Hofbrauhaus Restaurant, Las Vegas, Nevada: the Alpine Horn
“One of the greatest pleasures of music is to make other people listen to it; to feel, for just a moment, a tiny part of an ideal world in which everything is good, beautiful, harmony, love.
—Raphael Sommer (1937-2001), cellist, son of pianist Alice Herz-Sommer (1903-2014), see previous Quarter Note Blog posts of October 22, 2013 and March 3, 2014
Since we’re still in summer mode, it being almost August, I’d like to share more from my trip to Las Vegas last month, as well as some other interesting music-related tid bits! After attending sessions at the library conference all day, my husband and I treated ourselves to a dinner at the Hofbrauhaus in the heart of Las Vegas. Coming from two German-born parents, I grew up loving German food and appreciated the folksy history of Germany, especially when we travelled to Germany in 1981 and spent time at the Oktoberfest in Munich. The Hofbrauhaus in Vegas had delicious original German food, but more importantly, they had a 3-person German band playing throughout the evening, dressed in their Landler outfits. The instrumentation included accordion, guitar and Alpine horn. Click and learn how the Alpine horns are made. What did they play? You guessed it: German dances, songs and Landler tunes. According to the website Naxos.com, “the Landler is an Austrian country dance in a slow triple metre, a precursor of the waltz.” They further define the German dance: “generally the triple metre dances of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, found in the Landler and the Waltz. There are examples of this dance in the work of Beethoven and of Schubert.” Every 20 minutes or so, just like the Oktoberfest in Germany, the band at the restaurant would play the song, “Ein Prosit” and expect all the restaurant guests to stand up with beer in hand, sway along to the tune, toast with everyone at the table and chime in in song, followed by a chug of their beer of course. For a few brief moments, I felt part of ‘an ideal world’ full of music and harmony. It was a wonderfully fun and delicious evening, especially after a stein of good German beer!
Moving from Las Vegas to New York, I’d like to share a FREE resource with you: the New York Philharmonic Digital Archives may be accessed online. The NY Philharmonic received a grant to complete the digitization of its extensive Archives, beginning with its founding in 1842 through the present day. Once completed the NY Philharmonic Leon Levy Digital Archives will contain close to 3 million pages comprising all documents in the NY Philharmonic Archives – including correspondence, marked scores and parts, contracts, public documents, including press releases and annual reports through the present day. Take a look at what’s there; it’s amazing and I guarantee, as a music lover, you will find it fascinating.
Our Did You Know for today follows the German theme I started with: George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) was born in Germany but immigrated to London. He originated the English oratorio, the most famous being his piece, the Messiah. Handel was born the same year as J.S. Bach and Domenico Scarlatti. According to the San Francisco Classical Voice: “in 1704, Handel and another composer and friend, Johann Mattheson got into an argument over who had the right to play continuo in the opera pit. A duel ensued, and Mattheson won. Handel’s life was spared only because a button on his coat broke the sword’s near-fatal blow.” Lucky for all of us!
Stay tuned to the Quarter Notes Blog and in tune with all the music in your life!
E. Susman, August 1, 2014
The Quarter Notes 