Germany: Augsburg

We drove all day yesterday and arrived here at Augsburg for a quick rehearsal and dinner, then on to our hosts. I'm staying with Hans and Anita with four other guys from the group. They took us on a tour of Freidberg last night, and we were shown Augsburg this morning. The church has been very generous here ... they took us out to Greek food this afternoon. Tonight we sing in the Augustahaus, and we debut the Debussy pieces. That brings me cause for concern, but I'd rather have them down now before we get to France where people might understand them.

That's really about it!

So in response to Regan's questions:

The Nikolaikirche is not Catholic, but Lutheran. After the reformation, the law in Germany became such that the religion of the prince becomes the official religion of the area in which he lives. That is to say that you belong to the Lutheran church whether you attend it or not. We've sung in quite a few Lutheran church buidings on this trip because the church of Christ buildings are, quite frankly, too small to hold the Chorus and an audience. Since the Lutheran church also functions as a community center, it is big enough to hold a concert for us. The posters and handbills for our concerts usually have contact information for the local church of Christ, so it's obvious who put on our concert.

The service at the Nikolaikirche was not actually a Lutheran service, but a community-wide event. I mentioned before how this service was credited locally for contributing to the demise of the Berlin wall. Recently, the focus of their efforts were the release of German prisoners of war in Iraq. Last night's service, led entirely by women, had to do with the advent of the World Cup here in Germany and the prostitutes being brought in just for the event. The women read cases for some of the women, mostly from Russia, who are being forced into prostitution and brought to Leipzig for the event. The prayers were for these women, and there was read a list of agencies whose intent is to free these women from their situations and help them put their lives back together. I really have no idea what our singing there had to do with it.

This is our last night in Germany. Tomorrow we head to Croatia via Austria (birthplace of Governor Schwarzenegger) and Slovenia (birthplace of some other people). It's strange because we've only been here for a week and a half, yet it feels like we've been in Germany for the past few months. After this, we're moving around quite a bit - I think all our stays from here on out are 2 nights or less.

Coming up: Croatia! Croatia! Croatia!

Germany: Chemnitz and Leipzig

I don't have a lot of time, so I'll have to make this one a LONG STORY SHORT:

Rueben and I had an interesting stay in Chemnitz with an 18-years old guy, his mom, and her mom. As they got older, they spoke less English. The grandmother did not understand why we coulndn't accept her beer (she was not a member of the church). The grandmother also expected me to sightread a Chopin Mazurka (piano music by French composers should not be sightread by trombonists.)

The sermon went well, and I was able to work very well with the translator.

We left for Leipzig this morning, and sang in the Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church) in a "Prayer for Peace" service. This service happens every Monday night and is credited locally for contributing to the fall of the Berlin wall - the service was followed in the 1980's by a peaceful march about town that made Gorbechav take notice. I don't know much about it beside that.

11 of us are staying with with the Perry family tonight, so I better get to visiting.

Coming up: Augsburg and saying goodbye to Germany!

Germany: Mahler, Dreikönigskirche concert, and Dresden

Hallo,

So the Mahler was incredible. The second movement was especially fun, a little German dance movement that was cute and bouncy. We sang only on the fifth movement, and it was glorious. The orchestra was good, but I was suprised to hear some tuning problems. It marred one of my favorite moments in the entire symphony, a low brass chorale near the end of the fourth movement. When it was over, we sat through over ten minutes of continuous applause - I am probably not exaggerating. The chorus was seated in the balcony, and Cameron, Kris, and I were able to beat the crowds out of the cathedral, head back to the hostel, and change clothes before anyone else even got there.

It's been pretty unfortunate that we've had to eat a lot of McDonald's because by the time our concert was over, nothing else was open.

Last night we sang everything we know except "The Lamb" and the French songs at the Dreikönigskirche. (Dry-cone-igs-keer-shuh) This was an event designed to draw attention to the Gemeinde Christi Dresden (Dresden church of Christ). It was very well-attended, and the Dreikönigskirche is a beautiful place in which to sing. The church held a "Meet the Chorus" reception with free Bratwurst and ribs earlier that afternoon, but not many people came to that. The concert went very well. I've been switching to a lower voice part for this group, which is presenting some unique challenges. Let's just say it's unusual to go from singing 2nd and sometimes 1st tenor on the front row of Concert Choir to singing 1st and sometimes 2nd bass and a few times 2nd tenor on the back row in Chorus. Vocal versatility is my newfound friend.

In about an hour, we leave for Chemnitz, where we won't be staying very long. I'm supposed to preach a 15 minute lesson (in English, with a German translator) on Sunday, so I'll probably work on that on the bus.

Coming up: Chemnitz and onward!

Germany: Leaving Hildesheim and finding Dresden

Guten tag!

