Music In Sweden!

As you all know, music is one of my most favorite things here on earth. It's pretty awesome. Most of you also know how much I love Sweden and my heritage (hence the awesome trip!). But I think few of you know that a few years ago, I nearly combined these two loves by going to grad-school in Sweden!

Yes, that's right. During my senior year, I started to apply for a masters in violin performance at the Royal Institute of Music in Stockholm. I was beginning to make travel arrangements for my audition when I discovered that I couldn't get the proper funding I needed for a student visa, since all the grants I would have applied for had ridiculously early deadlines that I had already missed. I was hopeful when I found a grant from the Swedish government specifically for international students who wanted to do graduate work in Sweden, so I contacted them. Of course, their grant only applied to institutions that taught in English (of which there are many), but the conservatory classes are taught mostly in Swedish (a language I was studying at the time). I guess I wasn't international enough for them, or something. Anyway, without the necessary financial resources, I withdrew my application and went to IU instead, which ended up being a fantastic two years, but that's beside the point.

Of course, once I finally made it to Sweden, I just HAD to visit what could have been my school! So while Dan was being a good student and attending class, I found my way to the Kungliga Musik Högskolan:This is the entrance to the main building (they had 5 altogether). I'll admit, I kind of expected the Royal Institute of Music to look a little more impressive, I dunno, like a castle or something, but I liked the atmosphere, nonetheless. Once inside, I found it had a relaxed but businesslike feel, and I suddenly had this overwhelming desire to practice...



As I was exploring, I followed the signs to the auditorium, not expecting to be able to get in, but was delighted to see that a rehearsal was going on, so I snuck* in to listen for a bit. They were playing Stravinsky's "L'Histoire Du Soldat," which has a killer violin part. They sounded pretty good, and that familiar urge to find a practice room continued to grow...
I couldn't get to said practice rooms, as they were in another building which you needed a key-code to enter (yes, I tried being the creeper who hangs around the door until someone else enters or exits, but it was a really slow day, and I was cold!). However, back in the main building I was surprised to find digital pianos lining a hallway of teaching studios:

It's hard to tell, but it pretty much alternates piano-bench-piano-bench, all the way down the hall. You can even see someone practicing (with headphones, of course)!


To conclude my visit, I spent a significant amount of time browsing through their bookstore, where I found an interesting Music History textbook (see the previous post), and almost bought the Music Theory text that they use. I stood there paging through it, reading the musical examples and deciphering the different terms and symbology, trying to convince myself that it was worth 300 Kronor (about $45). I didn't end up getting it, which was probably for the best, but I still totally want it!

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One of the many cool things about Stockholm is that music seems to be everywhere, including the subways! No, no, I'm not talking about street musicians or headphones that are too loud, I mean this subway station actually has music in it:


("Hiss" means elevator, in case you were wondering.)



I was pleased to discover that if you put all of the little snippets together, each wall had a complete tune:





Although, what "La Marseillaise" was doing in the Hötorget station is beyond me (actually, I have a theory, which has something to do with the royal family)...



I didn't have time to check the other side, since our train was arriving (they're disconcertingly prompt in Sweden!!!), but I'll give a special prize to someone who can tell me what this excerpt is:
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Hoo boy! Are you getting tired of seeing pictures of music yet??? I hope not, because the best is yet to come: On Tuesday, we visited the MUSIC MUSEUM (or, Musikmuseet, if you want to be authentic)! The museum was housed in a 300+ year-old building, which used to be an industrial bakery for the army base across the street (which is now the army museum across the street).














You may notice that it looks like we took these pictures late at night. Surprise! They were actually taken around 4:00pm, after it had been dark for a while (the official sunset time for that day was 3:05 pm. I thought these early sunsets were pretty neat, in a dark and cold sort of way).

But I digress! Back to the music! There was so much to see and do! A lot of it was interactive, with instruments that you could play and electronics to manipulate. I wish I could tell you about everything, but since this is already a ridiculously huge post, I'll just give you a few highlights.

