Day 206: The Viennese experience; the Valkyries
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
206 — The Viennese experience; the Valkyries
24-February-1972
(Donnerstag–Thur.)
TRANSCRIPT
Another day.
Horn lesson, not bad. Never satisfied.
El. Musik till about four o’clock. Boy, does it wear
you out. Sometimes, for relaxing, I’ll listen to the
tape tracks of the old movies I made. That “pop”
[music] sure does help. It sort of brightens me up
and makes me feel happy.
Then after returning home, went to see “The
Valkyries” second opera of The Ring
by Wagner.
Even though it was extremely long, I wasn’t bored at
all. The singing was excellent and I don’t even
remember hearing anyone that I didn’t like. Good.
REFLECTIONS
Electronic
project. Moving
forward. This is good. I am committed.
Pop
tapes. I made a
few copies of pop albums that I owned onto cassette,
bringing a few with me. You need a popular break once
in a while. Actually, today, I listen more to pop
music than the classical genre. I love both and most
music, in fact. I owned an extensive LP collection
that was lost or sold years later after I moved away
from home. Wish I had those now—a lot of contemporary
music, electronic music, classical, popular, The
Beatles, The Stones and many more.
The
Vienna Experience. Imagine
the beauty of being in Vienna, seeing world-class
operas and concerts, all the time. In most of my
adult life, I have been over an hour’s commute from
New York’s concert, opera, and theatre scene. In
reality, you need two hours each way to get
there—drive or take the train, traffic, park, eat,
settle in, and finally
enjoy the
music. It’s expensive. In order to have my “Vienna
experience” you have to be living right in the middle
of the music scene with easy, quick access. And be
affordable, even standing room, tickets. That was
what I had in Vienna. That’s what I miss.
Wagner’s
Valkyrie. Die
Walküre. A great
opera at night with wonderful singers. The picture
(below) is of the 1899 Schotts vocal score cover.
(Wikipedia Commons)
Valkyrie ringtones. I’m
tempted to use the Valkyries motive (you know the
one) as my wife’s ringtone. The opening picture is of
my wife and I making believe we are Wotan and
Brunhilde. Thanks to Wikipedia Commons for snapping
this photo.
Valkyrie links:
The Valkyrie legend on
Wikipedia
Famous Ride of the Valkyries
(opera) on YouTube (Boulez)
Famous Ride of the Valkyries
(orchestra) on YouTube
Die Walküre on
Wikipedia
Wagner on
Wikipedia
John
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