Dr. Eric Conway writes:
Day 5 - Bratislava - Melk - Mondsee - Salzburg
Today
was perhaps the most strenuous travel day that we will have on the
tour. We must leave early to travel back to Austria - Salzburg. We
also must tour an abbey and give a concert - not to check into our hotel
until around 11PM. If you are reading this, you may say what great
experiences, however, for anyone who is on the road for more than a
couple of days, living out of a suitcase, and working everyday in their
profession, the entire process is very strenuous. I only can think
about professional artists that give concerts every night in a different
location, how it does take a toll on the body. Don’t feel sorry for us
- LOL!
Although I have shown a few photos of
food on this tour, we were surprised at the region’s approach to some
food. For example,in Slovakia, they are known for their bread which is
stuffed with walnuts! Most back home would never think of stuffing
bread with walnuts, but with a little natural sugar in the recipe, it
was extremely tasty (see photo of bread from breakfast).
On
the way to Salzburg, we stopped to tour a Benedictine Abbey in a town
called Melk in Austria. The abbey was founded in 1089 with an extensive
library still in use today with over one hundred thousand books. The
abbey was beautifully perched over the Danube river. One of the reasons
for the visit was to sing in the sanctuary in the abbey because of the
world-famous acoustics. However, due to a wedding that was taking place
while we were there, we had to forego the informal singing experience-
which was perfectly fine by all.
We then
traveled to Mondsee, Austria. You may not have ever heard of this
Austrian town, but you certainly know it. It has the designation of
having the most photographed church in the world! I am speaking about
the Parish Church at Mondsee where the wedding in the Sound of Music
took place! If you are older, the Sound of music was such a part of our
culture, you could not but be taken by the thought of visiting the
structure. Given that the movie was released in 1965, most of today’s
millennials have never seen the movie, let alone heard of it. If you
are a musician, you are more likely to be familiar with the movie
because of the ear-training song- Do-re-mi. To make sure that our
students could get the most out of our visit and concert in the Mondsee
church, we played The Sound of Music movie on the bus. This made
everyone ripe for the experience of visiting this iconic landmark, not
only in Austrian culture but even American culture.
Like
in Bratislava, we were the choir for the mass in Mondsee. This time,
the service was in German not the Slovak language. We played a much
bigger rolle in this service than in Bratislava. For example, for the
Kyrie part to the mass, we sang our Kyrie from the Gospel mass. For the
Gloria part of the mass, we sang our Gloria. I believe I saw the priest
even clapping his hands when we sang our spirited versions of our
Gospel Mass in service.
I must say that I
have never experienced an acoustic environment like yesterday in the
Mondsee church. We did not use any microphones, which are always
problematic due to balance issues. In this church, the soloists sounded
like they were mic’d even though no mics were ever held. Of course,
you can imagine the sheer power disbursed when the Morgan choir sang. I
was able to successfully negotiate the choir to sing under soloists for
a perfect balance and blend.
After the
concert, we had a group dinner. One huge difference with the
presentation of food in this region is the conspicuous absence of bread
in the meal. We have never been served bread with a meal since we have
arrived in the Europe, (with the exception breakfast). In place of
bread were potatoes served as an appetizer at each meal. One meal we
had potato soup, without broth! Last night we were served potatoes with
our salad. Everyone agreed that the salad with potatoes was extremely
flavorful. Obviously, potato is their starch rather than bread.
Alas,
I believe that one of the greatest benefits of traveling across the
globe is tasting different foods. In tasting the foods you are tasting
the culture. Surprisingly,, virtually all group members are trying all
foods, which is definitely part of the tourist experience.
After
a 30 minute drive, we quickly checked into our Salzburg hotel around
10:45 PM. Tomorrow, we must get up early to of course and being Sunday -
attend Mass. See photos and video from the day!
EC
Link to performance at Mondsee Church - Be Still and Know that I am God
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. - Aristotle
************************************Eric Conway, D.M.A.
Fine and Performing Arts Department, Chair
Morgan State University
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