The museum focused largely on folk instruments, and though it was primarily Swedish music, there were some really excellent exhibits representing many other countries from around the world.
Here we have a few favorite Scandinavian folk instruments:

1. The Hammer Dulcimer (this is Dan's dubious dulcimer debut, let's give him a hand!)












2. The Nyckelharpa, Sweden's national instrument:












3. The Hardanger Fiddle, made famous by the LOTR soundtrack:



The Hardanger fiddle was named for the Hardanger Fjord, which is where Norwegian (but really Scottish) composer Edvard Grieg spent his summers... Because I know you were wondering about that.


But enough with these pictures, what do they SOUND like??? Well, with Dan's help, and thanks to the magic of cell phones, I am proud to give to you this once-in-a-lifetime experience of seeing TWO of Sweden's national symbols combine for an unprecedented cultural sensation:

Ladies and Gentlemen, a Dallahäst playing the Nyckelharpa!

Before we leave the music museum, I have to show you what I personally thought was by far the coolest thing in there. It was a demonstration of the different types of action in a Clavichord (simple lever), Harpsichord (plucked), and piano (a more complex hammer/lever system).















You could play each of the keyboards and look through the glass top to see (and hear) how the different instruments work. I was so happy to finally get to explore and compare the various actions. I called this the "magic box" and told Dan I wanted one for Christmas...
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On Saturday, my last full day in Sweden, Dan took me to Skansen, an open-air historical museum. This place was one of the neatest things I saw in Sweden! Basically, they built a typical 18th-century town and countryside (most of the buildings are original, dating back two or three hundred years) and populated it with "historical interpreters in period costume." It runs all year, but this weekend was special because it was the opening of the annual Christmas market (a topic for another post, I think). I mention Skansen because, in addition to the organ grinder and the wandering accordion player,















There was also a group performing folk songs while people danced around the Christmas tree in the square (another yuletide tradition)! Most of the people who were dancing were either the historical re-enactors (watch for their cool costumes!), or parents with their small children, but it looked like so much fun that Dan and I had to join in! We danced for a few songs, and I think we both had a blast! We were surprised to recognize a number of the songs from recordings that we grew up hearing at home! I guess my family really is Swedish!

(Sorry for the sideways video! I have no idea how to rotate video 90 degrees! If anyone would like to enlighten me, that would be greatly appreciated!)


*Spell check is underlining "snuck," so I looked it up. Yes, the traditional past-tense of "sneak" is "sneaked," but the usage of the form "snuck," although at first confined to the American dialect, is generally regarded as an acceptable alternative (though in a formal setting, "sneaked" is still recommended).

Books in Sweden!

Okay, I promised to tell you all about my wonderful adventures in Scandinavia! Well, here goes!
I thought I'd try to split some of these posts up into themes, rather than just give you a play-by-play of my time there. I will strive for some semblance of order, but I give no promises!

I thought that a decent place to start would be books (yeah, I'm a nerd). They had small bookstores with the delightful tag of "Pocket Shop" pretty much everywhere in the city, especially near train stations and large shopping districts. I would liken them to Walden Books here in the US, but they were unique in that they only carried paperback books, usually in a rather compact size, hence the name.

One of my missions while in Sweden was to find a copy of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in Swedish ("Harry Potter och de Vises Sten," for those of you keeping score at home), so this was a shop I made sure to visit. They did not have the book I was looking for (apparently it's only published in hardcover), but I did stumble across a few other best-sellers:




The first book in the Twilight saga, known here in the states as"Twilight," is called "If I Could Dream" in Swedish. I see this title and all I can think of is someone saying "Sorry girls, gorgeous, brilliant, filthy-rich, chivalrous, sparkling vampires only exist in your dreams!"Leave it to the Swedes to keep things reasonable.





