Searching for Beethoven

I set out in search of Beethoven's grave. Feeling determined, I hopped a train and started on my way. I sat and pondered what it was going to be like to see his grave. He's one of my favorite composers and has had a huge influence on my musical growth. I have been learning pieces by him for years. Through high school, he was, hands down, my favorite composer and I couldn't get enough of his piano pieces.

As I came closer, I got onto a street car to finish the last leg of my journey. I looked up at the map to check how many stops it was before I arrived. I stared a little puzzled for a moment as it suddenly dawned on me that the last four stops went to the same cemetery. Where was I to get off? I could be wandering for hours. I didn't let it worry me too much as I thought there would be plenty of signs pointing me in the right direction. After all, it was Beethoven.

I decided to just get out at the first stop and head right in. I looked left, right, up, down, backwards and frontwards just to find that there were absolutely no signs. I probably should have checked out a map of the cemetery before I left, but where is the adventure in that? I began walking down long stretches of road just checking out this amazing graveyard. I just decided that it couldn't be that hard to just stumble upon his grave in this maze of thousands of graves. I was in awe with the grandeur of some of these grave sites.

I soon realized that I probably wasn't going to simply stumble upon Beethoven's site. Luckily, there wasn't anyone around on a cold, gray, snow-threatened afternoon so I couldn't ask for help. I tried to find a map of some sort but I failed to find any. This didn't get me down, however. I was willing to take an adventure in any form that it was offered to me. I just kept moving forward with the thought, "this is going to be completely worth it" in the back of my mind.

Out of nowhere, a beautiful, enormous green dome emerged from the trees. I forgot about the cold and the walking and Beethoven and was drawn towards this giant building. As I came around the corner, I beheld this.

The clouds started parting and for a moment, I could see the sun trying to break through. This only confirmed my desire to go inside. I hurried my pace and made my way to the staircase. The Friedhofskirche. I went up the stairs and tentatively opened the door, not knowing whether I was allowed to enter or not. I closed the door behind me and found myself in this beautiful church.

I wasn't hear too long before my eyes reached heavenward. Up above, I saw the sky I have been longing to see for days.

I sat and stared at the ceiling, being completely captivated by the bright, contrasting blue and gold. Symbolism of the sun, moon and stars came rushing to mind beholding this scene. After some time, I began looking around, hoping to find someone that could be sharing this wondrous moment with me. Alas, no one was in sight. I listened intently in the silent chapel for any signs of life... Nothing...

I began looking around and investigating. I found hidden in a corner an elevator. I hesitatingly pressed the button, worried some alarm or something would happen not allowing me to enter. The elevator came down, opened up and I stepped in. I looked for special key or card access to actually make the elevator go somewhere, but couldn't find anything. So, I pressed a button with a big, long German word next to it. Up I went. After I walked out, I left the elevator and went through a door.

The next thought that came into my mind, "could I get over to the organ?"

Dang.

The door is locked. I headed back to the elevator and pushed some more buttons. I began my descent back down to where I was before. The elevator kept going down and down with no end in sight. Finally, it stopped and I exited into what is the crypt of the church.

There were several grave sites down here, but one in particular that caught my attention. It was massively huge, obviously for someone of great importance to this church.

It belonged to Bürgermeister "Doktor" Lueger. It seems that he was a very influential man, however, he was not liked by all people because of his anti-semitic views. There was one person that adored him because of these views, the Austrian Adolf Hitler, who took these views to an unimaginable extreme. This is, sadly, the end of Lueger's lineage as he was a bachelor his entire life.

An interesting feature of this church is that there is a window, or a "veil," that separates the chapel from the crypt. I found this to be very interesting.

I love all of the symbolism that can be found in religious and sacred places. Symbolism takes something important and that has meaning and somehow makes it even more meaningful.

There were many beautiful things that I found on my personal tour of the Friedhofskirche, including this stained glass.

But by far, my favorite discovery was this sculpture of the Christus in copper. It was beautiful. I love statues of the Christus. For me, it really means a lot. It is a portrayal of the living Christ, bearing His wounds of the crucifixion for all to see. It symbolizes everything that Christ did for us. But most of all, He was resurrected. He overcame that death which comes to us all. It is a symbol of hope and love. He overcame all so that we do not have to fear.

Eventually, I did find Beethoven, but I'll have to save that for another day.

Stephansdom

This is St. Stephen's Cathedral located right in the heart of Vienna. It is a magnificently huge cathedral. Definitely the largest I have ever been in. 

