by Mary Wakefield Buxton –
Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5 • Part 6 • Part 7
Urbanna, Va.— Visiting the Austrian Supreme Court and listening to the problems facing the European Union (EU) were enlightening to the visiting Virginians.
I asked the Supreme Court Justice why did England want to exit the EU? He explained that England had never been a good fit because it was a commonwealth and not a separate nation. EU member nations by treaty had to agree an EU Court would have final say when it came to justice. But Great Britain had Canada and Australia in its Commonwealth and these nations would never agree to a European Court deciding their courts’ decisions. The justice didn’t think “Brexit” would pose a problem for the EU.
On the last day of our visit in Vienna we decided to hop on an electric trolley that would travel from the Vienna Opera House 26 miles south to the town of Baden. After a full week of cold and rain the sun came out for us to celebrate the end of our trip. It was such a shock. I had to hunt for my sunglasses, which had not been used since we left Virginia.
Baden is famous for two major reasons: a spa used since Roman times that people have gone to for centuries to enjoy its warm springs in search of better health. It became the home for Ludwig von Beethoven at age 51 when he was already an acclaimed composer and celebrity when he went to the warm springs to improve his health. It was at Baden that Beethoven, in spite of growing deafness, composed his magnificent Ninth Symphony, so well known as the “Ode to Joy.”
It was a thrill to walk through the Beethoven House, once owned by Joseph Bayer who had a copper business in Baden and rented part of his home to Beethoven. It is now converted to a museum and even though it contains none of the original furnishings, it has the period furniture to complete his three rooms: the front room where he composed his music, over 600 pieces, with a pen and a bottle of ink on sheets of plain white paper, his modest bed, a fireplace, which was the only source of heat, and a kitchen area.
Although Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, he moved to Vienna where he studied under Haydn and where many other great composers and musicians had lived. The museum had a listening room with earphones where visitors could hear some of his major works which quickly demonstrated the man’s genius . . . military marches, choral compositions, and orchestral pieces and symphonies we know so well today.
They also had special earphones that demonstrated to listeners the various stages of Beethoven’s oncoming deafness. It was amazing to think a composer who could not hear well could create such magnificent music. One had to surmise that Beethoven could imagine how the music he wrote would sound in his brain and that his pen could write the notes as the pieces unfolded. Truly a miracle.
The last demonstration had a film of the Ninth Symphony and chorus showing the entire piece with orchestra and chorus including a translation of the words to English. Listening to it I felt as close to God as I have ever felt in my life. Next to this screen was a computer screen that indicated notes that each instrument and member of the chorus was hitting simultaneously as the symphony was being played. We clearly saw the double fugue, the method learned from Bach that composers could use that would have some instruments reporting their melody as the other half of the orchestra and choir members responded. It seemed almost a mathematical formula.
Our guide told us a joke. It was said that Beethoven, Haydn, Schubert composed their symphonies to “lift listeners to God.” We don’t know to this day, he said, whether the great composers believed in God. But we do know they believed in Bach, the master of all composers!
But after hearing a sampling of Beethoven’s great variety of compositions, I would like to spend the last years of my life in earphones hooked into his music. Perhaps I also felt it was a little like being hooked into God.
We survived the 10-hour flight back to Dulles, limo trip out of Washington, D.C., on a Friday night (to escape traffic going to Warrenton), and then down 17 to 95 to Richmond and the final leg back to Urbanna. Twenty-three hours had passed since we left the Imperial Hotel for the Vienna Airport.
Our dog “Dandy” and the circling feral cats were happy to have us home. It was good collapsing in bed. As usual, I swore that I would never ever again leave the dear town of Urbanna. (Conclusion) ©2020.
Note: The column “One Woman’s Opinion” will return in the spring.
