Dr. Eric Conway writes:
Day 6 in Salzburg, Austria:
Today, Sunday,
May 27, 2018 was the day for the Morgan choir to explore the historic
city of Salzburg, Austria. Salzburg literal means Salt Castle, which
comes from the many barges that carried salt on the adjacent Saltzach
river which had to pay a toll to pass through the region. The city is
known for being the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as well as the
setting of several scenes from The Sound of Music.
Our
first obligation was to sing for the 11:30 AM Sunday mass at the
Salzburg Cathedral. I was excited to return to Salzburg, given I have
not returned here since my college years. Although Vienna is the
Austrian city of culture, Salzburg is the Austrian city of Music. As we
entered the city, we could hear musicians performing around the city.
We quickly took a group photo in front of the Salzburg cathedral.
Many
of the choir members have seen many formidable cathedrals before but
were not ready for the arresting beauty of this cathedral. Given the
size of the city of 150,000 inhabitants, currently being mostly college
town with over 30,000 students, we did not know how beautiful and ornate
the cathedral would be. We were told later that the Salzburg Cathedral
was where the assistant to the Pope led his diocese. Salzburg was
known as the Vatican City of the north in Europe! For this reason, the
Catholic Church made a huge investment in this church, mostly financed
by the salt mines of the area. Salt was quite the commodity in earlier
times due to being one of the only ways that food could be preserved.
The
mass went well. We happened to have a few students who are Catholic
who were able to actually take Communion during the mass. During this
tour, we participated in three different masses, One mass at a Jesuit
church in Bratislava, another at the Parish Church in Mondsee, and
finally at the Salzburg Cathedral. In participating in the masses of
these churches, although most choir members are not Catholic, the
experience further enhanced our cultural experience in these central
European countries. Each of the services were led in their native
tongue. Although the mass is constant around the world, every church,
like home, has their own approach to the mass. I believe that all choir
members enjoyed a richer cultural experience because of our
participation in the masses. We were intricately involved in the Sunday
mass today and sang a 30 minute concert after the mass.
After
our mass, we had an hour to walk around Salzburg before a formal guided
tour of the the city. Being a Sunday, and a beautiful one at that, the
city was not as crowded as it typically is with locals and our
tourists. At the conclusion of our guided tour we toured the birthplace
of Mozart. The tour revealed Mozart’s humble beginnings as a musical
genius. After the Mozart birthplace tour, most explored the city,
picking up souvenirs and buying world-famous Mozart Kugeln (chocolate
covered candy with Hazelnut). A few of us went up to the Salzburg
Castle via the cable car to see a view of all of Salzburg!
For our group dinner, we had Austrian Gulash with potatoes which was again very good.
We returned to the hotel as early as 8:45 PM this evening, for us all to all get some good rest!
EC
Street musician in Salzburg:
Franz Biebl Ave Maria at the Salzburg Cathedral:
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. - Aristotle
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Eric Conway, D.M.A.
Fine and Performing Arts Department, Chair
Morgan State University
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