Hello all sorry I haven't been on top as I should have been with updates of my experiences of our trip so, for the most part my next few posts will be in the retrospective. This one will specifically be covering the highlights of my experiences in Leipzig, made famous by Bach and the Mendelssohn's. The first thing we did as soon as we got settled in Leipzig was visit the Bach statue in front of the St. Thomas church the church were Bach worked at for the last 30 years of his life. We would end up visiting it again the next day as we meet for to go to the Bach museum which had a massive collection of all things Bach including Bach's Box. Bach's Box was in back of the Bach museum which really didn't help show how cool of a box it was. For it was the only piece of original furniture from his house in the museum, and it was recognized as such due to the fact that it has the same crest as Bach's family crest on the inside of the lid (you can also see this same crest all around Leipzig). The fallowing evening we went and saw Bach being preformed in the St.Thomas Church by the St. Thomas church's boys choir. It was absolutely amazing listen to Bach in the same church where he composed most of the music we listen to today. And afterward we got an unexpected tour of the church by one of Dr. Powell's friends where he explained the significance of all the stained glass art as well as sharing some interesting facts about the alter in the church.
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| Bach's Statue outside of the St. Thomas Church. |
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| Bach's Box! |
While we were in Leipzig we also went to the famous Mendelssohn house, home to Felix Mendelssohn. He was known as the man who brought back Bach from obscurity and truly recognized not only how good Bach was but also how important he was for his influence and effect on classic music that came after him. The ground floor of the house served as a sort of intractable exhibit that to much of our classes delight included a virtual orchestra that you could try your hand at conducting. The first floor of the house was set up as the original home that Felix Mendelssohn lived in with his wife and family. It even included a selection of his paintings, which I never knew about until seeing them myself. I was quite honestly surprised at his skill as painter for I have only ever heard about him in regards to his music. Finally that second ant last floor of the house featured a recently added exhibit on Fanny Mendelssohn, Felix's sister who although never recognized as much as her brother due to her gender was in many peoples opinion's on par or even better than her brother at composing. My favorite part of this floor was the exhibit on her famous work called "The Year", featuring the original 12 manuscripts corresponding to each of the twelve month celebrating a happy memory of her and her husband experienced during each of them that that year. The manuscript were also exceptionally beautiful as Fanny's husband was a painter and personally illustrated each one of the manuscripts. Overall, it was amazing experiencing first hand the vast amount of music history and importance contained in such as small town as Leipzig.
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| One of Felix Mendelssohn's Original Watercolors. |
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| Fanny's "The Year". |
The Virtual Orchestral as Shown off by Carl.
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