Hello!!
I am still alive everyone! I hope you all are too! If anyone comes to Salzburg, it is bound and determined that you WILL see some sort of musical performance while you are here. I, however, get many more chances to experience real Austrian and European musical performances than many!! I have already been to two concerts and they were definitely great to watch and listen to, but also a learning experience!!
I for one am taking a History of Music class here at Salzburg College, so I am required to go to at least five concerts and write reports on them. I have to say what pieces were featured, about the composers and their music and the history of the pieces, the differences between 'movements,' and my overall reaction and impression of the performance! This is definitely way more than I am used to knowing about music, especially classical music. I have been learning all about the history of Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Debussy, Bach, Brahms, and many other guys that I may or may not have heard of!
So, the first concert. This was in the Schoss Mirabell, an old building that houses the mayor and offices of Salzburg government. I was expecting to go to a big concert hall with a stage and concert seats...nope. I walked into a rather large open room that had about nine rows of chairs on the floor with two or so chairs up front beside a piano! The room could probably hold a hundred people, but it seemed so much tinier than i was expecting.
This first concert featured W.A. Mozart, Claude Debussy, and L.V. Beethoven. There was a sonata with the piano and violin, one with the cello and piano, and a trio with all three instruments. The music was consider 'chamber music.' (any one reading this who knows about music and history has to understand that I do NOT know much about this kind of music and these are one of a kind experiences for me at this time of my life!) So, the piece was played, but you have to make sure you don't clap a pauses that seem like the end of the piece, cuz it is just the end of a 'movement.' Most pieces have 3 or 4 movements. If you clap, you both embarrass yourself like crazy and ruin the piece!! (I did not clap till the entire piece was done) Then, after the piece, the players get up and walk out while we clap, then they come back in and bow and we clap, they leave, come back and bow, we clap and finally when we stop clapping they stop coming back in and bowing. This concert was so nice to listen to, but it is just so different for me to listen to any kind of music with string instruments!!
My second performance that I have been able to go to so far was a very big orchestra concert. This concert hall did meet my expectations. We were in the big Salzburg Festival Hall where world-wide people perform year-round (especially during the big festival in the summer) and the stage is supposedly one of the biggest opera stages in the world. The house can seat 2,300 people. This concert featured Joseph Haydn, Bela Bartok, and Johannes Brahms. There were two symphonies and one concert with solo viola and the orchestra. This concert was so much bigger and better than the first. Of course, as it was an orchestra performance, there were so many more instruments. It was so neat to hear all the different ones together. There was still 'movements' and a conductor who left and came back after the pieces until we stopped clapping.
It was mesmerizing to see all the bows of the violins, violas, and cellos flying in the exact same way at the exact same time. But the thing that I will remember the most, is all the clapping at the end of the performance!! The performance ended with a very romantic symphony from Brahms and then the clapping began and the bowing happened, and went on, and went on. I think after the fifth time of the conductor coming back in, he finally got back on his podium, told us in German they were gonna play some Number 10 piece and we heard more! Then, we clapped some more. Twice more he came out and then got back on his podium and played us something Number 3. It was pretty sweet to get an encore for real. Finally after bowing once after the second extra piece the conductor shaked a lot of the players hands and left and the players started to pack up, so we had to leave and stop clapping finally!! Our History of Music teacher also came to the show with us and said that was a lot of clapping. He kinda laughed and said that was nothing!!! I guess I will just have to practice my clapping and become better conditioned!!
So, musical performances are not on rare occasion here in Salzburg. I will have a very trained ear by the end of the semester and hopefully be much more educated about music, its history, and about performances!!
Besides concerts, classes and homework, I have not been doing anything too much else. It is really crazy to believe, but I only have 3 weeks till I leave on my first break for 2 weeks to anywhere in Europe I choose to go! Time flies by really fast!
I will be hanging around Salzburg this weekend. Esther and I may go horseback riding, swimming, or some other recreational activity to keep life interesting. Friday, us girls plan on having a night out and hopefully we will find some dance places and meet some new people. I am still loving every minute here. My host family is still as great as ever and I am feeling alive and well.
I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying all that you are up to. Keep in touch and take care!
