Haus der Musik

I can’t recommend the Haus der Musik highly ENOUGH. I’ve never had more fun in a museum in my life. And I mean it! I was extremely impressed by how interactive all the exhibits were, but mostly I was blown away by the high technology of it all!  We spent hours in there, and I would go back in a heartbeat.

[I know we're supposed to be assimilating to the Viennese way of life and everything, but I can't do that until I've squeezed all the touristy, museum-going, postcard-buying, and picture-taking urges out of my body. So until then, bitte!!]

 















On the first floor of the museum, we could “compose” our own waltz! You would do this by rolling enormous dice onto screens that could ascertain the number rolled and spit out a measure of music accordingly. 2 people would each roll a die to “compose” a bass line and a melody line respectively.  Super neat! Liesl and I proceeded to waltz to our own waltz of course. Some Austrian women applauded us, and we told them we were practicing for the TU ball on Thursday. (Speaking of, OH MY GOD!! SO EXCITED FOR THAT!)

      Here's the video of Liesl and me dancing. It took us a while to figure out who would be the man and who would be the woman. (haha!) So in keeping with my childhood role-playing games with Meg, I volunteered for the man's position. (I definitely wasn't leading though)...oh well! Still fun! Which is apparent in how absurdly happy we look dancing :)

On the second floor could be found every aspect of sound production and perception you can imagine. I mean there was even a room that simulated the sounds that an embryo hears in a womb for crying out loud! Exceptionally creepy, actually....

In other rooms we could record our voices and see the visual physics behind it, and we could distort them into train sounds or other weird things that I’m not even sure I can explain. I really liked all of the other rooms, aside from the 'womb room'...

 

And then on the third floor, we could wander through different rooms devoted to Vienna’s main men: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler, and Strauss…(in that order? I can’t remember. It is supposed to be chronological though…hopefully close enough.) It was tremendous! 

In the Mozart room, you could type in your name to a machine and it would  “compose” a Mozart symphony according to the letters of your name and their corresponding musical note letters. (or close to it). My melody didn't sound very good.  (And yet, I suppose there are worse things than having a fake “Laura” symphony composed by “Mozart” sound horrendous. Right??) Still....sad times. (I WANT MY NAME TO SOUND BEAUTIFUL, BITTE!!)

We had audio guides that would tell us about the composers' lives, homes, musical works, wives, and lovers. I took too many posed pictures with their portraits/figures for me to even want to post some of them. Besides, they're a little embarrassing. I was absolutely beside myself in the Beethoven room for one. No one needs to see that.


 And then to finish it of, I got to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic!! (Kind of.) The simulation was very cool; the players would even glance up and look at you from time to time. You had to be careful to aim the the baton at the sensor, which I discovered when some of my cadences got a little out of control. (very out of control). They even had a score for you to follow and selections of different well-known pieces to choose from (all in 2/4 so even if you just wave your arms uselessly they'll play at least SOMEthing.) I tried conducting the Danube Waltz as fast as possible just for fun, but the onscreen concertmaster stopped playing, yelled at me, and the whole orchestra refused to keep playing! (Game over?) It was hysterical!

Zubin Mehta gave me conducting tips!! (#casual, #himeg)

SO FUN!! AUSGEZEICHNET!