Penultimate Post: Torsdag: Journey to Lund ; Fredag: Farewellsdag

Hej!

My second to last adventure update (though I may post an arrival confirmation for those reading several not in my immediate family), and one with some beautiful pictures!

6/28:

For those of you who didn’t just take a course in modern British and American poetry, as I did this past semester, the title of Torsdag comes from William Carlos Williams’ collection Journey to Love.

Well, it seems sort of strange to be posting one day after my last post (apologies again for the belated update), but today and yesterday were good days, and I can only hope that the weekend will be an equally satisfying coda to this memorable ‘Monad i Malmö.’ 

I think I slept in a funny position on Wednesday night (who are we kidding? Thursday morning) because I felt all sore when I woke up. Pretty dehydrated too. The evening before, Simon had invited to me a gathering of friends in Lund, a city only a few train-stops away from Malmö; well, Thursday morning, the last thing I felt like doing was going out, but as the day progressed, I felt better and better, and it would be silly for me not to spend some time with my friends while I could (given the limited window of time for us to hang out). So I hopped on the train to Lund late in the afternoon (figuring I would get there early in case I encountered any travel difficulties, a likely enough event).  Staffan had previously recommended I go to Lund to see its ancient 12th century cathedral, so since I arrived early, I did some sightseeing before my the appointed time I was supposed to meet Simon and David at the train station.

The first church I came across was beautiful (I started walking towards it because I saw its massive spire), but it looked a little smaller than what I had imagined, based upon Staffan’s description. A red brick, neo-gothic cathedral. It turned out not to be Lund cathedral, though, so my apprehensiveness was well founded.

The cathedral and some of its more striking features...

Fortunately, just aimlessly wandering about the city, I was able to located the cathedral that Staffan had told me about (well, aimlessly wandering about the city, and making an educated guess as to where the signs reading domkyrke led). An absolutely massive, beautiful building! It was very imposing, but I think I caught it at an excellent time. I have been fortunate to see other old cathedrals, such as ones in Salisbury, Chartres, and Luca, and it's just a bit that it looked closed, because I would have loved to go inside.

The doors themselves deserve their own photo-gallery. You could do a full album of the individual scenes depicted. Certainly to be set beside photos of Brunelleschi's doors.

I particularly like this photo, in spite of the sunspot or maybe even because of it

This photo isn't connected with the cathedral, as you probably guessed, but I though it was very interesting. The whole building was accented with this kind of decoration, which from a distance looked like it's carved wood. An interesting optical illusion.

I wandered around the city a little more - Lund is full of beautiful architecture - and I think I passed an important administrative building, because I saw more interesting buildings and a beautiful courtyard as well.

This picture is actually of part of the square in Lund right outside the train station. I sat here and waited a bit for David and Simon.

Well, Simon was late, but I met David at the train station at 8 PM, and we headed in search of a pub (UEFA semi-finals were still going on, so any socialization was going to happen within the proximity of a large TV-screen). During our quest, we happened to run across Mika, the conductor of the Lund youth orchestra David used to play in (they have performed several of David's works, including a double concerto for Tuba, Double Bass and Orchestra!). He joined us in our hunt for a space with enough room for all of us (including Simon, another 4 people were to join us). Eventually we settled for an open-air extension of a pub with a pretty generic name (hence why I don't remember it). Unfortunately the way the seats were set up, I actually didn't get to know the other people that came along with Simon very much, however, Mika was seated next to me and throughout the game gave me tidbits about the teams, players, and plays which improved the game-watching experience. Though, I must admit, even for a disinterested sports-watcher like myself, it was a much more engaging game than Wednesday's. Germany vs. Italy (Italy won, 2-1), it seemed less pointless since there were a lot of offensive plays, and the first of the Italian goals was scored early in the game. Also the players in general were less melodramatic than the Spain vs. Portugal game. In Wednesday's game, anytime someone would get knocked over, they would roll around on the ground like a flipped-over beetle, grimacing and wincing. With both the German and Italian teams, for the most part when a player fell down, they just got back up again. A lot more interested in the game and less in the theatrics.

In order to circumvent my taxi bill on Wednesday, I headed back to Malmö after the game (a good choice, too, I think, my lunch for some reason was sitting like a brick in my stomach and I didn't really feel my best) and caught the bus for home. Which brings us to...

