Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Day 7 - Tower of London/Westminster Abbey and Haydn's "Creation"

Greetings from across the pond! My name is Scott Gerike and I'm a senior with majors in computer science and math as well as being very active in music activities. Currently I am in the trombone choir and ensemble and am taking trombone lessons as well along with singing Bass I in Collegiate Chorale. Aside from that, preparing for the real world has been keeping me busy lately so a trip to London is a nice break from that. So now onto what happened today....

Another day gone by. So after we finished up with class this morning, the group split into two and headed off to either Westminster Abbey or the Tower of London. There were only a couple of us that went to Westminster, but it was still a spectacular time. We were able to see the final resting place of countless influential people, including Newton, Handel, Dickens, Cromwell and almost all of the previous Kings and Queens. On top of that we were just able to look at all the stunningly beautiful architecture of the building.

Most of the group though went to the Tower of London, which contains a lot of British history inside. Part of this extensive history includes the ravens that are always inside the tower (because Charles II was told if the ravens ever left, the monarchy would fall). The attraction the Tower of London is most known for today though is the Crown Jewels. The Crown Jewels are all of the regalia that is worn by the royalty during coronation ceremonies and other state functions. Along with the artifacts, the Tower is very intriguing because of all the well-known people who have been held and executed there.

After an exciting day, we finished up our night with another exciting concert. Tonight we were off to the South Bank Center to hear the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment play Hayden's Creation. This was made even more interesting by the fact that the orchestra only played with instruments that were from the Enlightenment period, meaning that the string instruments still used gut for their strings and brass instruments didn't have valves yet. Because Creation is an oratorio, the orchestra was accompanied by a chorus and three soloists singing in German. It was a great performance put on by a very energetic conductor and it was a great end to another phenomenal day here.  



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