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MAY 20, 2004 - MELK & LINZ

By Thomas McCargar, senior baritone

Grüß Gott! My name is Thomas McCargar, and I will be your tour guide as we experience Day 8 of the Drake Choir European Tour 2004.

Today began a bit slowly for me. I received the group wakeup call at 7:30 -which I ignored completely. After a member of the hotel staff knocked on my door a few minutes later, I proceeded to drift in and out of consciousness for the next two hours (thankfully the bus didn't leave until 10:45).

After packing and eating breakfast, the choir was ready to depart Vienna and hit the road for Melk Abbey. During the bus ride, which lasted about an hour and a half, we all passed the time talking, listening to music, reading, or napping. No matter what we chose to do (except napping), we couldn't help but notice the amazing scenery along the way. At one point we had the "Not So Blue" Danube (the "Brownish Danube" doesn't have the same ring, does it?) on our left and vineyards stretching as far the eye could see on our right, with mountains in the distance all around.

Finally, we arrived at Melk Abbey, a Benedictine monastery that has existed in the town of Melk for almost 1000 years. This abbey has special meaning to the Drake Choir. First, it has been visited by two previous Drake Choirs-1992 and 2000. Second, it is the home monastery of St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota-a destination of this year's regional tour. I had a personal interest in this visit to Melk because, as a fifth year senior, I was a part of the 2000 visit, and Melk Abbey was one of the highlights of that trip for me.

At the abbey, we gave a sacred-music-only concert in the cathedral at 14:00 Uhr (2 o'clock). Before singing, however, we warmed up in the corridor of the monastic residence-a place normally off limits to visitors. In fact, during our official tour after the concert, our tour guide was surprised we were allowed in that part of the building-because even she had never been allowed to go there!

The concert itself was amazing. There is something to be said about singing in a church that has been around for centuries. The Abbey church is even more awe-inspiring because it is almost completely covered in gold leaf! The art work in Melk Abbey is some of the most Baroque (and beautiful) in the world. One can't help but be inspired singing in such a place. The highlight of the concert for me was when the chamber choir sang "Ave Verum Corpus" by William Byrd. The chords locked and rang throughout the cathedral, and we sang the song with passion and conviction.

After the concert, we took a group photo, than had some free time. During this free time, Ben Kacner and I enjoyed conversing with a native Austrian woman with our limited German skills (using my newly-acquired, two semesters worth of German has been one of the highlights of this trip for me).

Following our guided tour mentioned earlier, we loaded the bus for our trip to Linz, Austria. This journey was interrupted, however, by an excellent meal for the entire choir at the Zum Schwarzen Baeren restaurant in Emmersdorf. The rest of the way to Linz was very relaxed, with many choir members falling asleep for a short nap. We arrived in Linz at around 20:00 Uhr. After a champagne and orange juice welcome reception by the hotel, we settled into our rooms to prepare for another full day.

Gute Nacht!

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