The second book, "New Moon," literally translated is "When I Hear Your Voice."
My gorgeous, brilliant, chivalrous (but deep-in-student-debt and SO NOT SPARKLY, thank goodness) fiance Gordon helped me to tabulate a list of psychiatric ailments that likely plagued Bella Swan. Some highlights were Clinical Depression, Borderline Personality Disorder, and Auditory/Visual hallucinations, possibly caused by Schizophrenia. He came up with more, but I can't remember them just now...





The Swedish title for "Eclipse" grows even more obscure, translated as "The Light of Your Heart." I'm just not going to even try for this one.









And the final, most cryptic title of all: "Breaking Dawn" is "So Long We Both Breathe." This title confuses me to no end. First, I thought it was the Swedish equivalent to the phrase "as long as we both shall live," referring to the vampire wedding, but then I realized that in the twilight universe, vampires didn't need to breathe, so probably not. Then I thought that maybe it meant "So long! We can both breathe," meaning you can breathe easy now that everything's resolved. But honestly, the more I think about it, the weirder it gets, so I'm content to believe that the Swedish versions, like the American originals, make very little sense.


Here's another title that caught my eye:








"SWEDISH MAFFIA???" Dude. I didn't know they had one of those. But now that I do, I'm frightened. I'm curious to know if they utilize berzerkers like their viking predecessors...


On Tuesday of the week I was there, Dan (my brother, whom I was visiting) said we'd devote the day to doing whatever I wanted to do. That day we visited the Royal Library and the Music Museum (I think he may have regretted giving me so much control). The museum will have to wait for another time, as it doesn't fit the theme of this post, but the library looked like this:














I was a little disappointed to discover it was closed-stacks (you look up the resources you want and ask a librarian to retrieve them for you), but the reference section ended up being a good deal fun anyway (I think even Dan enjoyed himself!).




I mean, come on, there's a spiral staircase! In a library! In the reference section! How cool is that?!

Okay, moving on...





I was curious to see what kind of resources they had on music. We looked up the shelf numbers using the index, and I was rather disappointed with what I found:

I mean, seriously? That's it??? The National Library of Sweden and that's all you have???

Thankfully my brother was more interested in exploring, and happened to stumble across something more a few aisles down (apparently I'm not as adept at the Swedish cataloging method as I had hoped):







Aaaaaaah, that's better! An entire aisle devoted to music reference materials! My faith in Swedish librarians has been restored!





I was pleased to see that our dear beloved "THE NEW GROVE" encyclopedias are the standard in Scandinavia, as well.

Look familiar???
(Okay, Okay, I know MGG is German, but it was still fun to see materials that I recognized!!!)

While we're on a familiar-looking-music-books kick, I thought I'd mention the interesting title I found on my visit to the KungligaMusikHögskolan (the Royal College of Music).*

This is the title they use for their Music History classes:
Yes, yes, that's right: they use the simplified version of our dear old "History of Western Music" (note the author's line: Based on J. Peter Burkholder, Palisca and Grout!). I guess I should cut them some slack, remembering that English is their second language and all (can you imagine studying for your classes in a foreign language?), but I'm having too much fun right now thinking about the Europeans using the dumbed-down version.

Okay, I've run out of book-related fun to pass on,** so I will leave you with this viking parable (found in a book, no less!):

"Wake early if you want another man's life or land..."
Yeah, the wolves and battle imagery is just a tad more brutal than birds catching worms, don't you think?

*Again, this is a story for another post!

**Oh yeah, I found Harry Potter in Swedish, by the way! It's everything I hoped it would be and more! ;)

Tales from Sweden, the illustrated version???

Oh man, I can't wait to share the awesome adventures I'm having in Stockholm! I'm even taking notes to make sure I don't leave anything out. I'm also taking a lot of pictures so that you can see a little bit of the awesomeness that is Sweden! Of course, I can't really upload my pictures yet, since I don't have the set-up here to transfer photos. This means that if you want the illustrated version of my travels, you'll have to wait until I get home next week!
So what do you think? Is it worth waiting for pictures???