Our group has been learning a lot about this cathedral. There is so much history that goes along with it. Some parts of it date back to the early 12th century. It was constantly renovated so it has a pretty cool progression from the use of the Romanesque style to the Gothic.

The front of the building is one of the oldest parts. It is in the Romanesque style as shown by the squareness, blockiness and the tiny windows. The entire cathedral used to be just a church and was entirely built in the Romanesque style. Gradually, they started renovating it from the back to the front using Gothic techniques and style. Originally, this was a simple basilica, which means that originally had a main center aisle and two smaller aisles to each side. It also didn't have the single gigantic roof that it has now. Now the cathedral follows the form of a hall where the three aisles are the same height and width under a single roof. 

Also, the gigantic spire was added later. The idea behind this church was to bring a bishop to Vienna. In order for the people to see a bishop, they needed to travel far in order to do so. However, despite being built in the 12th century, they did not get a bishop until the reign of Frederick III in the mid-15th century. They thought that by constantly renovating and beautifying the building, they would get a bishop faster. Then 300 years later, they get a bishop, it becomes a cathedral and is quite the piece of architectural progression.

Now, we have to take a trip inside! It's a must!

This is what it looks like when you first enter. It is massive and everything is so intricately decorated. A key feature to the Gothic style is the constant battle between good and evil. There are many portrayals of evil trying to enter into something only to be pushed away by a holy figure. Take for instance this pulpit.

It is separated into three sections; the bottom, middle and top. Each is sculpted from solid pieces of limestone. Crazy! The detail is astonishing and I don't know how the artist was able to give such depth only carving from a single piece. This was created by Master Pilgrim. We know this because he actually left his signature in an interesting way.

He actually created a self-portrait and signed his initials. Pretty cool. He also did another piece which I'll talk about later. 

Now, regarding the struggle between good and evil. The stairs leading up to the pulpit show this very well. 

On the rail are a line of toads trying to climb their way to the top. But, before they get to the top, there is a dog that is warding them off. Pretty neat. That is also the reason for the gargoyles that surround many Gothic buildings.

Pretty scary guys. If I were evil, I wouldn't want to try and get past them. 

Here is another piece by Master Pilgrim. He built an organ loft which has a quite interesting story. Here is what it looks like.

While he was constructing this, his friends would often come to watch him and scoff at him. They told him that as soon as he took down the scaffolding, the loft would collapse and fall down. In response to that, Master Pilgrim said that he would bear it on his shoulders for all eternity. He then did another self-portrait of him holding up the structure with his shoulders. That'll show those punks.

Now, have a look at this. This is the ceiling of one of the main sections.

This shows the progression from the back of the building to the front. When they first started renovating, the Gothic style was just starting and that can be seen by the simple cross ribbing at the top of the picture. As time went on, the ribbing became much more complex and can be seen as you approach the front. The rule for dating the Gothic period is really easy. The simpler it is, the earlier it is. The more complex, the later.

Now just a little tragedy about this cathedral. During the Baroque period, the people thought that is was too dark inside because of the stained glass. So, what do they do? They take out whatever they could and replaced it with these nasty, boring tinted glass. Luckily, they didn't take all of it out. Back behind the main altar. The stained glass is beautiful and it is so sad that most of it isn't there anymore.

There are some remaining pieces that are displayed in the Museum Wien.

Aren't these just beautiful? Too bad they pulled them out. The inside would have been amazingly colorful when the sun hit these. I wish I could have seen that.

Here is a beautiful baptismal font.

It was very fashionable to have your children baptized in St. Stephan's cathedral. A lot of important and famous people had their children baptized here. Most notably of all is Mozart's children. Pretty cool, huh? The top of this font can be moved by a rope on a pulley system. The most elaborate lid I have ever seen in my life. Why don't more things come with lids like this?

This was an amazing building and there is just so much inside that it would take me forever to create a post about it all. These are just some of my favorite highlights. I hope you enjoyed and were able to make it to the end. I should give a reward to anyone that does. :)

Accordion Men

You know, I never thought I would be regretting not bringing my accordion with me to Vienna. I knew there was going to be something amazing here involving the accordion, I just didn't know how amazing. Check it!

Definitely not your average bums on the street. All three of them were legit players. Why am I taking horn lessons when I could be taking accordion lessons from these gentlemen? Believe me. They sounded amazing and wished I was one of them. Maybe the next time I'm here...

