Buenas!
So last week my history of music teacher took us to the old and new cathedral (they were built adjoining over the centuries) on a field trip and guess what? He played all four of the organs in the cathedrals! I'm talking about an experience that was like having backstage passes and front row seats to a private concert. We got to go behind all the roped off sections in the church and he opened up the tops of all the instruments to show us the mechanisms and explain how each organ functioned. They were amazing and I just could not get over the fact that they were from the 15th - 18h century!
Anyways, we got to go up a secret staircase where we saw that huge pumps that two men would be pulling and pushing the levers of in order to sustain the air for the organ. I bet they were super strong because the levers were taller than me. Luckily technology now sustains the air and makes sure that the pressure remains constant as long as the organist is playing. We got to go upstairs in the choir boxes so that we could access the balcony the organ was on. The new cathedrals organ was huge!
The sound was phenomenal and the acoustics in the cathedral were every musicians dream. I was basically in a state of euphoria with a silly smile on my face the entire time our professor played for us. And then as if the afternoon couldn't get any better, one of the students, and aspiring singer was encouraged by the class to sing...Of course it would be the most unsuspecting, rather flat out nerdy, super quiet guy in our class to have one of the best voices in our class. (P.S. I tried uploading the songs I recorded but google blogger hates me and refused to upload them even though they are within the file size requirements, so you'll have to wait until i get home to hear them)
Honestly, surprises like these are what makes being a student so special, because I'm surrounded by people who have a true passion for learning and it's reflected in their ability to speak intelligently or in this case sing beautifully. While this class may be well out of my major, I'm so glad that the mean lady at the IES registrars office highly suggested I not take the history of art class if the professor had not responded to my email, because I would not have been enrolled in this class and had such an amazing afternoon. After class, I could not stop smiling to myself (I'm pretty sure half the people thought I was crazy but oh well) and rushed to share the story with my host mom. We listened to all the audios over and over again and she explained to me how special it was to have this experience because they don't let just anyone play the organs or even go into those sections of the cathedral that I had the privilege of seeing.
Well that's all for now. Hope everything is going well with you all!
Much love,
Carolyn
So last week my history of music teacher took us to the old and new cathedral (they were built adjoining over the centuries) on a field trip and guess what? He played all four of the organs in the cathedrals! I'm talking about an experience that was like having backstage passes and front row seats to a private concert. We got to go behind all the roped off sections in the church and he opened up the tops of all the instruments to show us the mechanisms and explain how each organ functioned. They were amazing and I just could not get over the fact that they were from the 15th - 18h century!
Anyways, we got to go up a secret staircase where we saw that huge pumps that two men would be pulling and pushing the levers of in order to sustain the air for the organ. I bet they were super strong because the levers were taller than me. Luckily technology now sustains the air and makes sure that the pressure remains constant as long as the organist is playing. We got to go upstairs in the choir boxes so that we could access the balcony the organ was on. The new cathedrals organ was huge!
If you look closely near the bottom of the second photo you can see my professor playing away.
The sound was phenomenal and the acoustics in the cathedral were every musicians dream. I was basically in a state of euphoria with a silly smile on my face the entire time our professor played for us. And then as if the afternoon couldn't get any better, one of the students, and aspiring singer was encouraged by the class to sing...Of course it would be the most unsuspecting, rather flat out nerdy, super quiet guy in our class to have one of the best voices in our class. (P.S. I tried uploading the songs I recorded but google blogger hates me and refused to upload them even though they are within the file size requirements, so you'll have to wait until i get home to hear them)
Honestly, surprises like these are what makes being a student so special, because I'm surrounded by people who have a true passion for learning and it's reflected in their ability to speak intelligently or in this case sing beautifully. While this class may be well out of my major, I'm so glad that the mean lady at the IES registrars office highly suggested I not take the history of art class if the professor had not responded to my email, because I would not have been enrolled in this class and had such an amazing afternoon. After class, I could not stop smiling to myself (I'm pretty sure half the people thought I was crazy but oh well) and rushed to share the story with my host mom. We listened to all the audios over and over again and she explained to me how special it was to have this experience because they don't let just anyone play the organs or even go into those sections of the cathedral that I had the privilege of seeing.
Well that's all for now. Hope everything is going well with you all!
Much love,
Carolyn
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