Nordic Adventures!!! (part 1)

For any of you who don't know, my brother is studying in Stockholm, Sweden this year. Being of Swedish heritage, I have always wanted to visit Sweden (I even took some Swedish language classes in undergrad), and this was my big chance! What better excuse than to visit my beloved little brother? So, at 4:25pm on Saturday, November 21, I boarded a plane to Stockholm!

It was a nonstop (8.5 hours) flight on SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System). I was at once dreading this flight (I don't do well when I have to sit still for long periods of time, I get stressed out and anxious--thanks, ADHD--and I have always had difficulty sleeping on planes), and also looking forward to it. You see, SAS has these cool touch-screens at every seat where you can watch movies or TV shows, listen to music or even play games! Also, there was going to be an in-flight meal, and I've never had one of those before. Now, I know that airline food is reputably terrible, but it wasn't the gourmet taste that I was looking forward to so much as the experience.

Anyway, I found my seat on the plane and started looking through the movies that would become available after takeoff. I was excited to see various new movies which I had not yet seen, including G.I Joe, Julie & Julia, Transformers 2, and many more older favorites. It was at this time that a young man who had been chatting with the people in the row in front of me asked me politely if I was alone and wouldn't mind switching seats with him so he could be closer to his friends. Being happy to oblige, I said yes, and moved several rows back. It wasn't until after takeoff that I noticed my fancy TV screen wasn't on. I glanced over to the lady on my left and saw that hers was on. However, the gentleman on my right was having the same problem, pushing the on/off button to no avail. Apparently the two people in front of us were having some trouble too, because they flagged down a flight-attendant, who assured us that once we had reached cruising altitude, ours would work again. About an hour into the flight, after we had hit 37,000 feet, our screens were still blank, and the attendant was summoned again. She looked puzzled, and said she would get someone. She came back with a technician, who said it might be trouble with the circuit, and walked off with a purpose. A few minutes later, an announcement came on over the intercom that simply stated "Ladies and Gentleman, in a moment, I will be flipping the circuit breaker, and we might experience some problems." Not the greatest announcement to make on an airplane... There were some concerned looks from many of the passengers! Fortunately, nothing happened. Unfortunately, nothing happened. Our screens were still blank, and remained so for the rest of the trip. Also, the problem was that our seats had no power, which meant that our reading lights were also non-functional, leaving us in the dark with nothing to watch for much of the trip. I was pretty bummed, especially since I wouldn't be having this trouble if I hadn't been nice enough to switch seats!

HOWEVER, I am also thankful that this happened, because I made a new friend! The gentleman sitting to my right was Swedish, and very considerately translated for me, since all of the exchanges about the TV and power and such were in Swedish. He gave me all the updates on what was going on. He even talked the stewardess into giving us extra treats to compenate (we got as many drinks as we wanted, and a handful of chocolates that everyone else had to pay for)This silly ordeal was enough to break the ice, and we got to chatting--something we probably would not have done if we had been staring mindlessly at a TV screen! We had a delightful conversation as he told me about his trip to Chicago, talking about all the stuff you can get in Chicago (apparently jeans are terribly expensive in Sweden), laughing about the terror of the glass ledge on the Sears Tower Skydeck, remarking on his first trip to the United States when he was in high school (he was an exchange student in Nebraska, of all places--He said the terrain was the least interesting he had ever come across, but it was one of the best years of his life!), and all manner of things. It turned out that he had graduated from the Royal Institute of Technology, where my brother was studying. In fact, he even had the same major! He told me all about Stockholm, what to see and do, and all in all it was great fun! He even gave me directions when it came time to navigate through Stockholm's airport.

