We visited the Cathedral, a Franciscan Abbey, St Peter's Church, various hotels, cafés, shops, and had amazing views! My favorite place, however, was the Salzburg Fortress!!
We had lunch once we reached the top and let me tell you, it was a climb!!
I posted pictures on my Facebook album entitled Salzburg/Italy for you all to enjoy. There are just too many photos to share them all on here.
We ate dinner at a cafe in Old town. We had to ask our waiter if it was appropriate to tip, because we didn't want to offend. So yes, tip in Austria, but never in Italy! There are two parts of the city, Old Town and New Town that are separated by the Salzach River. We are staying at a hotel in New Town.
People are avid smokers here and drink nothing but Austrian beer. They tend to snub their noses at any other beer than Austrian.
Jonathan had his first lesson today and it went well. The professor, Dr. Lucke (pronounced Luke-uh), was very impressed that Jonathan was able to execute all of the instructions immediately.
His remark was, "I tell my students the same things over and over again and even years later they still do it wrong! You, however, do as I say immediately! It is amazing!"
The organs over here are very different from the ones in the states.
Our oranges, for example, are made of plastic keys and have to weight and do not respond to your touch. An example of this would be, when you play a piano, if you strike the key with force it rings loud and if you strike softly, the sound is quieter. This is not so on an organ. So the way to create dynamic ranges is to learn which stops to pull out and when to swell the pedals and all that.
The organs here are very different. The keyboard sounds are switched around a bit and the keys themselves respond to your touch like a piano's!!! So you have to be careful of your dynamics and not strike the organ keys too hard on a soft part.
Is your mind blown yet? Mine is! But wait! Now only do the organ's key respond to your touch, but the foot pedals do as well!! Ahhhh!!!! So you have to be very careful how much weight you put on them and be sure not to stomp. Eek!
At the end of Jonathan's lesson, the professor told him that he has done well enough with the changes of organ and tweaking of his technique that he is being selected to be one of the people to play on the opening concert of the Mozarteum Season of Entertainment on Friday night!!
He's very nervous and wants to practice all the time. We'll still squeeze in some fun though.
Enough for now. Enjoy the pictures and check back again tomorrow for more stories!!!
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