Talent Show

Welcome to the vicarious experience of the Vienna Young Adult Talent Show! I'll be with you guiding you through the amazing events of February 4, forgetting names and all other sorts of important details. Let's begin, shall we!

Meet Rebecca and Keily. They performed Adele's Someone Like You. Rebecca's English is awesome when you talk to her and when she sings, you would never know that she was Austrian! And Kiely nailed that piano part. 

Look at that concentration! It's no wonder she nailed every note on that page.

Meet girl and boy. :) Don't worry friends. I didn't forget everyone's name. Just these two. And maybe a few more to come... We'll see. I should really just find out their names. This post will be so boring without them.

Ok. Take two. Meet Tasia and Arnold, aka. Arnie. Tasia hails from Idaho but speaks perfect German (so jealous!). She also sings quite lovely. Arnie is going to law school but also plays the piano. He also sang this time around, which he said was not his best talent. They sang a duet from the movie Tangled  and then The Prayer (the one made famous by Josh Groban).

:: Sidenote :: Check this out regarding Josh Groban.

Meet Julia and Michelle. Julia plays the violin and Michelle plays the piano. They played fantastic piece. It was called the Israeli Concerto by George Perlman (Don't ask me how I remembered that because I didn't. I just asked my group. They are smart).

Yes. That is how it's done. Beautiful.

Then we had an improvisation, or rather, a comprivisation. 

Meet Peter. He's from Bratislava. He just sat down and made up a piece. Low notes. High notes. Pedal point. Everything needed for a successful composition.

Meet the best looking man in Vienna (other me: subtle Zach. me: Thanks. Humility and modesty are high on my list. other me: right). I played Fantasy for Horn by Malcom Arnold. At least my horn was shiny. That distracted everyone from the mistakes.

Meet Teancum. He solved that Rubik's cube in 1 min 7 sec. Before his mission, he could do it in about 20 sec. Amazing. I have never conquered the cube. Bucket list.

Meet Aly. She plays... the... cello? Umm... I did not know that. Wait! Look below! Quick!!!

Meet Aly and Christina. That's better. Aly is on piano and Christina is on Cello. They brought to us an amazing piece of American musical culture. From the west coast in California to the U.K... (wait... that's not in America) they played a mash up of pop tunes from Katy Perry to Coldplay. Thank you America!

Meet David and Raphael. David was easy to remember. So was Raphael. All I needed to do was think of the Ninja Turtles. They performed a hilarious skit using solely sound effects. They rode horses (above ground and under water), flew off cliffs, had a showdown with guns... need I say more?

Meet Liberty. Or should I say LiB3RTy (looks like one of those verification words). He laid down some tracks that he composed and rapped his heart out about the church and love, two staples of the rap world. He even had us put our hands in the air. And we did.

Meet the Three Amigos. I have absolutely no idea what their names are and I am now too lazy to find out. They performed a skit all in German. Do I know what was going on? Nope. But I laughed at appropriate times when everyone else was laughing. All I understood was the amigo on the right repeatedly said, "Ich bin soooo schön" (I'm soooo beautiful).

I hope you enjoyed your vicarious talent show! 

Supplemental Movie

Here is a video I took of the Uniqa Tower, about which I posted a week ago here. It's pretty sweet and I'm still mesmerized looking at it. So cool.

The Konzerthaus

The past couple of days, I have had the opportunity to attend the rehearsals of the Wiener Symphoniker. It was pretty amazing. Let me tell you all about it.

On Wednesday, February 1, I went to the rehearsal in the afternoon in which they were rehearsing Shostakovich's Festive Overture and Cello Concerto No. 1.  I also went back again today to hear them rehearse Tchaikovsky's Symphony no. 5, which is one of my favorite symphonies ever. It has been a while since I have attended a professional orchestra concert, the last time being The Rite of Spring with the Utah Symphony.

There was just something amazing about listening to them play. There was just something about the way that they were playing that literally sends chills down my spine. Sure, I have listened to these pieces several times before but hearing it live was very special. There is something about the pure sound of the instruments, unadulterated by digital devices and equipment (electronics, headphones, amplification, etc.). It was just me, my ears and the raw sounds of the orchestra in the Konzerthaus in Vienna. It was a beautiful experience and I wish that everyone that reads this could have witnessed and felt what I did while listening to them.

Also, to top this whole experience off was how beautiful it was inside of the concert hall. Don't worry, I have some pictures for you. I would love to play inside of here some day.