This week in Bonn has been a music-packed week for me.
One goal of mine for this year is to re-discover music. I know it probably sounds cheesy and stupid, but after having allowed music to become work for the past 4 years, I found myself forgetting how to just sit back, relax, and listen to a song (or a singer, or a choir, or an orchestra, or music in any capacity, really) without either being analytical or measuring myself against the person or persons performing. Somehow in the course of the degree, I forgot how much I really like music.
Luckily, I'm in close quarters here with people who also love music, though none are necessarily as opera-focused as myself. There aren't even words to describe watching another person experience the beauty of 'Casta Diva' or the trio from Der Rosenkavalier for the first time. I think part of my own journey--probably for the rest of my life--lies in learning to stop analyzing and simply allowing myself to enjoy the experience of music again.
On Tuesday, I was able to go to rehearsal for the International Choir for the first time; last week, I was dealing with a lot of paperwork and offices which were only open during choir time. That fateful Tuesday, I made the life decision to sing 1st soprano--I think I momentarily forgot how enthusiastic (read: loud and obnoxious) I am while singing. During the next rehearsal, I promptly moved myself to the alto section so that I would stand out less. Self-conscious opera singer? Here I am.
Southern Chorale--I miss you to death and would promise somebody my firstborn if I could get a copy of our Bach B-Minor Mass shipped over. (I'd also be glad to send you Germany-ish things of equal value in return, if you prefer that to a firstborn.)
On Friday night, Diego, Martha, and I dressed up and went to hear Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. The concert was nice, but I was sitting under a staircase in the Beethovenhalle, and during the most lovely violin solo of the whole piece, a man with squeaky shoes walked down the stairs. Martha said after the concert that she basically thought that I was going to breathe fire at this man. If looks could kill.... oops.
On Sunday, I went to Mass at the Münster Basilica (pictured in my last post, I believe). It was a lovely service...in German. And I forgot to get a hymnal. Naturally. So there I am, knowing all the tunes and none of the words...because they're in German. (And I'm in Germany. Wow.) The organist was wonderful although the music was much more morose than I was expecting.
Sunday night, I went to hear Mahler 9, yet another Beethovenfest concert. I was floored and overwhelmed in so many ways. Despite my love of all things in the late-Romantic German category (art, music, literature), I was unprepared for the gut-wrenching beauty of Mahler's 9th. For what felt like an entire minute after the end of the fourth movement, no one in the audience even breathed. I don't even have the vocabulary to describe it (in German or English).
Tonight, I'm going to hear a concert of Richard Strauss lieder--my absolute favorite, and what I just finished researching prior to 'completing' my music degree at USM. I've only ever heard these pieces performed in student recitals, so I think it will be interesting to hear a live German interpretation of music that 1.) I love basically more than all other music, and 2.) I have such strong opinions about.
On a non-music related note, I've fallen in love with vegan food in Germany.
And one final story:
Today on the train, my friend and I were speaking some German, some English. As we approached our stop, a man sitting in the seat across from us stopped us and said basically, "I'm sorry for interrupting, but I have to tell you that your English is very good."
Yes, sir. Yes, it is.
;)
hahahaha your English is very good. German WIN. Also #musicenvy
ReplyDelete