Miss you all,
Love ya tons,
Dana
I am still alive everyone! I hope you all are too! If anyone comes to Salzburg, it is bound and determined that you WILL see some sort of musical performance while you are here. I, however, get many more chances to experience real Austrian and European musical performances than many!! I have already been to two concerts and they were definitely great to watch and listen to, but also a learning experience!!
I for one am taking a History of Music class here at Salzburg College, so I am required to go to at least five concerts and write reports on them. I have to say what pieces were featured, about the composers and their music and the history of the pieces, the differences between 'movements,' and my overall reaction and impression of the performance! This is definitely way more than I am used to knowing about music, especially classical music. I have been learning all about the history of Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Debussy, Bach, Brahms, and many other guys that I may or may not have heard of!
So, the first concert. This was in the Schoss Mirabell, an old building that houses the mayor and offices of Salzburg government. I was expecting to go to a big concert hall with a stage and concert seats...nope. I walked into a rather large open room that had about nine rows of chairs on the floor with two or so chairs up front beside a piano! The room could probably hold a hundred people, but it seemed so much tinier than i was expecting.
This first concert featured W.A. Mozart, Claude Debussy, and L.V. Beethoven. There was a sonata with the piano and violin, one with the cello and piano, and a trio with all three instruments. The music was consider 'chamber music.' (any one reading this who knows about music and history has to understand that I do NOT know much about this kind of music and these are one of a kind experiences for me at this time of my life!) So, the piece was played, but you have to make sure you don't clap a pauses that seem like the end of the piece, cuz it is just the end of a 'movement.' Most pieces have 3 or 4 movements. If you clap, you both embarrass yourself like crazy and ruin the piece!! (I did not clap till the entire piece was done) Then, after the piece, the players get up and walk out while we clap, then they come back in and bow and we clap, they leave, come back and bow, we clap and finally when we stop clapping they stop coming back in and bowing. This concert was so nice to listen to, but it is just so different for me to listen to any kind of music with string instruments!!
My second performance that I have been able to go to so far was a very big orchestra concert. This concert hall did meet my expectations. We were in the big Salzburg Festival Hall where world-wide people perform year-round (especially during the big festival in the summer) and the stage is supposedly one of the biggest opera stages in the world. The house can seat 2,300 people. This concert featured Joseph Haydn, Bela Bartok, and Johannes Brahms. There were two symphonies and one concert with solo viola and the orchestra. This concert was so much bigger and better than the first. Of course, as it was an orchestra performance, there were so many more instruments. It was so neat to hear all the different ones together. There was still 'movements' and a conductor who left and came back after the pieces until we stopped clapping.
It was mesmerizing to see all the bows of the violins, violas, and cellos flying in the exact same way at the exact same time. But the thing that I will remember the most, is all the clapping at the end of the performance!! The performance ended with a very romantic symphony from Brahms and then the clapping began and the bowing happened, and went on, and went on. I think after the fifth time of the conductor coming back in, he finally got back on his podium, told us in German they were gonna play some Number 10 piece and we heard more! Then, we clapped some more. Twice more he came out and then got back on his podium and played us something Number 3. It was pretty sweet to get an encore for real. Finally after bowing once after the second extra piece the conductor shaked a lot of the players hands and left and the players started to pack up, so we had to leave and stop clapping finally!! Our History of Music teacher also came to the show with us and said that was a lot of clapping. He kinda laughed and said that was nothing!!! I guess I will just have to practice my clapping and become better conditioned!!
So, musical performances are not on rare occasion here in Salzburg. I will have a very trained ear by the end of the semester and hopefully be much more educated about music, its history, and about performances!!
Besides concerts, classes and homework, I have not been doing anything too much else. It is really crazy to believe, but I only have 3 weeks till I leave on my first break for 2 weeks to anywhere in Europe I choose to go! Time flies by really fast!
I will be hanging around Salzburg this weekend. Esther and I may go horseback riding, swimming, or some other recreational activity to keep life interesting. Friday, us girls plan on having a night out and hopefully we will find some dance places and meet some new people. I am still loving every minute here. My host family is still as great as ever and I am feeling alive and well.
I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying all that you are up to. Keep in touch and take care!
Miss you all,
Love ya tons,
Dana
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