Saturday, December 22, 2012

Christmas music

The great thing about Christmas in Germany, besides the Christmas -Markets, is the music.  This year we heard different types of music; all of them were beautiful.  First, we went to Nuremberg for the annual concert of  traditional folk music.  A collection of  ensembles (singers and instrumentalists with guitars, brass instruments, a harp, and a zither) played separately and together.   At the end, all the groups played a song together, and the public joined in the singing. (Germans love to sing.)



There is a wonderful little group called the Melchior Franck Kreis that played in the beautiful little church in Dormitz (20 minutes west of Erlangen).  It was built in 1416 in the Gothic style, but was decorated in the baroque style in 1716.
The Melchior Franck Kreis is based in Coburg, north of Bamberg, but tours around Franconia playing renaissance and early baroque music, especially the works of Belchior Franck (the Kapellmeister in Coburg from 1602 until 1639).  The group plays church music on the instruments of that time, including the Zink (a wind instrument that sounds very close to a human voice).  It was one of the most important instruments of the 15th to 17th centuries.  But what I especially liked are the singers.  There were 7 at the concert that I was at: 4 men and 3 women.  They sang the relatively simple style of church music with each singer having his own part, and the combination of all seven voices resulted in some beautiful harmony.

Today, we went to the concert hall in Erlangen to hear the Bamberger Symphoniker play music by Bach, Händel, Mozart, Mendelssohn, and others. At the end, they played music that the public could sing along with. (Did I mention that Germans love to sing?)  It's great to have such a famous Symphony so close to Erlangen.  Bamberg is smaller than Erlangen, and it's unusual for a city of its size to have an internationally renowned symphony. I found out that, before World War II, the symphony was the German Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague.  In 1946, all Germans were kicked out of Czechoslovakia, so the musicians from Silesia (now in Poland), Karlsbad (now Czech Karlovy Vary) and Prague  fled to the beautiful little city of Bamberg, which had avoided being bombed terribly and extra housing due to the missing men.  Prague's loss is Bamberg's gain.

The Boys Choir of  the Bamberg Cathedral performed with the Symphoniker during the first half of the concert.  The group has a long tradition of making music.  There is record of the Choir performing back on April 14, 1020, during the visit of Pope Benedik VIII to Bamberg (nearly a thousand years ago!)  The boys sang beautifully.  The final song before intermission was Silent Night.




Great Music at Christmas in Germany

The great thing about Christmas in Germany, besides the Christmas -Markets, is the music.  This year we heard different types of music; all of them were beautiful.  First, we went to Nuremberg for the annual concert of  traditional folk music.  A collection of  ensembles (singers and instrumentalists with guitars, brass instruments, a harp, and a zither) played separately and together.   At the end, all the groups played a song together, and the public joined in the singing. (Germans love to sing.)



There is a wonderful little group called the Melchior Franck Kreis that played in the beautiful little church in Dormitz (20 minutes west of Erlangen).  It was built in 1416 in the Gothic style, but was decorated in the baroque style in 1716.
The Melchior Franck Kreis is based in Coburg, north of Bamberg, but tours around Franconia playing renaissance and early baroque music, especially the works of Melchior Franck (the Kapellmeister in Coburg from 1602 until 1639).  The group plays church music on the instruments of that time, including the Zink (a wind instrument that sounds very close to a human voice).  It was one of the most important instruments of the 15th to 17th centuries.  But what I especially liked are the singers.  There were 7 at the concert that I was at: 4 men and 3 women.  They sang the relatively simple style of church music with each singer having his own part, and the combination of all seven voices resulted in some beautiful harmony.

Today, we went to the concert hall in Erlangen to hear the Bamberger Symphoniker (Bamberg Symphony Orchestra) play music by Bach, Händel, Mozart, Mendelssohn, and others. At the end, they played music that the public could sing along with. (Did I mention that Germans love to sing?)  It's great to have such a famous orchestra so close to Erlangen.  Bamberg is smaller than Erlangen, and it's unusual for a city of its size to have an internationally renowned symphony. I found out that, before World War II, the symphony was the German Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague.  In 1946, all Germans were kicked out of Czechoslovakia, so the musicians from Silesia (now in Poland), Karlsbad (now Czech Karlovy Vary) and Prague  fled to the beautiful little city of Bamberg, which had avoided being bombed terribly.  Prague's loss is Bamberg's gain.




