The Haus der Musik

Today we went to the house of music. All the interactive stuff was really fun and educating. I really got a feel for all the different composers and their music. It was really well organized and so personal to each composer,I appreciated it. The dice game, where it composed a waltz was my favorite. The picture above is the only surviving picture of the Mozart family and i found that surprising. The popularity with which he had would to me indicate that their would be more paintings. Upon second thought though I realize that he was doing a job as a composer and was seen as an employee so that wouldn't give him much to desire a painting. I really found the Peter Gay book helpful in placing this museum in context and preparing me for the opera tonight. Mozart can be seen in his time period with conflicts with his father and as a much more complex person than I had previously thought of him. The parts in the book discussing his love letters was quite entertaining given his obsession with the bodily functions.

Earlier that day we saw an exhibit called: dream and trauma. It was phenomenal! There were so many layers to each work and the pieces were so interesting and thought provoking. There were elements in a few pictures that reminded me of the Wiemar cinema class that i took. I was really impressed that i was able to link the elements from certain cultural elements to these contemporary paintings. For example the darkening of the eyes in black showed the effects of such movies.

I found Schoenberg and really did like his music. It was different than most classical music I've heard and the audio commentary said that some people really did not like him. I found this understandable in a way because his choices in musical composition really were different and clashed. The notes did not flow in a light and complimentory way. They seemed to fight each other as they came out and cause a profound tension in the air. For this very reason I liked Schoenberg.

Jugenstil Architecture was fun to walk through and it added very nice playful feeling to the hallways.