I was glancing over the earlier posts and realized I had left out a crucial event in our campaign thus far: we swept the choral competition in Sopot. Won or tied for 1st rank in each category. Took the grand prize. Won €2000. It was rather significant. I thought the Columbians were going to win, their group was excellent. So... yeah. We won the competition.

FFWD to two days ago. Our street singing Tuesday afternoon yielded a great crowd at our joint concert with Hildesheim's gospel choir Gospel Voices, a bunch of White Germans who do gospel music like Southern Baptists. The concert was very long, and we were well-received by the audience. A number of people who came were there only because they heard us singing in the town's pedestrian zone. Among them were Christian and Bernice, a young couple who liked what they heard very much. They did not attend church, but liked us so much that they came to a singalong at the Gemeinde Christ (Hildesheim church of Christ) the following night. They gave several of us their addresses and want to keep in touch, so it looks like I've got some postcards to send later in the trip.

In addition to the church singalong, Wednesday was packed with sight-seeing. We drove out to Bergen-Belsen, where Anne Frank and many others perished at a Concentration Camp. The buildings had all been burned down after the war due to infestation, but the area had been kept up and landscaped as a memorial to the tens of thousands that died there. From there we made a quick visit to Celle, which is a very old town. Then it was back to Hildesheim for a tour of the many churches in the city.

Today we drove to Dresden, where we arrived just minutes before our first concert at the Dresden Music Festival. What we expected to be a fifteen minute show turned out to be a full-fledged concert. After that, we waited in line at a Bratwurst stand for too long, then decided to head to McDonald's because of time constraints. McDonald's was way too crowded for 3:00pm. I ended up sharing a table with Dr. Ganus and two German women who didn't speak much English.

Randy asked about the languages of the songs we are singing, so here we go:

• Holy Radiant Light - English
• The lamb - English (setting of the poem by William Blake)
• Ich bin das brot des lebens - German ("I am the bread of life")
• So far ich hin - German ("So I depart. I sleep, and no man can awaken me but Jesus Christ, God's son, who will open Heaven's door and lead me to eternal life")
• Was it a morning like this? - English
• In the first light - English
• Trois chansons d'Orleans - French (three songs from Orleans by Debussy)
• A whole slew of spirituals in English - I couldn't hear nobody pray, My soul's been anchored in the Lord, My God is a rock in a weary land, O happy day.
• Cluck 'ol hen - American Folksong - southern english
• Tambur - a hungarian folk tune with english text ("Sweetheart, come and dance with me to the music so entrancing. [jennie]Gay and lively melodies that will set your feet a-dancing")
• Three Irish folk songs - Hugamer fein an Saralindh, Dulaman, Rosin Dubh - Gaelic
• Flight of the Bumblebee - gibberish

So our concert program is mostly English, but our audiences understand it pretty well. English is a part of the school curicculum here in Germany, so most everybody can follow it pretty well.

Tonight, we sing Mahler's 2nd symphony with a bunch of German singers and the Japanese Philharmonic. Today is Ascension day in Germany, the day which Christ rose back into Heaven. Mahler's 2nd is called the "Resurrection" symphony, with its religous text and overtones. This is unusual because Mahler was not a religious man - in fact, many historians believe this piece was simply Mahler trying to get published.

Some obersavations about trucks: All of the highway trucks here are cabovers - that is, the engine is up under the cab of the truck and not in front. I guess this fits in with the rest of the European mindset, in which smaller is better. I have seen Volvos, but no Macks. There is a truck make called Man with the same lettering on the grille and a dog symbol under it (no hood means no bulldog hood ornament). Perhaps someone connected to the trucking industry could enlighten me if Man is the European arm of Mack trucks?

Time to get ready for some serious Mahler action.

Coming up: Dresden Music Festival, and whatever else we do here!

Germany: das Lunges

Guten tag! (gooten tahg)

I am having an incredible time in Hildesheim, Germany! We are singing tonight with the Gospel Voices, a local choir, and have also been singing on the streets and in schools today to promote our event. We left Sopot and stayed at a hotel in Sczeczin, on the border of Germany and Poland. We drove all day yesterday to Hildesheim and went to our host families, Elizabeth and Klaus Lunge (loon-guh).

They
are
incredible.

Here's why: They took us (my roomate this stop is Kris Perkins) to a Bavarian Restuarant (König von Bavya) and treated us to dinner. We had Schnitzel mit Tomate und Käse (a fried pork meat with tomato and cheese) and Apfelstrudel (an applepie-esque dessert.) Then, they took us to their English class. Their son is in college, and he spent the past year in Emory University in Atlanta where he fell in love with an American girl. They are learning English so she won't feel isolated or intimidated by them. So they took us to their class, where Kris and I were interviewed in English about our hometowns and hobbies, and about life in America in general. They were suprised that we weren't wearing shorts, and they liked Bill Clinton.