But I haven't told you about the FOOD!!! It was good! I mean, it wasn't the greatest food I had ever tasted or anything, but I quite liked it. For dinner, we had roast chicken with peas, a small salad, dinner rolls and butter, brie and crackers, with a lemon bar and coffee for desert! hard to complain about that! Also, I was surprised to find that, about 90 minutes before we were to land, they gave us breakfast! I had orange juice, strawberry yogurt, and half a ham and cheese sandwich. I have to say, I was very happy with the food. And the whole flight, for that matter! SAS won me over, for sure!

Okay, one last flight detail to share, then I'm done! The flight attendants were all fluent in Swedish and English, and were pretty good at figuring out which language to speak to whom. But every time they got to me, they would address me in Swedish. For the most part I could bluff my way through using context cues (if they have a drink cart, ask for "kaffe!"), but occasionally, I would need help from my neighbor (especially when they were talking about the TV screens and such). When he would turn to me and translate, they would always apologize profusely, saying "Oh, I'm so sorry, I thought you were Swedish!" Needless to say, I was delighted.

The flight arrived on-time at 8:50 am (local time) Sunday morning, and I made it through customs and such with no problem. It was great to see my brother waiting for me beyond the gate, and we headed off for a full day of sight-seeing, which will have to wait for another time!!!

Interesting quote...

From a sermon on marriage:

"My goal is to make my wife believe that the best thing she has ever done is to marry me."

Looking back now on what I just typed, I can see how it might look self-centered ("I'm so awesome, aren't you glad you married me?"), but that's not the context in which it was said. What he meant was: "I want to be the best husband humanly possible, supporting and loving and caring for my wife so much that she will never have cause to regret her choice to spend her life with me. In fact, not only will she not regret it, she will be more happy with that decision than with any other she has ever made." He followed it up by quoting Philippians 2:3

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves."

He didn't dwell on this, and I don't think that his quote was intended to be a pithy statement, or even the point of the sermon (which was titled "Lasting Love"), but that sentence is what stuck out to me. I like it. I think more people should adopt this goal. I once heard love defined as:
"Jealously guarding the well-being of another." Lots to think about. What a huge goal for a marriage: defending the happiness of my husband, putting his needs before my own, loving him in such a way that he will never have cause to regret his decision to marry me.

If you want to listen to the sermon, click here.

Confession Time...

Okay, time to come clean. I have this problem. Well, I have a lot of problems, but I think it might be best to just share one at a time. So here goes: I have very little follow-through when it comes to long-term projects.

This blog is a case in point. If you notice my last post was over a month ago. I made multiple posts a week for a while, but that didn't last long. I'll admit, I'm not terribly surprised.
True, I could tell you that I got sick shortly after my last post, and my schedule filled up fast when I got better as I was catching up on all that I missed the previous week, and I could add that I got sick again two weeks later, but honestly, the lapse was inevitable. It's one of the reasons I hesitated starting a blog in the first place: I knew my tendency to lose interest.

I have a journal tucked away in my bedside table. I started this journal as a girl (the first entry was dated January 9, 1995). It's still not full. This book is a sporadic chronicle of my young life. There will be a cluster of entries, then a long gap before the next entry, which usually consisted of me exclaiming about how long it had been since I had last written (I once made it nearly two years!). I have another journal, which I started in college. I wrote in it every day for almost two months (I was so proud of myself!), then never again. It's packed away in a box somewhere, I think.

It's not just journaling that I have trouble with. Like many people, my list of New Years resolutions fallen by the wayside is tragically long. I could fill one of my poor neglected journals with the habits I have failed to build! I take heart in knowing that I am not the only one who has trouble with this. I read that only 12% of people achieve their January 1st goals. If you want a musical example, just check out how many symphonies Schubert started, but never finished (no, it's not just the famous one!).

Long story short, I am a person, and people are inconsistent. As hard as we try, there will always be things we let slide. Even the most reliable person in the world will let you down if you give them long enough. We're human, and sometimes we fail, even with the best intentions.

