The music of Vienna, Salzburg, and Prague

Although there are few musical references within the posts about my time in Vienna, each post title is exactly that – either using the song title itself, suggesting it using a lyric, or, sometimes twisting into a knot. Some may be obvious. Others obscure. Consider this your Rosetta post. As with the previous music post, I’ll embed videos from YouTube and, since I haven’t licensed any of them, hope they’re allowed to remain under the fair use provision of the law since this blog isn’t monetized in any way. Should they be blocked, however, the titles and the redundant list at the end should allow you to find them on your own. Also, since this is a summary with ongoing music videos, I am not constraining this post to the 1,500 word limit.

Morning Has Broken – In this instance, I chose the Cat Stevens song simply to suggest waking up on my first morning in Vienna.

Roll Over 29 Group 32A Beethoven is buried in grave 29 Group 32A at Zentralfriedhof making this a perhaps twisted reference to the Chuck Berry classic Roll Over Beethoven

On the Dark Side – Since this post took us through some of Vienna’s darker corners, I thought the title was most appropriate. The song was written by John Cafferty and recorded and performed by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band for the movie Eddie and the Cruisers.

It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) – I used this Bob Dylan title from his Bringing it All Back Home LP because of the continuing theme of darkness and because it seemed like an effective segue to the following post.

Blood on the Tracks – Backing up one Dylan reference with another but to the LP title rather than a specific song. The legend of Elizabeth Bathory’s obsession with blood seemed to leave me no other choice. Since no single song applies, here’s a reprise of one of my favorites from the album (and you might know this since this song also appears in the Portugal segment). You can choose your own song if you want.

You can get anything you want (but…) Yes, this refers to Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant a sort of folk song singspiel and I chose it because of of our dinner that night. I could have ordered anything I wanted but how can one go to Figlmüller Wien also known as the House of Schnitzel and not order schnitzel even if it’s some sort of fake vegan schnitzel concoction.

One header in this post also has a flipped reference to a song. That would be the one that reads, “Love songs maybe. But have people had enough of silly murals?” This, of course, intends to evoke Paul and Linda McCartney’s Silly Love Songs.

Finally, there was my first Sound of Music reference for this leg of the trip when I wrote that my answer to Shlomit’s second question about what we were most anticipating should have been that “before we left Salzburg I’d have learned how to solve a problem like Maria.” So, of course, the song is How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?

Good Morning Life – I chose this song by Joseph Meyer and Robert I. Allen because of it’s upbeat nature and since Mozart was both leading off the morning and ending the day. I could feel nothing but upbeat. Here’s Dean Martin singing it.

Light of a Clear Blue Morning – It might not have been particularly clear or blue but it was still morning and every now and then the world just needs some Dolly Parton.

Unexpected Vienna and A Little Night Music – This isn’t a refence to Sondheim’s show (since there’s no song by that name in it) but rather to one of Mozart’s most familiar compositions – Eine Kleine Nachtmusik which the Mozart Quartet played for us that night in the Sala Terrana at the Ordenskirche. Here it’s played by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Karl Böhm.

All we are saying… Prompted by the surprise of what I learned at the Military History Museum  about Baroness Bertha von Suttner I thought John Lennon’s Give Peace a Chance was the only appropriate choice.

This post also contains a somewhat obtuse refence in one of the headers, “Stompin with Prince Eugene of Savoy”. Of course it has nothing to do with anything in or related to the post but was simply a chance to bring Benny Goodman into the mix with Stompin’ at the Savoy.

He said, “The woman piaba…” This one’s kind of tricky but I think definitely appropriate because of the correspondence between Einstein and Freud. And I defy you to find a song that cites them both that’s not The Man Piaba by Harry Belafonte and Jack N. Rollins and if you do, I shall bow to you.

A day for Applause This is quite specific. Pay attention to one particular verse of Lady Gaga’s Applause.

This post also has a music reference in the final section header, “I have a feeling full of desire”. It not only described my anticipation of seeing La Nozze di Figaro but draws from Cherubino’s aria “Voi che sapete” when he sings,

Sento un affetto pien di desir,

Ch’ora e diletto, ch’ora e martir.

A chants meeting with Three Drunken Monks – Even I didn’t expect this one. Most of my musical references sprout from some seed planted in my brain either recently or long ago. Sometimes the latter need to a wend a torturous path to reach the surface. But they do. Half our day was to be spent at the Benedictine abbey in Melk. Since it’s a monk’s abbey, I considered making a Thelonious Monk reference but then I chanced upon this video and it, together with the double pun of chants and chance, was simply too good to pass up. I hope you enjoy it as much as I.

