Beethoven lives upstairs

If you've ever studied music at any point, chances are you've had ceremonious viewings of this film with hoards of your nerdiest friends. I know I definitely did throughout my undergrad (no shame). 

Well imagine the nerdiest of all your music friends coming to visit when you live 2 hours from the birthplace of Ludwig, himself. So during Matthew's visit, to Bonn we went - basically on a pilgrimage for Matthew, who is more or less a collector of Beethoven houses (you'd be surprised at how many locales cash in on having his name on the mailbox at various points throughout the composer's life).

While in Bonn, I got to witness the kind of excitement usually reserved for small children meeting their favorite super heroes at amusement parks (or maybe that was just me meeting spandex-clad Batman at Six Flags...).

yeah, sorry it's blurry... you're not actually allowed to take photos inside the house.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, I'm in the process of google-proofing myself. Everything will be running the same (and what was public before will most likely remain public) but hopefully now when enquiring minds google my name (and I'm thinking mostly students), nothing of interest will pop up in the first few pages of results. Why do you all care? Well, a lot of account name changes are taking place. So for now, note that das Blog has a new URL and my twitter also has a new username! 

Dear horn

Dear Horn,
You will be the death of me while packing. I don't want to have to put you in my checked luggage. It hurts my heart to think of those scary luggage people throwing you around and you sitting helplessly in your case hoping not to die. But you are 10 cm to big to be taken as carry-on luggage without paying an additional 360€. So in the checked luggage you must go. And you will rob me of lots of weight limit to pack other things - like the clothes I can't seem to stop buying this week. Why do I keep buying clothes when I know I'm going to leave? I wish I could answer that, but I just can't stop! I've already got a suitcase full. And there is still so much. And you, horn. Just sitting there in the corner, taunting me. But I guess I'm still glad I brought you, since you've helped me make a lot of friends over the past two years. Stay safe all packed away! 

Love, Emily

and on a completely unrelated note: I know I've lived in Germany for two years and tackled many challenges using the German language, but I still feel really proud of myself when I make official phone calls to organize things and check information. So excuse me while I pat myself on the back for a minute. 

A fair trade

ladies and gentlemen, today was a gloriously lazy day! I slept, watched lots of tv (Nothing to Declare, of course!) met shahida for lunch and dis laundry. And it was amazing!

But then we had some education trading after dinner. Simon and shahida - who are working in PhDs in physics and biomedical sciences, respectively - gave me some intense science lessons. And in return I taught them a little music (and tuned simon's guitar). But gotta go now for some wii we sing!

Climbing on Statues with Wagner

Before you start to believe that Gemma and I spent my entire 5 day trip to Forchheim in our PJs (I'm sure I don't know what would give you that idea), let me confirm that we did not! We spent one day visiting the city of Bayreuth.

Bayreuth is most well-known for being the home of Richard Wagner back in the day and the current location of the annual Bayreuther Festspiele, a summer festival where only Wagner operas are performed. I therefore referred to Bayreuth as Wagner-land for the entire day.

And we did get to visit all the Wagner highlights. We saw the Festspielhaus (where the operas are preformed during the festival).

We saw his bust in the Wagner park. 

But we did miss visiting his grave because we were too busy taking this picture...

You have to admit, it was kind of worth it. In fact, aside from Wagner sight-seeing, we spent most of our day staking out spots (usually involving climbing on statues) for a good photo op or two. I'd say we were pretty successful. 

You can't judge a city by its fountains...

But you can totally love way more because of them. Case in point...

That's right ladies and gentlemen, that is a statue of a horn player. But wait, look at the close up. 

Even better, it's a horn player emptying his spit (I mean, really his horn is upside down and just look at the concentration in his face, what else could he possibly be doing?) 



poetic, eh? A horn player empties his spit and thus was born a fountain. I could not think of a more appropriate connection. 

But really, he's called the Bläserbrunnen (the best literal translation I can think of would be the "wind player fountain"... kind of a weird one to translate) and is located in the middle of the Altermarkt (old market) in Dortmund.

