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MAY 22, 2004 - HRADEK KRALOVE

By Emily Frye, alto section leader, senior

This morning we set out with our tour guides on board and drove through the various sections of downtown Prague. Prague is similar to Vienna in that they are both mixtures of architectural styles. But whereas Vienna is organized by neighborhood, Prague has huge contrasts right next door to each other. The majority of it is an earth tone with red tiles, but those buildings are mixed in with the wildly Art Nouveau, haunting Gothic, and ones that looked like they had been mass produced from a kit, obviously left over from the Communist era.

The walking portion of the tour started at the Prague Castle, which is the largest functioning castle in the world. Tourists tromp around much of it, but parts are still used by the president, prime minister and other government officials. It is also where King Wenceslas (the "Good King Wenceslaus" immortalized in the Christmas carol) lived and was buried. Inside the castle walls on the highest point sits St. Vitus Cathedral, which is absolutely stunning. I kept wanting to get the perfect picture of the rose windows and organ, but there were so many tourists that I finally gave up. Jarmila told us that most of the Czech Republic is atheist, but all citizens are encouraged to visit the cathedral because it holds so many relics. The most holy place is the St. Wenceslas Chapel, and we tried to make our way through the sea of people, but right as I was about to get close to the front I was knocked to the side by a rather aggressive batch of tourists. We found out later that today was a holiday in Germany, and I really think the entire country packed up and came to Prague for the day. Ray said that this isn't even the height of the season and it is about twice as busy on its most crowded days. Geez! I wonder if people even try to take pictures then!

Our tour ended at the famous astronomical clock that is in the main square. Jarmila had cleverly planned it so we finished when the clock strikes noon. The clock is from the 15th century and was designed with the help of an astronomer, so it can be used to tell the date, season, and zodiac on of its several dials. At every hour on the hour the windows above it open and wooden figures of the apostles spin around and show through. This is the most anticipated event of the day for most tourists, and the square in front of the clock was packed with people waiting to see the show. From where we were standing I couldn't quite see all the figures, but it didn't matter. I was more fixated on the creepy skeleton ringing a bell off to the side.

After the long tour and more-than-satisfying lunch, we met back at the bus for the ride to Hradek Kralove, which is the hometown for the Boni Pueri Choir. I had been looking forward to this concert ever since February, when they visited Drake as part of their USA tour. Everyone settled into their bus chairs and the person next to them and fell into a deep afternoon nap. We ended up getting an extra half hour of sleep because we had trouble finding the building.

We hastily started our warm-ups and the sound felt good right away. All of a sudden we transformed from a bunch of sleepy college kids in formalwear into a choir that had a desire to share something we love with old friends. As we finished up the logistical details, we saw some of the Boni Pueri boys bustling in the hallway and quickly said hello, looking for ones we recognized.

The concert started with some pieces by both of the Boni Pueri choirs. We crammed into the balcony for the first part, but then had to leave because we were in their seats, so we waited in the hallway outside. ABC opened the doors so we could hear them singing from where we were. The boys choir sound is so pure and well blended. What I remember most from their concert in Des Moines was the obvious love they have for singing. They perform with such conviction and heart and every one of their pieces is engaging. Their concert tonight brought the same sense of passion.

That passion must have hung in the air for us to grab on to, because when we took the stage, there was so much energy that we couldn't help but perform the best concert of the year so far. Because of the space, we decided to make a change in the way we normally stand for the "Gloria" from Ralph Vaughan Williams' Mass in G. We went to opposite sides of the hall, facing each other. This gave us a huge sense of the responsorial form of the piece, and the acoustics provided a rumbling energy that we hadn't heard before. I was so excited to be part of that huge sound.

By the time we sang Os Justi, passion was dripping from our sound. When we turned in to sing to each other, I noticed just how beautiful everyone's eyes are. They were sparkling so much, it made the chandelier hanging high above seem like it was made out of stones. One of the things I love about singing facing each other is that I feel like it gives our audiences such a clear understanding of what it means to be in a choir. People making music together, being totally aware of each other, and having a deep care and love for each other.

The chamber choir's brave attempts at Czech were met with whoops and whistles, and we really benefited from the room's live sound. During "Kas tie tadi," I noticed that a woman in the middle was gazing up at the ceiling for most of the piece. Maybe she was looking at the chandelier, maybe she was looking at the gold-trimmed painting, but judging from her expression I think she was looking at our sound swirling high above our heads.

"Shenandoah" was by far the highlight of the concert for me. For the first time on tour I felt a deep connection to the people standing around me, even though I couldn't look them in the eye. While we sang it, I thought about the different times we've sung it during the year, and how far we've come. The song is primarily about longing for a place that you wish to be, and when we started learning it, ABC told us to imagine a place we longed for. It always sounded light and happy, because we had 48 beautiful places swimming in our heads. Then came a time in our semester when we were having some rough times. It seemed like even the music couldn't bring us to a common understanding about situations or the people around us. We rehearsed this piece and the sound was dark, almost painful. I realized then that there is a different side to longing - the side that makes you want to be anywhere else than where you are, because where you are is so miserable. On this tour, we've moved on to a third type of longing. We're now all thinking a time and place and people we long for, but for the first time I think it's all the same place. We're longing for right now, right here, these people. We are realizing that for the rest of our lives, we are going to miss what is going on right around us. Longing for the present is a strange thing, blissful and painful at the same time. Bittersweet.

Afterwards we had a huge meal at a local restaurant and heard about the town from Jakub Martinec and Pavel Horak, the conductors or Boni Pueri. The relaxing bus ride back to Prague in the dark felt deserved after a day full of such hard work and enjoyment.

What made this concert such a gem for the choir as a whole was the energy we had - from the room, from Boni Pueri, from our sound, and from each other. I think it felt good for us to not only perform music, but to share music, for the first time on this tour. It felt so good to be welcomed so warmly, not only because it's nice to have people to enjoy our music but because it's relieving to be accepted as Americans. ABC told us that someone made the comment that we should send choirs to Iraq instead of soldiers. I think a better idea would be to send our world leaders on a choir tour.

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