Tied up with strings – This is, of course, a partial lyric from My Favorite Things. I chose it for a few reasons. In the post, I reference the song’s appearance in an instrumental montage but I also wanted to touch upon the fact that sometimes you can pull on a string and not necessarily find what you’d hope for when you opened the package. I also wanted to be able to use the short version of a recording of this song by the incomparable John Coltrane with his quartet that featured McCoy Tyner on piano. There’s a longer version you can seek that’s more than 13 minutes but, while Tyner plays a very contained solo, I’d recommend it only if you’re a fan of the free jazz style that Coltrane employed by the time he made this recording.

And, near the end of the post, I pulled another title from that classic: Climb Every Mountain. This one is from The Sound of Music Live that aired on NBC in December 2013 and is, I think, one of the great performances of this song.

Amuse me, Mozart – I thought I should mark our full day in Salzburg, Mozart’s birthplace, with a composition connected to that city. When he was 16, Mozart composed a set of three divertimenti (k. 136 – K. 138) that are sometimes grouped together and called the “Salzburg Symphonies.” The divertimento is a composition typical of the 18th century that was usually composed for a chamber orchestra and was intended as light entertainment. The term comes from the Italian word ‘divertire’ that’s generally translated to English as ‘to amuse.’ Hence, the post’s title. I’ve included my favorite of the three – the Divertimento in F Major K. 138 performed here by the New York Classical Players. It’s about 15 and a half minutes. You should certainly feel free to explore the others on your own.

If you’re not familiar with the movie Singin’ in the Rain, you might have found this sentence, “Like Moses and his toeses, my initial impression supposed erroneously.” rather puzzling. If you are familiar with the movie, it should have evoked this scene

and the brilliant Donald O’Connor – Gene Kelly performance of the Roger Edens, Betty Comden, Adolph Green song Moses.

Na na na na, Na na na na, hey, hey, Nannerl! – So this reference to the hit song Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye composed by Gary DeCarlo, Dale Frashuer, and Paul Leka and recorded by Steam (hence the first section header) has nothing really to do with Mozart, Salzburg, or even Maria Anna. It does, however, provide a peek into how my mind works.

I’m going to add a bonus track here because I actually switched between the song I chose and Land of 1000 Dances. If you’re not familiar with the song, you only need to listen to about 45 seconds of this two and a half minute song to hear why it was in the running.

Everybody’s minds are blank – Unlike the previous post’s title, this citation of the INXS song On a Bus connects with the day – at least in my mind mainly because we spent a lot of the day rolling on the bus and in a small group like ours, there isn’t lots of chatter and people can get hypnotized as the bus rolls along. So, here (and) there it is.

More than a funny little tune – The source for this post title is Miloš Forman’s great film Amadeus where, at the fictionalized first meeting of Mozart and Salieri, Mozart tells Salieri of his variations on “a funny little tune.” You can hear Mozart’s variations in the first video below.

The original is within the recording below starting at 1:54 but it’s worth listening to the entire piece.

When you Vyšehrad… – By now you should know that no stretch is too long for my puns – musical or otherwise. Again, this one isn’t tightly tied to the events of the morning but it was certainly a pun worth making – or at least I think so. Yes, I could have gone with Cliff Edwards as Jiminy Cricket for this Leigh Harline and Ned Washington penned classic When you Wish Upon a Star but I chose a rendition by one of my favorite singers.

Hit the road DvořJAK – Since my pun stretching muscle is, by now, well and firmly established, linking today’s post title with the Percy Mayfield song Hit the Road, Jack should be almost obvious. But since Dvořak also spent nearly three years in the U.S. and had such an affinity for African-American music, it connected in a different way. There was really only one performer I could choose.

This post also has a bonus reference in the section header A Whole New World which is, of course, the title of the song in question. It’s Aladdin’s Theme from the Disney movie of the same name.

Do the HUStle – This one pretty much wrote itself using Van McCoy’s song of the same name.

Anyone who studied French as a child should recognize the first bonus reference when I wrote parenthetically that I know nothing about a bridge in Avignon. Wikipedia says this traditional French folk song is “about a dance performed on the Pont d’Avignon (officially Pont Saint-Bénézet) that dates back to the 15th century. The dance actually took place under the bridge and not on the bridge (sous le Pont d’Avignon, not sur).”