Why yes, I also think it's a sign that I belong in this city

The Zeltlager Series: am Lagerfeuer

Lagerfeuer is one of those words I love because it is a compound word where both parts translate exactly to the same parts of the compound word in English. Lager = camp and Feuer = fire. And thus we had our campfire.

Aside from being a very likable word, the Lagerfeuer was pretty much the place to be every day after sundown. At our particular campsite the campfire was in a covered area with stacked benches built in around it, which made it particularly nice the first couple nights when it rained.
 
Early in the night there was usually a game or two for the entire group. After that most people sat and chatted or played games in smaller groups. 

If anyone fell asleep around the campfire they would get drawn on. But the rule was that they could only be drawn on by members of the same section. I got to partake in this ritual hazing on the second night when one of the younger horn players fell asleep pretty early in the night. 

At midnight every night we sang songs (I mean, it is a music club). It always started with the same three: the song for Franken, the song for Bavaria, and then the German national anthem. There were words and music for the first two, but the national anthem they said "you all know it from memory"... so I just hummed along after the only three words I knew ("einigkeit und recht und freiheit"). At least I knew the melody. And, unfortunately for everyone else that was present, on the first night 

they had me sing the Star Spangled Banner. Alone. I mean, it was pretty bad (probably on par with the usual sorostitute that sings at the Basketball games), but at least I didn't forget the words! Thankfully, I only had to do it that once (I'm sure they decided they didn't want to have to suffer through it again). After the standard songs, we would sometimes sing for a little while longer, either well-known German songs or old pop songs (Hey Jude came up a few times). 

More often, however, we sang my favorite kind of songs. For lack of better word, I will call them the prost songs (prost means cheers). I don't know whether to love it because it's such a German thing to always cheers while drinking, or to love it because it's such a music nerd thing to have songs for it. Musicians are the same all over the 

world, for the record. 

So I will leave you now to reflect on the Lagerfeuer with a Zeltlager recording of "Ein Prost mit harmonischem Klangen" ("A cheers with harmony")

a night at the [drive in] opera

Let me start this post with a very generic statement: Vienna is an awesome city. And from the perspective of a [former] (<---yikes!) student of music, the city is that much more awesome.

One of the greatest things I've found about Vienna was how much it embraces it's rich musical culture, both historic and current. But I guess when you've got such strong ties to the musical world that go back centuries, it's hard not to show your pride. 

So, based on my recent excursion, I would like to present (in no particular order) my favorite musical findings in Vienna:

the Music Mile

If you take a few looks down every now and then while walking through Vienna, you'll start to notice little walk of fame stars pop up. If you take a close look though, you won't find Mickey Mouse or Brad Pitt on any of them. Instead, this stars are filled with the names of famous musicians from J.S. Bach to Tchaikovsky to the Vienna Philharmonik. Together, they make up a path through the city known as the Music Mile. The first star I stumbled across was from world famous director Herbert von Karajan. 


Composer Chocolates
Though not specifically exclusive to Vienna, the city makes sure these commemorative treats do not go unnoticed. Mozartkugeln (literally: Mozart balls, they're basically little chocolate, pistachio balls that have pictures of Mozart's face on the wrappers) are the most well known of these chocolate composer treats. But what I really appreciated was that in Vienna (and probably most places in Austria), Mozart is not the only composer to get a chocolate. 
Johann Strauss (composer of the Blue Danube waltz, which seems to be an unofficial Vienna theme song), although not the most well known composer to the general public (let's be honest, most people who don't know anything about music, even if they actually did recognize the name "Strauss" would probably be thinking of Richard anyway), is just as celebrated in chocolate form as his child prodigy Kugel counterpart. 

Conducting Hero

On our last day in Vienna, I wandered off to the museum Haus der Musik (House of Music). First of all, I would definitely recommend this museum to anyone who is visiting Vienna, whether you're a music enthusiast or not (and plan to spend at least 2 hours there). The museum contains exhibitions on the Vienna Philharmonic, famous composer (both Austrian and not), and a large portion dedicated to production and perception of sound (like I said, cool even if you're not into music). 
But the most exciting part comes right at the very end. Conducting hero. Ok, so it's not really called that, but that's basically what it is. You get to direct the Vienna Philharmonic through playing one of three different pieces. The best part is, the orchestra really follows your command. It slows down and speeds up depending on your conducting. If you go too fast, the strings start smoking before the orchestra stops and a violin player yells at you for being the worst conductor ever (not even kidding!). Unfortunately I didn't have time to wait to take a try, but I was glad to see this exists! 