I am so glad God is not human! Here is what the Bible has to say about His track record:

"God is not a man, that he should lie,
nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill?"
(Numbers 23:19)

"He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind."
(1 Samuel 15:29)

"He is the Rock, his works are perfect,
and all his ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong,
upright and just is he."
(Deuteronomy 32:4)

"The works of his hands are faithful and just;
all his precepts are trustworthy.
They are steadfast for ever and ever,
done in faithfulness and uprightness."
(Psalm 111:7-8 )

"Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
The LORD is faithful to all his promises
and loving toward all he has made."
(Psalm 145:13)

"I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed."
(Malachi 3:6)

"If we are faithless,
he will remain faithful,
for he cannot disown himself."
(2 Timothy 2:13)

"he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
(Philippians 1:6)

Part of God's faithfulness is His refusal to give up on us. Philippians clearly states that God won't stop until He has taught us what He wants us to learn. He wants us to emulate his reliability:

"He gave them these orders: "You must serve faithfully and wholeheartedly in the fear of the LORD."
(2 Chronicles 19:9)

"Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers."
(1 Timothy 4:15-16)

"We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised."
(Hebrews 6:11-12)

"Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful."
(1 Corinthians 4:2)

I don't know about you, but this all sounds a little intimidating to a girl who can't even write a blog post once a week. Thankfully, God is gracious and offers chance after chance to practice being dependable. Just like a good father, He gives us little things to be responsible for, and gradually increases the load as we are able to bear it.

"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'"
(Matthew 25:21)

Hopefully God can use this blog to teach me a little bit more about faithfulness...

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." (Hebrews 13:8)

Faith and Garbage Trucks.

Today is garbage day. This means that today is Reid's favorite day of the week. The kid is obsessed with trucks, and today is the day that big, noisy blue trucks come rumbling up and down our streets, reaching out with giant, mechanical arms to empty the large cans lined up along the curb (did I mention that Reid also has this weird fascination with garbage cans?). Today truly is a great day. While Reid may not realize that today is Monday, and every Monday is garbage day, he doesn't need to have this information to know the trucks are coming. All he needs is to see the green and blue bins sitting in front of each house, and he knows what that means!

Oh, the excitement when he spotted the clues this morning! We couldn't focus through breakfast, he kept staring out the window, calling "Truck! Truck!" in desperation, wondering where they were! After the meal, he rushed to the door, begging to be let out to search for the beloved conveyors of refuse. Our day was spent at the window, watching and waiting.

All day I reassured him, saying "The truck will come, don't worry. It's not here yet, but we know it is coming. Wait patiently, it will be here. Keep watching, you don't want to miss it!" And so we waited with confidence, knowing that the truck had to come eventually, and we wanted to be ready when it did!

Hebrews 11 defines faith as "being sure of what you hope for, and certain of what you do not see." In Romans 8, Paul says "But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." We could not see the garbage trucks, nor could we hear them yet, but we didn't need to see them in order to know that they were coming. Reid's hope today was not some vague desire that perhaps we might be lucky enough to see a truck drive down our street. No, his hope was not wishful thinking, but a certainty. There was no question in his mind about whether the trucks were coming. He had faith in our garbage trucks, even though he couldn't see them.

And boy was he excited!!! All day it was nearly impossible to tear him away from the window. He would beg and beg until we went outside, and once there, he just wanted to run up and down the street, looking for the garbage trucks, calling out joyfully for the expected visitors, wanting to be right there for when they did finally arrive.

I want to have faith like Reid's! While garbage trucks seem like a silly example, this is exactly the kind of attitude Paul is describing in his letter to the Romans. Of course, our faith is not in trash-toting jalopies, but rather in the salvation afforded in Jesus Christ. We look forward to the day when Christ shall return to claim His own.

Paul says "we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved... Creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed."

Of that day, Jesus says "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done... Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter into the city. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers, and the immoral persons, and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying... Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost."

"Therefore, be on your guard because you do not know when the master of the house will return--whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: Watch!"

Want to know how you can be ready? Click here to learn more!