214 - the music in Vienna 🎶🔇
Hey there, !
So I went to a concert while in Vienna, as you do. and it was a performance of Haydn (Symphony in E minor), Mozart (Symphony A Major, KV 201) and Vivaldi's 4 Seasons. It was performed at the Musikveiren, or the "Viennese Music Association" - which was translated as the 'Viennese Music Friends Association' when I had looked it up online somewhere (which is kinda cute).
(Ah, now I Google it, it's because it was owned by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, or, "The Society of Music Lovers". What a great name!)
The Haydn Symphony has 4 movements, and is called the "Mourning Symphony", as Haydn apparently had asked for the slow movement of this symphony to be played at his funeral. The Mozart Symphony also has 4 movements, and then Vivaldi - 4 seasons, of 3 movement each.
So, look, there was a lot of music to get through, but I was in absolute bliss immersing myself back into some wonderful orchestral music.
However, my experience was constantly dirsupted by bloody tourists who didn't know how to be at a classical music concert. Coughing, spluttering, clapping at the wrong times - atrocious!
I then realised that I'm kinda privileged to have even performed an instrument before, so I know the unspoken rules you gotta learn but still.
What are those unspoken rules you ask? I'm glad I can help!:
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You stay SILENT while they're playing music. Honestly this is like 90% of the advice. Like come on - you're there to listen to the music - why would you ruin that, and for ALL the people in this acoustically perfect hall with your hacking and coughing? Respect the music and just wait until the movement's over - there's a break specifically so you can do so. I mean just...holy crap there were multiple people that were just clearing their throats, or coughing just in the MIDDLE of performances just EUGH. This one Indian uncle was just sneezing as loud as he physically could. UGH. Imagine if you were in a movie and you just had people coughing during the whole thing?? DISGOSTING.
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People - there's no need to clap between movements - just cough or sneeze like I said before. True, you might not know when you're supposed to clap (so it's less of a sin), but pro tip all you have to do is wait until the orchestra has put down their instruments - that's the cue to start clapping. Even though it's broken up into a number of smaller pieces, it's a continuous piece of music; the whole symphony is a piece of music that you wait until the end to applaud. CHILL OUT.
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Always always ALWAYS go for the "Encore!" and the "Bravo!" because in 99% of cases they'll always have a bonus piece of music to play. It's the way to show respect to a wonderful performance - that you want them to come back, and perform even MORE music. It's kind of like a standing ovation for the theatre, but they always have like...bonus content. You just have to clap to get ot hear it :D
Good luck at your next concert ;)
Chat soon :)
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✔️ Real Life Recommendations
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Lina Stores - it's a chain, kinda, but it's a cute little sage/mint themed Italian establishment which served some cute little pasta dishes of delight. Honestly some of the best deliciousness/price ratio, because it was a solid meal of truffle pasta, tagliolini squid ink pasta, some other seafood pasta that i cannot remember and it was just all fantastic. Parents loved it which is most important :D Highly recommended!
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Camden Markets - I didn't actually remember this one until the last week I was there, but what a great place to go! There's a really cool Yorkshire Burrito that you can get here, which is very unique and yum. I think it had one of the widest variety of shops anywhere else I had been - with lots of cute little artisans and market stalls set up all around the place. It also had a Tomb Raider experience (?) which I didn't go to, and also had a Coyote Ugly (which I've never seen the movie for so didn't really care about). However, it did have some Bandai Namco gacha machines, as well as a big manga/anime store :D A soothing balm for lil asian vince.
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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Yugoslavia's Digital Twin - what happens to an entire domain's worth of internet when a domain extension is deleted? In the case of Yugoslavia - a whole heap of really interesting internet history pieces are completely erased / unobtainable - first hand accounts of the Kosovo war, and how the conflict was escalating, as well as all the scientists who were using the internet at the time sharing their little worlds. A tragedy, perhaps? ICANN made it harder to delete domain extensions since then...the Soviet Union .su domain extension is still floating around apparently.
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My Left Kidney - a harrowing account of a dude in the US (Scott Alexander of Astral Star Codex newsletter internet fame) trying to donate a kidney. A great breakdown and self-examination of what he thought about, how he went about it, and what he ultimately had to do to get his kidney donated!
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All of Donald Trump's shitty NFT trading cards - if I have to look at these, so do you.