The drive in opera

Ok, technically it's a "walk up" opera (I was just going for the poetic parallel to a drive in theater). This was by far my #1 favorite musical finding in Vienna. Outside the main Opera House, a large screen displays live feed of the opera being played inside. The huge screen and incredible sound (not to mention the whole, it's completely free thing), had already drawn a large crowd by the time we stumbled upon a public viewing of Wagner's Parsifal on our first night. People had brought chairs and blankets and picnics. Some you could tell had come for the whole show, while others (like us) were just caught walking by and drawn in. From what I could tell they do live public showings of every opera, weather permitting. I'm pretty sure I would be out there almost every day if I lived in Vienna. 

GA middle school band programs, FTW!

So remember that band I joined (the musikverein... I know you know it)...

Well, I was sitting at rehearsal this evening when the director of the youth band (who is also a member of the senior band) came over and asked me if I could lead a master class for the horns in the youth band. First of all AH! For as many band camps, horn sectionals I've ever led... OMG, never done it in German! But once I get past the impending terror of fumbling over broken German and confusing these kids more than helping them - it's pretty cool! I mean, I remember how excited I was by the surprising ease of being the member of a band in German, so maybe it will be cool to experience the language "situation" as the leader of the music... 

So, naturally, I agreed for this terrifying, yet awesome opportunity.

He gave me the scores for the pieces they're playing and I immediately noticed that one of them was dedicated to a middle school in Georgia. The Great Locomotive Chase, commissioned and dedicated to the 1999-2000 Tapp Middle School Symphonic Band. I don't know the program myself, but it was still exciting to think that with as many music educating friends I have in GA, that at least ONE person is familiar with that program. (like I said, it doesn't take much to excited me)

BUT WAIT! it gets better...

So I'm reading the notes on the inside when I come across the following paragraph:

It was composed in the fall of 1999 for the Tapp Middle School Concert Band under the direction of Erin Cole. The work is dedicated to the Tapp Middle School Band in commemoration of their performance at the University of Georgia in December of the same year

O.M.G. Here I am, sitting with my band in little Forchheim, Germany, holding a piece that was written for a band in the state I grew up in, to be played at the University I attended, at a festival I took part in! I don't know about you, but that is exciting stuff to me! It only would have been better if I had been at the 1999 Midfest, but alas, I went in 2000. 

I've been seriously buzzing about this little discovery for the past 90 minutes. I got home, ran in to tell Gemma, then ran back out saying "I'm so gonna blog about this!"

(don't judge me)

Music Club!

Yes, that's right, I have unofficially joined the Musikverein (which literally translates to music club) here in Forchheim. I say unofficially because I only went last week as a sort of "trial rehearsal," and I don't know if I need to sign a contract in blood or something first, but I'm definitely going to stay on!

What is a music club, you might ask. Well, you can check out the website (Musikverein Buckenhofen-Forchheim). But, on the off-chance that you don't speak German and can't understand the website (however, you can still see the awesome uniform I'll get to wear), it's sort of community music center. They have 3 or 4 different large ensembles, for all different abilities, classes for beginners, and small ensembles. I'll be playing with the sinfonische Blasorchester, which is basically the adult band. The members of this group are basically high school and up. It's a really nice group of people and a wonderfully relaxed atmosphere!

I have to admit that sitting through a two hour rehearsal run entirely in German was both the coolest and strangest musical experience I've ever had. Although my musical vocabulary is pretty limited (well, it's not like we ever had a day in German class where we discussed practical music terms), I was amazed at how much I understood immediately just by context and familiarity. I had to laugh (or at least grin ear to ear) when the director used practice techniques quite familiar to me. Isn't there some saying about music being the international language? Pardon the momentary cheesey-ness, but it was really amazing to be sitting in a room of 50+ other people who learned to play music half way across the world from where I did, in a different language and a different culture, and just be able to make music with them.

