Thursday 15th December Your Comenius blogger is back and on wi-fi! And I only wish you could share my writer's location. I am sitting in a beautiful little church in the middle of LIndesberg, listening -as always the sweetest sounds of the rehearsal for tonight's concert. Just now another Ave Maria has soared into the rafters. Now they are learning silent night in Swedish - a tricky task! So what have we been up to since we saw you all last at the concert? Oh and by the way, we have put the recording back onto Moodle for you to enjoy over Christmas. (username comenius and password c0nc3rt5). After a slightly delayed flight we shared a coach for the three hour drive to Lindesberg. Soon plunged into darkness - sunset is just before three- our little songbirds 'roosted' on their perches ooops seats and snoozed until we reached the hotel. 'Enough rest already to work !' declared Captain Bradley, and after a quick pizza, the High School had commandeered the conference room... and, yes, even a piano from down the corridor which had been quietly gathering dust, until of course our trusty captain espied it, was pianonapped with Nathan's help. Soon our voices were resounding through the hotel. 'On with your opera voices!', 'bit of James Bond in there','hold that phrase...breathe...now!' as we rehearsed and made the candles rattle as we hammered out the notes.

the choir and a second encore

The choir at St Ursula's

and the second encore - the first ( nonsense) song they learned together on the first evening- (also condensed with divx):

Done it!

Here is the missing clip; we have had to condense it using divx.

and the encore...



The Rhythm of Life ends the concert on a powerful beat

 

At the post-concert meal

and saying goodbye

Scenes from the concert at St Ursula- here are a few clips; we plan to put everything together in a much smoother format!  Filming in the concert was tricky because your trusty blogger couldn't get up so easily and had to film the sopranos and altos separately.

and

Auf Wiedersehen Spital am Pyhrn!

The last evening in Spital

and

and

Warm up in the Barocksaal.

Singing in the Barocksaal

and the gingerbread houses

Your trusty blogger is back with  Friday and Saturday’s news.

Friday:

After a final run through in the morning, we had the chance of a dress rehearsal in Spital, which, though miniscule, has an incredibly beautiful baroque church and beside it a magnificent baroque room with the most amazing acoustics.  You can hear the crystal clarity of the choir in the clips marked Barocksaal.  We have also loaded a few stills of the room itself so you can get an impression of its grandeur.

We were so proud of the girls and we knew that  they were on tip top form for Saturday’s performance.   The Barocksaal is part of the museum and the angelic voices soon attracted a crowd of appreciative onlookers.

The museum also has an exhibition of gingerbread houses; each building in Spital has been made to scale by the villagers.  We couldn’t resist taking some photos.  A whole new perspective on home baking.

Saturday:

Sadly we had to say goodbye to Spital and make our way by train back to Salzburg on Saturday morning.  But first we had to tidy up our rooms… armed with black plastic bags, Mrs Roberts, Mrs Morgan and I went into battle, picking our way through a tidal wave of  stray socks, abandoned t-shirts and  packets of Haribos, we  eventually managed to restore some sort of order, although we are not sure that our songsters will return with matching socks or their own wardrobe!  We will draw a veil over the state of the bathrooms- the jumble of toiletries was a sight to behold!

We have loaded a few shots of our departure from Spital; martialling 80 teenagers on to a tiny local train was quite a challenge, but luckily we had reserved carriages.

Once back in Salzburg, we returned to the hotel and, getting off the bus, bumped into Mrs Hewitt who had arrived earlier- it’s a small world!

After a quick lunch, SERIOUS but SERIOUS preparations for our concert appearance began accompanied by the hum of hairdryers and the drumbeat of stockinged feet rushing up and down the corridor in search of vital elements of the beautification process – don’t worry dads GETTING READY is a girl thing!  As you will see from the photo taken in front of the St Ursula Gymnasium, it was worth it; the girls looked so elegant and poised, and Mrs Hewitt was thrilled.

The warm up over, Dr Wild positioned the choir to best  effect and then they had a quick run through for each conductor to get a feel for the sound.  We were performing in the school multi-purpose gym which was big enough to take a large audience. Although the acoustics in the school were not as good as in the Barocksaal, the enthusiastic audience made up for it.

In celebration of the occasion, the Austrian girls and many members of  the audience were  in their national costume- Dirndls for the ladies and traditional Trachtenhemden and Lederhosen for some of the fathers.

The concert was a huge success and Rhythm of Life brought the house down as you can hear!  To round off the evening, we were all invited to a meal back at the Langenloiser Hof where we started the tour.  It was time to say goodbye and the photos make it clear that the music had brought the girls together and firm friendships had been made.

Having arrived home, your trusty blogger is now signing off;  I am sure you are hearing everything  at first hand.  Your daughters were a credit to you and their school; they worked with a will during all the rehearsals and impressed all the musicians with their concentration and enthusiasm.  One of the aims of the project was to try to transcend national and linguistic boundaries through music; the girls’ eagerness to make new friends, try out new language skills and to learn from one another showed what open-minded,  adaptable  and positive young citizens they are.  They were brilliant!

I am delighted that you have enjoyed our Comenius blog, but for now it's auf Wiedersehen

Your trusty blogger

Ps  Hello to Emma’s granddad who has been reading the blog eagerly!

Mamma Mia!!

Gabriela's Sang

A 'Wild' warm up

Bowled Over...

