Day 068: Music appreciation, Vienna style
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
68 — Music appreciation, Vienna style
09-October-1971
(Sat.)
TRANSCRIPT
Couldn’t practice: (1) pimple on my lip; (2) closed
rooms early. Thus, spent the day mostly reading up on
past news (Time [Magazine])—very discouraging. No
wonder I’m a pessimist.
Went to [the] “München grüst Wien” exhibit at
Rathaus—typical exhibit. Not bad. Mostly about the
1972 Olympics in Munich. [I] Even had a glass of
Munich beer outside the hall.
Saw Boris
Godunov again. Enjoyed it much
better because of the better sound in the Gallerie.
The music is beginning to grow on me—especially the
folk quality of [the music]. I got much more out of
it this second time.
I am continually amazed and “joyed” [joyful] by the
spirit of how the people welcome the music. The
applause is not the typical “polite” applause, but
always enthusiastic and, I believe, sincere. The
applause never stops. Just the acknowledgment of a
“good” (usually excellent) orchestra takes a long
time. And especially for good performances by the
group and singers. This is what I call
appreciation of
music.
REFLECTIONS
Pimple
deflects practice. Didn’t
practice today, that means no complaining.
1972
Summer Olympics preview. I don't
remember anything about the exhibit that I went to,
but it was partially about the Olympics that were
coming to Munich, Germany in the summer of 1972. I
suppose this was a preview. At the time, no one knew
that these 1972 Olympics would be marred by the
grievous tragedy of the murder of 11 Israeli Olympic
athletes. I will be making a trip to Munich before
the year is up.
Boris Godunov 2. Seeing an
opera a second time allows you to gain more
understanding of the music. Do it when you can.
That’s where owning a good CD collection, the iTunes
Store, and an iPod come in handy—you can listen to
your favorite music again, and again. How did
civilization exist before the iPod? It’s seems almost
unreal that we once listened to vinyl records, 45s,
33s, [78s were before my time], 8-track tapes, and
cassettes. Did you know that the CD is 25 years old?
(I am fairly certain.)
Appreciation
of music. A common
theme in this journal is the obvious appreciation of
music by the Viennese audiences. There is great music
to be had, experienced, and appreciated in Vienna.
It’s such a good feeling to experience this—to be in
those audiences. Nothing beats great, live music.
Realistically, in the modern world, it’s often very
expensive and you don't live close enough to venues
to go very often.
In 1971 Vienna, I was within streetcar or walking
distance of most concerts. As students, we often
went standing
room at many
concerts, and always went standing
room at the
opera—about 10s ($1) a pop, if I remember.
See ya tomorrow.
John
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