They seemed pretty excited to have me because I rounded out their horn section to a complete 4. The music we played was probably on a level somewhere between the UGA symphonic band and wind symphony. But considering I haven't played my horn in... well, let's just say a while... I wasn't looking for anything too challenging. In a few moments of fleeting horn-nerdy-ness, I noticed that only 2 of the 3 other horn players played double horns. And both of the 2 double horns were yellow brass Geyer wraps. And when I consider the amount of conn 8ds I've played with (usually silver), I guess I just feel like back home you usually see Kruspe wraps.... just thought that it was a fun little observation.

So after every rehearsal, one section brings snacks and drinks to share. This was a fun way to get to talk to people too! And I've decided that every rehearsal should end with beer and cake! :)

I'm really excited to have found a musical activity. I don't think I really realized how much I missed it, till I found myself enjoying the rehearsal so much!

....and don't worry, I'm still working on a legit oompa-band to join, too. :D

Music classes in Germany

So Yesterday I got to spend my morning observing two 7th grade music classes.

The first one I went to the teachers described as "praktisch" or "practical". In my opinion, it was more history-based. They started the lesson by singing a couple songs together - warming up, they're teacher told them. I noticed they didn't really discuss anything about the music they were singing, no looking at the meter, discussing the repeat signs, they just sang. To begin the actual lesson, they a cartoon drawing of 9 composers in a room, each with a defining characteristic. For example, Bach was surrounded by small children, beethoven had a hearing aid, Mozart was a small child at the piano, Schubert had a thought bubble of a man on a horse with his child (Erlkönig, anyone?), and Wagner was dreaming of an opera singer (besides, Wagner is incredibly recognizable, even in cartoon format). As a class they went through those, discussing why it was each one, which composers were grouped together (e.g. Bach and Handel were classical), where they lived (this was my favorite, because they were all cities the children actually knew! and some very close to the area... we're about 30 min Bayreuth), and what each composer was known for (church music, symphonies, piano music, etc).

After this review, the teacher explained that they would learn more about the Classical and Romantic periods in 8th and 9th grade, but in 7th grade, they would focus on Baroque. They listened to a typical Baroque piece and named the instruments they heard. When they got to the blockflöte, more commonly known to English speakers as the recorder, the teacher whipped one out to show them and busted out the piece they had just heard on it. I was impressed. They talked about why most music was composed in the Baroque period, where it was performed, who heard it, etc.

At the end of the class the teacher announced the school Big Band needed new members to replace those who had graduated. Who plays Saxophone? Who plays drums? Guitar? Trumpet? Trombone? Some of the kids had been playing their instrument for 4 or 5 years already (keep in mind they were only 7th graders) and when someone only had 1 or 2 years of experience the teacher would simply tell them, "oh, that's not enough, you can join in a year or two."

My second music class was again 7th graders and described to be more "Theoretisch" or "theoretical". When the teacher told me this, she seemed sure that I would not want to sit in on it. I had to explain to her that I had studied music in college and any sort of music class here, I would find very interesting. So I took my seat in the back of the class.

The lesson was 6/8 meter. They also warmed up by singing a song (in 6/8 of course), then the teacher began taking volunteers from the class to keep beet on various instruments. First just the dotted quarter beat on a tam (which I learned in German is still "tam" or "tam tam" or "aufhängende Tam" if it is on the drumset). After the class sing through with this new emphasized beat, a quarter-eighth quarter-eighth rhythm was added on the tamborine. 4 or 5 kids gave that a go before one of them could actually keep it consistant with the added singing. They did this exercise for maybe 20 or 25 minutes switching out different kids on all the instruments. Only afterwards did the teacher give an actual explanation of what 6/8 time was. They discussed why it wasn't the same as 3/4 even though it had the same amount of notes in it. then they reviewed the value of the notes: eighth, quarter, dotted quarter.

At the very end of the lesson, they discussed how a conducter would show 6/8 time to the ensemble. First the pattern in 6, then the pattern in 2 (with an explanation as to why it would need to be in 2)

So those were my music classes yesterday. Hopefully I'll be able to visit a few more through out the year. It's always very interesting. I also hope I'll get to sit in on some orchestra or big band rehearsals.