Sunday, December 16, 2012

Christmas Markets

We traveled to Sommerhausen this year to visit the unusual Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) there.  It's just a small town, a little south of Würzburg.  It's on the Main river, and on our trip from Würzburg to Sommerhausen we passed an unbroken string of vineyards covering the slopes on both sides of the river valley.  When we got to Sommerhausen we entered through the city gate of the old walled town.
We walked along the cobble-stone streets bordered by the fachwerk (half-timbered) houses to our small, family-run hotel, which has a schnaps distillery behind the house (run by the same family).  After checking in, we had to take the tour and taste the intermediate product!

In the picture to the left, in front of the house, you can see a wooden pen; there was a ewe in there with a newborn lamb, all spindly legs and short woolly coat nursing frequently as Mama chewed her cud. The pen was on the end of a shed selling woolen things - slippers and sheepskins and knitted items. Mama and baby were there the whole weekend; we walked by this pen to get to our little hotel.

With all the vineyards around, the most popular beverage was wine, of course.  We tried a Glühwein (hot spiced wine) made from the local white wine and spiced according to "Great-Grandma's recipe".  It was delicious.  So was the goose and pork loin that Kathy and I had to eat. This was at the restaurant run by the same family who runs the hotel and the distillery!

The picture at right is one of the local establishments that has framed its windows in old wine barrels. This place was famous for its game dishes and goat cheese.






A Weihnachtsmarkt is outdoors, and so was much of this one, but instead of all the booths being in one central square, there were a lot of displays packed into little corners and in the little courtyards throughout the oldest, medieval part of the town.  Even the cellars and the entryways of the houses where the craftsmen have their studios were used to display the wares. At the left you see Kathy in front of one of the other distilleries where we tasted and bought some of the end product.
 









The Weihnachtsmarkt was full of handcrafts; that's not the unusual part.  The unusual part was how many fine craftsmen displayed their wares, and how artistic the wares were.  We saw a glass blower making Orchid holders.  This brought back fond memories of our trip to Lauscha two years ago.  He made some tree ornaments with a hole on the side where a lit candle can be inserted (see picture above taken of our own tree).  We had to buy a few of them.
We visited a potter who made a fine white porcelain candle shade that glows when a candle is lit inside. We had to buy one of those.
On the main street was a shop that sold hand-turned wooden items such as bowls and fountain pens made from the pilings of the historic bridge across the Main  river.  There was beautiful work for sale in many little galleries, including unique clothing; beautiful, colorful glass items; water color paintings and painted porcelain items. The prices were very reasonable, considering the high quality of the work (by reasonable I mean a price that was not out of my reach for a unique piece of artwork that I would really enjoy looking at). Richard saw a pair of painted porcelain espresso cups and saucers that he really liked. They were beautiful, and Kathy encouraged him to buy them, but he thought they would be too precious to use. One of the pictures above is from the paper artist who cut silhouettes and other paper art.
In the castle courtyard (which belongs to a family-run wine maker) there was a booth selling exquisite pralines (chocolate truffles and fancy chocolates) in many tempting colors and flavors. The castle was more mansion-sized, but the town does have an intact medieval double fortification wall with all of its gates intact, so there must have been a local lord to run things!

We  bought some liqueur made from a berry called Schlehen (called blackthorn or sloe in English). There were plenty of opportunities to taste the liqueurs and schnaps along the way. Of course, we enjoyed hot roasted chestnuts.

Largest Feuersangenbowle in the world!
These are the things we love about spending Christmas in Germany: the centuries-old traditions, the emphasis on traditional food and drink, on high-quality handcrafts, and the opportunities to enjoy great music.  Next weekend we have tickets for a Christmas symphony concert performed by members of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. We are really looking forward to it. Last weekend we went to a concert of traditional Bavarian Christmas music.The songs and music were new to us, and it was all played on traditional instruments, including guitars, brass instruments and hammered dulcimers, and sung by a four-voice men's group and a women's choir. Very nice way to start the season.  Afterwards we visited a couple of the smaller Nürnberg Christmas Markets, including the largest Feuersangenbowle (hot mulled wine mixed with melted sugar from a rum-soaked sugar cone set aflame in a huge kettle) in the world.  We bought a "little prune man" (Zwetschgenmänle) at the Christmas Market (Christkindlesmarkt), which is traditional to this region and hard to find anywhere else.  It was snowing very atmospherically and the city was all lit up with Christmas lights.
Nürnberg Christkindlesmarkt

We wish all of you a safe and happy Christmas season full of happy memories of friends and family and the things you love about Christmas! May your days be merry and bright!

Zwetschgenmänle