There are three major events attract most people's attention near the end of every year. one is Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in New York, then the Rose Parade on New years day at Pasadena and the last is the Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert. People around the world gather around fireplace, watch the heart-warming parades and music/dance performance in their family rooms. This becomes a tradition for many people to end the year and usher in the new year. Of course just before watching the Rose Parade, most people sing Auld Lang Syne to send the old year off for nostalgic purpose.
This year, Zubin Mehta leads the concert for the fifth time and arranges a repertoire dedicated to science, technology, wine, music and dance. The concert is considered to be the largest worldwide event in classical music, reaching millions of people annually through radio, TV and the Internet in over 80 countries. It showcased Viennese musical culture at the highest level, and since the first telecast in 1959, sent the world a New Year's greeting in the spirit of hope, friendship and peace.
The concert is about two hours long and the program consists of two parts with intermission. The Austrian telecast version is by ORF (Austrian Broadcasting). The American version is edited to one and half hour narrated by Julie Andrews this year. Here let's take a look of the second part of the program (after Intermission).
Johann Strauss – Perpetual Motion
Johann Strauss- Accelerations Waltz
Johann Strauss- Electro-Magnetic Polka
Eduard Strauss – At Full Steam, Quick Polka
Josef Strauss- Viennese Life, French Polka
Johann Strauss- On the Elbe, Waltz
Hans Christian Lumby – Champagne Galop
Johann Strauss – Students Polka
Johann Strauss Sr.- Freedom March
Johann Strauss- Annen-Polka
Johann Strauss- Wine, Women & Song, Waltz
Eduard Strauss- With Style, Quick Polka
At a glance, the first four pieces are devoted to science and technology. 1850's was the high time of industrial revolution and the music reflects that spirit. The 'Perpetual Motion' and 'Accelerations' come from Physics, 'Electro-Magnetic' is from Electrical Engineering, 'At Full Steam' is from Mechanical Engineering. The combined first four polka/waltz is like microprocessor, personal computer, Internet and mobile phone all lumped together in our time. It follows with life in Vienna and on the River Elbe. Elbe (易北河) is not that famous like Donau (Danube) or Rhine, nevertheless it is a major river in Germany. Then it comes with Champagne Galop. It is a hilarious gathering for wine tasting with a 'pop', a sign of good life. After the high tech and champagne, it ushers in the 'Students Polka', a reflection of college student life. Before I go further, you might get confused about the waltz, polka, galop etc. Waltz is easy, it is just a common dance we see in ballroom dance competition. Polka is a faster pace with two-beat dance. However, there are many types of polka, to name a few, francaise polka, mazulka polka, quick polka etc. As to Galop, it is just a much quicker polka. Now lets get into our main theme, the Students Polka. You listen to this polka and immediately you catch the familiar tune, "Gaudeamus Igitur". It is a drinking song sung in Latin started around 13th century. Johannes Brahms also used this tune in his 'Academic Festival Overture'. Now the question comes up, why drinking becomes a theme of college life? Perhaps most people thought the university was mostly for the rich kids at that time. Well, in parallel with the concert, a modern ballet is performed in the Vienna University to portray the student life. Like most artistic work, you can interpret with your imagination and find the influence or likeness in your life. Here is my interpretation based on the experience in our college time and wish you have your own version. Meanwhile I should say 'thank' to the Internet. Without it, it is just hard to talk about music and dance in a synchronous manner. Please visit the following link and just watch it from 35:15 to 39:25.
35:15---Johann Strauss Sohn, Sohn is son in German. There are two Johann Strauss, Senior and Junior or Father and Son. Junior is more famous and is called 'The Waltz King'. Most music pieces you hear here are by Junior. However, the well-known march at the end of the concert is always 'Radetzky March' by Johann Strauss Senior. Polka Francaise is a French style polka, a slower and mellow polka.
35:35---This is a good old Unversity of Vienna with a very nice library.
35:42-36.00---This is the main theme, the drinking song with mellow tone.
36:00---Three college kids rush into scene, one from physics dept, one from mechanical engineering and one from electrical engineering. They are heading to the library but meet and chat there. Before getting into library, they talk about the party the previous night and decide to make some plan for the weekend.
36:30--- They drop the textbook and forget the whole thing about study with the drinking tune hanging around.
36:45---Well, it is the time to pick up the books and head to the main library.
36:51---Just around & up the stairways, here come 兩位外文系高材生.
37:00---Wow, they are teasing and flirting, my goodness!
37:38---But I have to study '电機機械', better go & hurry.
37:50---Hold it, what happen to the girls? Go with those two guys? 是可忍,孰不可忍?
38:00---Hack with 馬雲龍, let's go to take a look.
38:05---Hey, guy, shape up, don't 毛手毛腳.
38:26---Wait, 君子動腦不動手, why not duel on the study table (not majhang table)? 桌上見.
38:34---永動機?荒謬! Locomotive? runs only on the track! Here is something new, 這邊電場,那邊磁場,中間就可轉起來!
38:50---No hidden deal under the table!
38:54---Here is the demo, rotation!
39:00---兩位外文系高材生 頭被轉昏了. Wow, the EE kid looks real, let's go with him for another experiment.
39:10---See, 左邊電場,右邊磁場,中間的我就可動起來.
39:20---左右逢源,大地回春. What a life!
39:25---Viva Faraday, Viva Maxwell. Long Live the Electrical Engineer.
I mentioned the good old 'Gaudeamus Igitur'. Some music critic (Sigmund Spaeth) said it is the second most famous tune in the world. I am not sure about this but at least it stands out to be a popular one. Most music lovers know this tune is used in Brahms Academic Festival Overture in a big way in its ending. It sounds odd to celebrate the graduation with the drinking song. However, if from another angle to look at this, it may not be that inappropriate. After the toils of four years, labors in library & laboratory, you finally get the coveted degree. Isn't it the right time to indulge on some drinking binge? As the lyrics of the song indicates, after the joyous young age and after the painful old age, all we have is the earth. In other words, 萬物終將歸塵土.
Here is the little story about this episode of Brahms. In the summer of 1879, The University of Breslau awarded Brahms an honorary doctorate degree and Brahms accepted. However, he didn't do anything until sometime in 1880, someone told him that the university expected him to write some music in return. Brahms in haste and didn't have enough time to compose something meaningful. He then threw in several songs sang in various schools and blended them into something like coming out of a soup kitchen. At the end of the overture, he chose this drinking song 'Gaudeamus Igitur'. Well, you guess it, some liked it and some didn't. Some conservative parents thought it is unforgivable to tell graduates starting their life with drinking. Anyway, Brahms got the degree and the university got the overture, a happy ending after all.
Remark:
The video clip has been removed from YouTube due to the copyright issue. This is not uncommon these days in the Internet age. Usually the program is available for several weeks for public view. Although the owner of the program has the right to do whatever it wants, it is a pity that it diminishes the value of the program by imposing the restriction. If most people can't watch and appreciate the artistic program, what is the use of the program itself? Of course we can go and buy the DVD of the program, but to most people it is a severe inconvenience.
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