The Lunges have a very high opinion of the US. They vacationed once in New York City and stopped to take a photo in front of some skyscrapers when Klaus had trouble getting his camera settings right. It took him about 5 minutes to take the picture and when he finally did, he looked behind him and beyond his wife and saw that everyone on the sidewalk had stopped so they could take their picture. That left an impression of Americans that couldn't be hindered by theives breaking into their car in Atlanta - they really love it.

Generally, this is proving to be true: Texans are to Americans what Americans are to everyone else. People here like Americans, but don't necessarily like our government, and often especially the President. They do not have a problem with the American people, however loud and pushy we may be.

But back to the Lunges: they showed us around Hildesheim and took us to their home where we were served soda (or whatever we wanted - these people are hospitable, dangit!) and talked with them about politics and lifestyles in our countries. In the morning, we went to the school in which Frau Lunge works, where her 4th grade english class asked us about our hobbies - they were great.

That's all for now - we go back to sing on the town square in about 15 minutes.

Coming up: Dresden! Mahler! und more!

More from Sopot

Dziendobry! (zshee-in dough-bree)

We have now done four performances, and aside from a two-hour rehearsal this afternoon, are finally getting to relax a bit. We've been working very hard in the past few days learning our music and preparing for these performances. A significant portion of the Chorus (especially basses) are new to the group specifically for this tour, and we've had a lot of catching up to do. Everyone is highly motivated, and has taken a lot of initiative to get things done. We're already much better than we were a week ago!

If it works right, there's a link to the Sopot visitor's guide at the top of the page. I thought you'd like to see the town. It was a popular resort town before the second World War, when Germany plundered its natural resources and essentially ruined after the economy. After the war, Russian communism inhibited the road to economic recovery. It was in the 1980s when an anti-communist movement called "Solidarity" came along and led to Poland's succession from the USSR. Since then, Sopot has flourished, becoming once again a wonderful vacation spot.

A typical day here goes like this:
7:30 - wake up, shower
8:00 - breakfast at the hotel (they serve cereal, bread, provolone cheese, ham, and hot dogs. Yes, hot dogs.)
8:45 - Leave hotel for Christ Church. This congregation has been hosting us, and was the venue for our first Festival concert Tuesday night. We'll be singing specifically for the church on Sunday.
9:00 - Rehearse
[mid-day] Judged performance at St. George's Cathedral on Monte Cassino Street
[after that] Lunch on-our-own - the church is located within a short walk of Sopot's pedestrian area, Monte Cassino Street. Shops and restaurants aboud.
3:00 - Rehearse
5:00 - Return to hotel, dinner
[after that] Free time - attend other festival concerts, visit the town in groups, stay at hotel and play cards

So you can see we keep pretty busy, but still find plenty of time to relax. Tomorrow, we might go up to Gdansk (another little resort town nearby) and hang out.

We have enjoyed nothing but hospitality from the Poles. After our performance this afternoon, one lady came by where a number of us were gathered and started speaking very nicely to us in Polish. She was so delighted, she realized we couldn't understand her and she just started saying "America! America!" with a beautiful smile on her face. We were all very flattered, and could only say back to her "Dzien cyen" (zsheen coo-yen), which means "Thank you." Minutes later, we were walking back to Christ Church when a man working in his garden stopped us. He reached over his fence and handed one of our girls a rose picked from his own garden. He knew a little English, and told us his name was Dawidow (Dah-vee-doff). His children Mike and Molly Dawidow and their adult son Mikey are ministers at the Christ Church and have been a wonderful help to all of us.

Coming up: Our final concert in Sopot and the results of the festival.

Chorus Campaigns: Poland and the longest day ever

Dziendobry! (Good morning!)

I'm in the beautiful resort town of Sopot, Poland where Harding Chorus is one of 16 groups participating in the 2nd annual Mundus Cantat International Choral Festival. We're the only group from the States, there are several from Poland, Hungary, Ecuador, and all over the world. After extensive rehearsal, we gave our first concert last night in a pre-festival event featuring three choruses. We'll be judged on our performances of selections according to different categories: sacred unaccompanied, folk music, and miscellaneous/jazz/gospel songs. The first of those judged performances is in about two hours.

Getting here was a challenge in and of itself. I led morning and evening worship at the Hot Springs Village church of Christ Sunday, and got back to Searcy about 9:00pm. Kris and I stayed up the night packing, getting last minute things at Walmart, and enjoying some IHOP. We left for the airport at 3:45, waited in an infinitely long line to check in, an infinitely longer line for the security checkpoint, and a refreshingly short line to board the plane. After a two and a half hour flight to Newark, we enjoyed a 6 hour layover. I played cards and picked up a book (David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day). We eventually boarded the plane and left for Berlin, arriving about 8:00am. We then boarded the bus and made our way here to Sopot, where we ate and rehearsed until about 10:30. So there was something like a 36-hour day with very little sleep.

I would probably do it again to get here - this town is beautiful!

Coming soon: More about Sopot, and the rest of the Choral Festival.