Germany Tour Report

The following is a short, informal report written for a school newspaper concerning a choir tour.


Exeter School Chamber Choir and Chamber Orchestra German Tour

The castle of Neushwanstein was built for King Leopold II. It sits nestled amidst the mountains, at the top of an insurmountable hill, with the impassable cliffs surrounding it on three sides. Despite these efforts, its lofty barricades and extensive turrets were never obscured by the fog of war. It was never even completed.
Fast-forward a hundred years. A dark and lonesome figure stands beneath the unyielding walls. The cold bites into his shivering body, paralysing his already numbed hands. His grip tightens on his weapon, as his eyes shift towards their target. With a deft movement, the icy projectile is launched into the air. The snowball explodes on impact, dashing across the back and neck of Dr. Foxall, and the valley reverberates with the long-sought taste of battle.
However, the Exeter School 2008 Snow-play Tour also indulged in some musical interludes. The combination of the Chamber Choir and Chamber Orchestra with some of the most gorgeous acoustics in Europe was a recipe for success. For as well as snow, Bavaria is equally covered in a dense layer of Baroque and Rococo churches.
Needless to say, the selection of Middle English early church music, mixed in with some Beatles classics, was the perfect sound for the likes of such as Ottobeuren and Wieskierke. The Chamber Orchestra were also delighted to discover the enforced vibrato brought on by Bavarian temperatures.
Our base had, rather late in the arrangements, moved to a hotel at Ettal, and we were incredibly lucky that it had done so. Not only was there bountiful snow in the forest-laced valley, but a monastery unmatched in acoustics by any that I have heard. For many, the concert performed by the Chamber Choir in the monastery was the musical highlight of the trip.
As with most of the churches in which we performed, the monastery was outfitted with elaborate Rococo decoration, with epic murals extending to biblical proportions. This seemed to extend itself to our entire trip; we were even greeted by a plague of frogs upon returning to the hotel one night! We’re not sure quite why the hundreds of amphibians had gathered on the drive, but we think it had something to do with the drawing power and simple majesty of the snow sculptures we had – much to the hotel owners delight – spent the past few days erecting in the front yard.
Other excursions included a visit to Innsbruck, a delightful town in the midst of a mountainous valley, a tour of the stage at Oberammergau, where every ten years they perform their famous Passion Play, excursions to both Neuschwanstein and Linderhof Castles and the final trip to Munich, where we were joined for the second time by Johanna Stier for a concert kindly arranged by Mrs. Stier through her connections with the German-English Music Society.
The trip was a huge success, with the perfect balance between making the most of the musical potential of the churches and halls available and taking the time to appreciate the breathtaking sights, as well as the sounds, that are abundant in the Bavarian Highlands.