Yesterday was celebrate thwarted catholic plot day...

...and I didn't even notice! It is so strange how bonfire night is such a big and obvious part of my year and has been forever (how could you ignore a constant hail of explosions, flashing lights and smoke anyway?) and yet move to a country that doesn't have it and I don't suddenly feel this urge to watch things blow up. Well, no greater urge than normal, haha. I wondered if bonfire night was one of those internationalised festivals like halloween, but apparently not. I have discovered it is celebrated in New Zealand, which actually if you think about it is pretty odd really.

Yeah so Halloween. Seems a while ago, doesn't it? Basically I am super cool and down with what all the hip kids were listening to in 1793 or whenever. So, I accompanied my lovely girlfriend (oh snap, weren't expecting that, were you? Maybe you were, I wasn't. Well: good for you. Maybe wave hello. Be nice!) to a performance of Mozart's Requiem in the Karlskirche, Karlsplatz. I wasn't quite prepared for the grandeur of this building, I heard church and imagined something low key. Wien doesn't do low key churches:

This place was the church of the Emperors etc of Austria from the time of its completion sometime in the middle of the 18th century. The dome is 7o metres high on the outside and not much lower inside. You walk in and are assaulted by the most impossibly detailed interior decoration, all set in this vast, neck wrenchingly tall, echoing space, and over the altar there is a huge representation of the spirit with Yahweh or similar written in hebrew in the triangle at the centre.
The full height of the ceiling is quite hard to convey, as is the absolutely amazing stone used to face the interior and make the columns. I have literally no idea of what kind of stone it is, or its original location. It is called marble, but stonemasons call pretty much all rocks marble, whether they are or not... Sigh. It is very pretty though.
Normally you can climb the semi permanent scaffolding to get a look at the roof.

So, Mozart's Requiem. I was worried that while it would be a nice experience to 'collect' as it were, that I would not really enjoy the performance in itself. I do not have practice in appreciating classical music. The setting was a definite help, combined with the use of period instruments for a spellbindingly authentic feel. I kept thinking about all the other times and places at which it had been performed... I have a tendancy for my mind to wander during instrumental music, but once I really started to concentrate on the sounds and try and come up with my own interpretations of the meanings, I did get drawn in. There were moments where I really felt I got the transitions between different parts or moods or whatever of the music, and it sounded amazing. The overwhelming thing I felt after though was that I wanted to hear it again. it strikes me as the sort of thing you need to be properly familiar with to hold the whole thing in your head at once and follow the journey while knowing where you have come from. I did feel unprepared considering that Mirva was sitting next to me actually reading the score as it went along, but a man's got to start somewhere...

With assistance I think I might actually be able to sort through some of the last 400 years or so of music and get a sense of what I like and don't like, and the stories (real,romanticised, mythical, etc) behind some of that. Right now knowing nothing is actually quite fun, as I am constantly discovering things that are basic knowledge to other people.

The rest of my week really hasn't been anything to write home about, mostly I have been going to lectures and doing work for various courses. It has been a week of good german learning though, met my buddy for a drink on Tuesday (OK we went climbing but gave up after 20 minutes because there was only a rubbish bouldering wall THEN went for a drink...) and then chatted to a few members of my geology classes yesterday. Mainly about this one really annoying piece of wok which I completely understand and have all the right numbers and formulae to do but somehow doesn't work anyway. I was very happy to discover I was not alone in this. I really do need to write about the student protests here someday, but I cannot be bothered to write another full blog post right now.

Bis bald!