Adventures in the Dr Vogelsang-Klamm 2

Adventures in the Dr Vogelsang-Klamm 1

Dancing down to Spital

Have no fear, your trusty Comenius blogger has not deserted you all, but is simply suffering from busy blogger syndrome!  We have been rushed off our feet with rehearsals and adventures… oh yes, adventures!!

see clip : Singing Mamma Mia

We are having a few problems loading all the video clips we want to show you, so I am posting the blog and the clips separately.

But first a musical update.  The singing gets sweeter by the quaver; the girls are really working very hard and the sound is coming together remarkably well over a varied repertoire; the Abba  songs are huge fun, but quite difficult in their choir arrangements and the different sections are having to pick their way carefully through the harmonies.  The Rhythm of Life is a hit with them all and, now that we have mastered the pronunciation of the Swedish song , we can appreciate the power and beauty of the melody;  we have noticed how often there is a tear in the eyes of the Swedish girls when they sing it- for your trusty blogger, this song is the discovery of the week:  ‘jag vill känna att jag levt mitt liv- I want to feel  that I live my life’.  

see post Gabrielas Sang

The most delicious moments still come with the classical pieces.  As  I play (ahem) the laptop keyboard, the strains of Mendelssohn fill the room with the sound of voices in harmony, just enjoying  making a heavenly sound together. 

We almost forgot to mention our warm-up sessions!   Every day begins with a half hour warm-up.  I managed to get some shots of Dr Wild’s ‘wild warm-up’ for you this morning.

see post: Wild warm up

So to the adventures!

‘We’re going bowling tonight!’  We announced triumphantly to looks of total puzzlement.  ‘But where???’ our songsters asked,  their teenage radar having detected nothing like the Trafford Centre in Spital  (the centre of Spital would probably fit into the Trafford Centre comfortably and with room to spare!).   Aha, we we’re going ‘kegeln’- bowling Austrian-style with 9 pins in a cosy,  two lane Kegelbahn ( bowling alley) attached to a local restaurant.  With two mixed Austrian and English teams, the competition soon hotted up as skill levels rose. 

See post Bowled Over

On Wednesday, after a busy day of rehearsals  and an English exam for Y10 which they sat with the Swedish girls doing one of their A level papers, Dr Wild decided to take advantage of the improving weather and led a walk up and through the Dr Vogelsang-Klamm,  a local beauty spot with waterfalls tumbling down the middle of a narrow gorge (Klamm).  It was a breath-taking experience…a steep and steady climb for about an hour certainly took my breath away, but the scenery was, as the girls would say ‘like, just amazing’.  Walking along the wooden gangplanks and up the what seemed  practically vertical flights of steps was quite an adventure. 

see post : Dr Vogelsang Klamm

Getting to the top justified the reward of a refreshing drink in a tiny mountain inn and then we wound our way back down the serpentine road to Spital.  We even managed to get a clip of alpine cows grazing with bells- so Sound of Music!  Whilst the adults marvelled at the mountain views, this Anglo-Austrian group made their own entertainment!

See post: So Sound of Music

Blogger’s apology:  The clips are ‘hot off the press’ , please excuse the wobbly and fuzzy bits!

So Sound of Music

Dancing down to Spital

As I post this blog, Emily’s slippers are smiling at me from under her exam desk! Yes, the poor Year 10s are sharing an exam room with the Swedish 6^th formers who are doing the first part of their English A level :  deep concentration, bird song and the gentle strains of the rehearsal next door fill the room.

The hotel provides three huge healthy  meals a day, but , of course, the teenage singing machine needs supplementary Haribos, Kinderschokolade, juice, crisps, maltesers and midnight feasts to begin to function properly… a need only a trip to a supermarket can satisfy!  If a  Europe – wide shortage of Pringles is declared, it has probably started in the tiny Adeg supermarket in the sleepy village of Spital am Pyhrn and the Comenius choir is the cause.  ‘Trip’ maybe overstating the length of the excursion; we ambled across the meadow outside the hotel, crossed the road and there was everything we needed: 3 minutes!  The village also has (only) one more shop: Schlecker- soon to be explored!

Mrs Morgan led the first afternoon rehearsal and soon The Rhythm of Life was putting a tingle in  our fingers and a tingle in our feet… doo-bi,  doo – bi, doo-bi.  The Austrian and Swedish girls loved its bounce. 

The Swedish teacher, Mrs Bikfalvy introduced the choir to a wonderful Swedish song, Gabriela’s Sang, in which a young woman learns how to believe in herself.  The tune is fabulous, but the pronunciation of the Swedish is quite challenging for us; the beauty of this international choir is that we  have our Swedish text coaches in the other choir members, and Mrs Morgan has organised extra sessions with the Swedish girls, so we really get to grips with the language to do the song justice- what a terrific opportunity!  Listen to the clip of the first rehearsal and you can’t fail to fall in love with the music.

We are in the country of the accordion, charming folk music and folk dances, so no trip would be complete without a chance to sample this for ourselves.  Brilliant!  Normally as a tourist,  you get to watch, but you never get to try.  One of the young music teachers at the school is an expert player of the accordion and traditional folk dance tunes and  Dr Wild himself steps a pretty step.  So off we went to the gym of the local school ( 3 minute stroll, just behind the Adeg supermarket- we are finding our way round very well), and soon we were clapping, twirling and ‘progressing’ in fine fashion ( these folk dances are  usually danced in a circle with the ladies ‘progressing’ to the next partner after each set).  See for yourself! 

 

Bis bald !