Our adventures in Germany continue in Leipzig!
Leipzig is cool because it's still a pretty big city, but it has a little bit more of the classic German/Bavarian feel opposed to Berlin which has so much Greek influence. I also love that it's such a walkable city. It's been really cool to wander around here, I feel like I know my way around the neighborhood pretty well already.
My top two favorite things we've done in Leipzig so far are the organ demonstration at St. Thomas' church and the Mendelssohn House museum. Bach was the director of music at St. Thomas for 27 years. The organist there took time to give us a special demonstration, explaining what the different stops do and playing samples for us so we could hear the different sounds and how they sound together, which was super interesting. Then our very own Parker played the toccata from Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor (arguably Bach's most famous piece—if you don't know it by name, look it up and you'll recognize it) and the organist played the fugue part. The church has two organs, and they played it on both so we could hear the difference. It was awesome to hear such an iconic piece played in such an iconic location.
The Mendelssohn museum was so much fun because they had two interactive rooms. In the conducting room, speakers were set up all around to play different instrumental and voice parts, and you could pick a piece and conduct the virtual orchestra. You got to dictate the tempo, adjust the volume of the different instruments, change the tuning, and even the pick color of the lights in the room. There was also a costume room where we could take pictures in old fashioned clothes. We had a blast getting into character and living our best 19th century lives.
I've loved continuing to get to know everyone better, being silly, and enjoying music together. On to Prague!
No comments:
Post a Comment