus, the apartment where Mozart lived while writing Figaro. That was very, very fun, and Dr. Solvik had a lot of interesting things to say about Mozart, especially about his life in Vienna. It was a trippy experience to walk on the same floor where Mozart walked (literally the same floor....they stripped down all the layers to reveal the original wood). Right after that tour I went back to the library for another 2.5 hour shift! After work I wolfed down a kebap (the only food I had had up to that point) and went back to Stephansdom to meet JB and Jess for the organ concert there. The concert was really really good, with works by Bach, Franck, and a lot of other composers I wasn't familiar with (including a couple composers from Poland, the homeland of the organist that was playing....according to the program he tries to play Polish music a lot here in Austria) Some pieces were organ and trumpet, and some (like the Bach and the Franck) were just organ. All the pieces were really good, especially this one about windows...I don't remember the name, but the composed used the same chorale tune as the opening of the 1812 overture....when I first heard that chord progression in the piece, my head snapped up and I turned around and mouthed to JB: "1812?" and he nodded with a grin. It was really fun, albeit freezing cold outside. (not too bad in the church, though) After coming home I did my German homework, watched some Family Guy, and now I'm about ready to go to bed!