6/29:

My final 'lesson' with Staffan. It has been a rainy day but with perfect timing. It was very rainy this morning. Luckily, I had nowhere to go in the morning and took the opportunity to sleep in a little. By the time I had to go to Staffan's flat for my lesson, the weather had mostly cleared up and it was just 'spitting,' as my family puts it (which is good, it would have been miserable lugging all of the CDs I had to return to Staffan in the rain). At dinner time, when I was outside (more on that later), it was nice and clear, and now that I'm back in my flat, writing this blog entry, it's been thunderstorming. Excellent timing, as I said.

It was one of our most comprehensive conversations to date. Details would take up at least 5 pages, but we covered my plans for the immediate and long-term future, our opinions of the way new music concerts are run, the often extra-musical factors which contribute to many composers' fame (or ignominy), what are the roles of objectivity and subjectivity in the creation of a work of art, the differences between American and Swedish higher education, and what I've come to term the dixie-cup dichotomy of modern orchestral music. I will explain this last point, as it may not make sense at first. It is the issue that many orchestras are interested in premiering new orchestral works, at the very least in order to keep up with a certain quota of performing new music and to have the prestige of commissioning a work from x famous composer. However, after these new works are commissioned and premiered, they're never heard again, while the famous Classical, Romantic, and early 20th Century works which sandwich them are rotated year-round. In the current zeitgeist, new orchestral pieces are essentially dixie-cups, disposable immediately after use. I (Staffan as well) find this to be a sad state of events, because it takes the meaning out of the genre of modern orchestral music and relegates it immediately to the museum, at the same time making the actual art of music even more museum-like for its staunch display only of works from close to a century old and older. Anyway, didn't mean to get glum, but if there were even a half of the amount of time given to new works (re-playing new works) as there is to re-playing old works, maybe the older pieces could marinate a little longer in performers' minds and fingers and be all the fresher the next time is performed. At the end of our final lesson, Staffan gave me a few CDs of his own music, to which I look forward to listening.


And after that I was treated to something of a farewell dinner! It happened that Staffan and Björn-Tryggve were going to go to dinner afterwards, and Staffan was kind enough to invite me along as well. So the three us went to a cafe in the square near Gustav Adolfs Torg (where I had lunch at La Grappa) called Jospers. I was a little leery about it, since almost every main course item was above my price range, but I thought 'heck, it's my final weekend in Sweden, I'll have the rest of the summer to save up,' so I ordered a steak (I would like to note that the subtitle for Jospers was 'steakhouse,' so there weren't many other options for main courses). Sadly I don't have a picture of this steak (which was very good), as when I pulled out my phone to take a picture, it informed me that it had 1% battery life left, and was in no mood to take a photo, thank you very much. So I tucked my phone into my pocket and tucked into my meal. Very, very kindly, Staffan covered the three of us, proving he is a gentleman, in addition to being a good teacher and excellent composer. During the dinner we continued our comparisons between American culture and Swedish culture, as well as differences in climate, and traditional foods (I had to confirmed that, yes, people do in fact drink filmjölk. I have yet to see someone do it, so I am not entirely convinced). This last discussion topic (chiefly covered after we had eaten and were waiting for the check, which took forever) included one of the grossest foods I have ever  heard about or read about: the traditional northern Swedish dish Surströmming. I will quote Björn-Tryggve exactly when I describe Surströmming as "raw, rotten fish." Wikipedia's definition little better:


"Surströmming, Swedish 'soured (Baltic) herring,' is a northern Swedish dish consisting of fermented Baltic herring. Surströmming is sold in cans, which may bulge after prolonged storage, due to the continued fermentation. When opened, the contents release a strong and sometimes overwhelming odor; the dish is often eaten outdoors. A Japanese study has shown that the smell of a newly opened can of surströmming is the most putrid smell of food in the world, beating similar fermented fish dishes such as the Korean Hongeohoe or Japanese Kusaya." [Emphasis mine]

Blech! You can bet that I'm not going to make an effort to experience that part of Swedish culture before I come home. I usually consider myself an adventurous eater, but usually the correlation between smell and taste is strong and I don't really feel like subjecting my taste buds to the food judged "the must putrid smell of food in the world." Sour milk is looking so much better by comparison...

After dinner I said my farewells to Björn-Tryggve and Staffan. I'm sad to no longer be having lessons with them, a sign to me that my trip was well worth it. If I've found something difficult to leave behind, it was worth the finding. Staffan and I will certainly be keeping in touch about our latest compositions, and I hope we can continue some of our excellent conversations.

As to what I'll be doing these next two days before my departure, I have absolutely no idea. Well, that's not true, on Sunday, I pack. Strange how fast this trip has flown by, I hope the flight back flies even faster, though, I'm no fan of transatlantic travel!

Godnatt! Back home soon, just in time for Independence Day

-Trey