And as your second bonus reference, I gave Sigismund a chance to cite the title of this Beatles song.

Turn around, bright eyes – I chose this title for two reasons. First, it seemed appropriate on several levels given that one of the day’s highlights was the Franz Kafka Rotating Head sculpture. The other reason is because it’s always great to have a chance to listen to one of Jim Steinman’s eighties power pop ballads – in this instance Total Eclipse of the Heart –  and especially great when it’s sung by Bonnie Tyler.

This post has another bonus reference in the last section header – Till the end of the day. Since I used At the End of the Day from Les Miz in the Portugal section, I had to turn to The Kinks for this one.

I’m just a love machine – I thought of using the slightly more obscure lyric “You can turn me on just set my dial” from the Warren Moore / William Griffin song Love Machine but the opening line worked too well. Here are The Miracles from 1976.

The land where the butcher is king – Another Jim Steinman reference pops up in today’s post title. This time it’s the song In the land of the Pig, the Butcher is King. Everything about it – from the title, to its harshness, to Meat Loaf’s visceral performance seemed right to attach to a post that had a long section about Reinhard Heydrich.

This post also has another bonus section header reference and it probably whacked many of you because it was so obvious but I guess it’s possible someone might read the post and not know the Sound of Silence. I was lucky enough that just a few days before I drafted that particular entry Amy Karibian posted this video of Paul Simon performing the song on 23 July 2022 at the Newport Folk Festival.

Tradition! Tradition! – Certainly, Prague’s Jewish Quarter wasn’t the shtetl of Anatevka from Fiddler on the Roof but in many ways it certainly could have been because much of what was true in the fictional Anatevka could have been true anywhere in Eastern Europe. Here’s Topol from the 1971 movie.

You can bury your dead but don’t leave a trace – I didn’t expect anyone to remember this specific lyric from a sixties protest song but I thought it was as appropriate. You can spot the song title at the end of the post’s first paragraph. The song is Eve of Destruction by P. F. Sloan and, as far as I’m concerned, the only version worth listening to is the Barry McGuire recording from 1965.

Madamina, il catalogo è questo – This one felt like a natural. It’s the Catalog aria from Don Giovanni and since Mozart conducted the premiere of this great and grand dramma giacoso opera at the Estates Theatre I had to choose music from that score. I chose this one because it’s my favorite aria and, I think, the funniest moment in the opera.

And, of course, there’s the bonus mention of Piano Man sliding into my dinner description. The song that made Billy Joel famous.

I’ve Just Seen a Face – On one of my daily walks as I neared the end of writing these posts, I thought about the images of the three faces on the art and realized that while I could easily connect them, a reader might not. Seeing these faces, of course, led me directly to The Beatles.

Finally, there’s Leaving on a Jet Plane, the song that’s appropriate for almost any departure, but with some individual lines in the lyrics

“But the dawn is breakin’; It’s early morn; The taxi’s waitin’…

‘Cause I’m leavin’ on a jet plane; Don’t know when I’ll be back again…”

that seemed more than merely generally appropriate for this departure.

(For this video, I’ve skipped the PSA segment and jumped in as closely as I could at the point when John and Cass begin to perform.)

Since YouTube took down the first iteration of the Denver/Cass rendition, I’m adding this one by Peter, Paul, and Mary in case it recurs.

For an Encore

I don’t refer to these songs or artists anywhere in this recounting but I’ll add them here in part because it’s my blog and I can add (or try to add) whatever I want. The first encore is from Pink Martini and I’m including it as a nod to Kathlene R who was our musical host and who I learned grooves on this group. The song is Dosvedanya Mio Bombino.

And for my final numbers, I’ve chosen two Eva Cassidy covers – Dark End of the Street and What a Wonderful World. I think an Eva Cassidy performance belongs in every music collection and I didn’t find a way to include an Eva song in the body of the blog. The first is one that I think is probably familiar mainly to Eva’s fan base but like almost everything Eva, deserves a hearing and the second just sums it all up.

