Day 062: A day of contrasts
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day 62
— A day of contrasts
03-October-1971
(Sun.)
TRANSCRIPT
Vienna Choir Boys [Vienna Boys' Choir]
Went to hear them. Excellent. Very elaborate (many
priests and a bishop) church service in the
Burgkappelle. [They] Did
Benjamin Britten Mass in D-minor
for boys
choir—contemporary, and I really enjoyed it. Must
look into it some more.
For standing room, you must get there extremely
early. The only bad thing—too many people.
Spent [the] rest of the day reading and writing. Read
“Time” [Magazine]—after reading of all the problems
that the U.S. has, we might as well “blow up the
world now.” It’s very easy to be a pessimist;
especially after reading the news.
REFLECTIONS
Vienna
Boys' Choir. Ok, it’s
not the Vienna Choir Boys, it’s the Vienna Boys'
Choir. This was not a concert but an actual church
mass, once again. That’s the third mass that I’ve
been to that performed an actual composed mass during
its service. Vienna—what a city! You’ve heard that
before. Wikipedia:
Vienna Boys'
Choir.
Benjamin
Britten,
Mass in D-minor. Benjamin
Britten (1913–1976), a British composer, is best
known for his work,
The Young Person's Guide to the
Orchestra. I don't
remember the
Mass that well.
Here is some more information from Wikipedia
on
Benjamin
Britten.
I was in standing room again, inexpensive but many
people. That’s ok, I was hearing live music. Worth
it.
Reading
about the world. Well, I
spent the rest of the day reading Time magazine. I
guess the news wasn’t good—I just remembered that we
were still in the Vietnam War (almost forgot), and so
my comments about blowing everything up. Obviously, I
didn’t like the war. I didn’t blame the soldiers—it
is always terrible reading about the casualties of
war, and the soldiers are the ones that pay.
It seems like 36 years later,
Time magazine
is still reporting about war, this time the Iraqi
war. Yes, it’s easy to be a pessimist after reading
the news and seeing so much turmoil on TV. All we can
do is hope and work to see that these problems that
constantly seem to plague humanity can be resolved.
A
day of contrasts. What a
contradictory day. A day of contrasts. From the
heaven of a Britten mass to the hell of war. Looking
back, I would say that I took reading about the war a
bit too personally. It is harder to do when you are
young. We do take these things personally, especially
on a topic like war which encompasses real-world
suffering. I would generally say that I’m a realist.
Often, that means I’m a bit pessimistic. I like to
think that my desire is to be optimistic.
John
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