Here’s the list of titles, songwriters, and performers whose videos I downloaded from YouTube:

Morning has Broken – by Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) (Performed by Cat Stevens)

Roll Over Beethoven – by Chuck Berry (Performed by Chuck Berry)

On the Dark Side – by John Cafferty From the movie Eddie and the Cruisers (Performed by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band)

It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) – by Bob Dylan (Performed by Bob Dylan)

Blood on the Tracks – Full Album by Bob Dylan – Choose your own title I used Tangled up in Blue

Alice’s Restaurant – by Arlo Guthrie (Performed by Arlo Guthrie)

Silly Love Songs – by Paul and Linda McCartney (Performed by Wings)

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? – bu Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II from the film The Sound of Music (Performed by various singers)

Good Morning Life – by Joseph Meyer and Robert I. Allen (Performed by Dean Martin)

Light of a Clear Blue Morning – by Dolly Parton (Performed by Dolly Parton)

Eine Kleine Nachmusik – by W.A. Mozart (Performed by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Karl Bohm)

Give Peace a Chance – by John Lennon (Performed by the Plastic Ono Band)

Stompin’ at the Savoy – by Edgar Sampson, Benny Goodman, and Chick Webb (Performed by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra)

The Man Piaba – by Harry Belafonte and Jack N. Rollins (Performed by Harry Belafonte)

Applause – by Lady Gaga (Stefani Germanotta) (Performed by Lady Gaga)

Voi che sapete – by W.A. Mozart from the opera La Nozze di Figaro (Performed by Rinat Shaham)

The Monks Song – by Foil Arms and Hog (Performed by Foil Arms and Hog)

My Favorite Things – by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II From the movie the Sound of Music (Performed by John Coltrane)

Climb Every Mountain – by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II From the movie the Sound of Music (Performed by Audra McDonald)

Divertimento in F major, K. 138 – by W.A. Mozart (Performed by New York Classical Players)

Moses Supposes – by Betty Comden and Aldolph Green From the movie Singin’ in the Rain (Performed by Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor)

Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye – by Gary DeCarlo, Dale Frashauer, and Paul Leka (Performed by Steam)

Land of 1000 Dances – by Christopher Kenner (Performed by Wilson Pickett)

On a Bus – by Michael Hutchence , Andrew Farriss, Tim Farriss, Kirk Pengilly, Garry Gary Beers, and Jon Farriss (Performed by INXS)

Six Variations on Mio caro adone by Antonio Salieri – by W.A. Mozart (Performed by Hans Ludwig Hirsch)

La fiera di Venezia Act II, Scene 13 – by Antonio Salieri (Performed by Deutsche Harmonia Mundi)

When You Wish Upon a Star – by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington (Performed by Linda Ronstadt)

Hit the Road, Jack – by Percy Mayfield (Performed by Ray Charles)

A Whole New World – by Alan Menken and Tim Rice From the movie Aladdin (Performed by Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle)

Do the Hustle – by Van McCoy (Performed by Van McCoy & Pan’s People)

Sur le Pont d’Avignon – Traditional French folk song (Video from Baby Songs Tube YouTube Channel)

We Can Work it Out – by John Lennon and Paul McCartney (Performed by The Beatles)

Total Eclipse of the Heart – by Jim Steinman (Performed by Bonnie Tyler)

Till the End of the Day – by Ray Davies (Performed by The Kinks)

Love Machine – by Warren Moore and William Griffin (Performed by The Miracles)

In the Land of the Pig, the Butcher is King – by Jim Steinman (Performed by Meat Loaf)

The Sound of Silence – by Paul Simon (Performed by Paul Simon)

Tradition – by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick From the Broadway show and movie Fiddler on the Roof (Performed in the film by Topol)

Eve of Destruction – by P.F. Sloan (Performed by Barry McGuire)

Madamina, il catalogo è questo – by W.A. Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte From the Opera Don Giovanni (Performed by Ferrucio Furlanetto as Leporello with The Metropolitan Opera conducted by James Levine)

Piano Man – by Billy Joel (Performed by Billy Joel)

I’ve just Seen a Face – by John Lennon and Paul McCartney (Performed by The Beatles)

Leaving on a Jet Plane – by John Denver (Performed by John Denver and Cass Elliot {A Baltimore girl whose given name was Ellen Naomi Cohen})

Dosvedanya Mio Bombino – by China Forbes / Maya Forbes / Antonia Ridge / Friedrich Wilhelm Moeller (Performed by Pink Martini)

The Dark End of the Street – by Chips Moman and Dan Penn (Performed by Eva Cassidy)

What a Wonderful World – by Bob Thiele (as George Douglas) and George David Weiss (Performed by Eva Cassidy)