deconstructed christmas harmonies

 In previous years, I've posted links to videos of Dodie doing Christmas songs in a minor key. I love them. But it appears she's moved on to other stuff.

But, as if solely to assuage my grief, the internet has come to my rescue. In my thoughtless internet ramblings, I've come across Mary Ann Muglia, a singer and arranger. She arranges Christmas songs, and songs from the Great American Songbook, in wonderful close harmonies of a type that's somewhat out-of-style. They're wonderful, nonetheless.

But better than that: she also posts "harmony breakdowns", where she sings the accompaniment parts first, allowing you to guess where the actual key is going to be. I can't usually get it on the first part, but I can usually get it by halfway through the second. 

I'm pretty sure I'm not making any sense. Here are a couple of examples:

I love them. You will, too.

yes, it's classist...

 I know classical music is classist... but I have loved it for years, and I'm not giving it up.

Poland trip, second post

 

This is the second of three posts about our trip to Poland. 

May 26:

Up early and on the bus to go to the shrine of Our Lady of Częstochowa. The icon here is painted on wood, and then the figures are then “dressed” in jewels, gold, and fine fabrics. 

The story is that St Luke, who wrote the gospel, painted it on a table used by the Holy Family. Subsequent research dates it to a few hundred years later. There are at least two stories of attacks on the icon, the most dramatic of which the two slashes on the cheek: in the 1430’s the Hussites tried to destroy the icon. One swordsman struck the icon twice; before he could strike the third time, he himself was struck dead, as by divine intervention.

Whether you believe it or not, clearly many people have, and there is clearly something going on here that I am not tuned in on. The chapel of the icon is packed with medallions, medals, silver plates with images of people, crutches, metal arms and legs, crutches, and whatever else, from people who apparently were aided by prayer to or through the icon. People were praying devoutly, and, being the season it is, there were first-communion recipients in the usual white,, with their families looking on. While we tourists shuffled through with various levels of embarrassment and cluelessness, the faithful were connecting with something here. I’m not at all a believer anymore, but it reminded me of my experience at the giant redwoods last year: there’s something here that, as I said, I’m not tuned into… but that doesn’t mean nobody is.

From there, we went to Krakow. As I write this, we’ve been in Krakow for about 24 hours, and it is simply the most beautiful city. We got a tour from a local of the Vavel Hill, the many churches, the history, and the effects of both the Nazi’s and communism.

In the evening, we took a walking tour of the Jewish quarter and the Krakow ghetto, with many references to the Schindler’s List movie. Unfortunately, rain kept us from completing the tour, but it was arresting.

May 27th:

Today, up early to go to the salt mine at Wieliczka. Salt has been mined here for centuries, due to the lack of ocean front in Poland; at one time, the salt mine counted for up to a third of the Polish monarch’s considerable fortune. We saw how the mine worked… but, especially in the last century, miners have created sculptures of the salt, and cut out special rooms, including chapels, a “cathedral”, and meeting rooms and a restaurant. The salt mine was among the first UNESCO world-heritage sites.

Later, back to Krakow to walk around and gawk. We caught the heynał at noon at the Maryacki Basilica (a trumpet call played on the hour; legend is to remember the intrepid trumpeter who climbed the tower and played the brief melody to the four cardinal directions to warn of some attack or other, until an arrow to the throat interrupted the melody). Then a leisurely lunch, and then to the historic clock at the Jagellonian University, to see the parade of clockwork mechanical canons, intellectuals, military figures, and royalty who come out several times a day, as the clock strikes certain hours. Then some shopping, and a visit to an E. Wedel chocolatier… and then back to the hotel for a nap. Which is what I intend to do now.

May 28th:

We were up early, and took a final walk around Krakow. TEW says you can’t do Krakow appropriately in fewer than five days (she may have decided by now that it’s up to seven), and this visit has apparently been a note-taking exercise for a longer city visit she intends for the future. 

Then onto the bus for a visit to Zakopane in the Tatra mountains. TEW tells me that there is a mystique to the highland dwellers in Poland, for which she wasn’t able to find an adequate comparison. Still, Zakopane is a tourist destination, and the center of the city has an active open market and many shops of various types; I was able to finish some of my Christmas shopping here (and to replace an umbrella that broke in the Krakow ghetto). And despite the presence of a E Wedel in town, we did NOT stop in, suggesting that even TEW has her limit for chocolate, a condition I would not have otherwise believed.

The Tatra mountains are not high in comparison to mountains elsewhere, but here in late May, the highest peaks are snow-covered, and the mountains make their own weather. In response to the mountains, the locals have developed a unique style of architecture, with high, sharply-pitched roofs, and unpainted wooden outer walls. This was baffling to me; the softwood of which these outer walls are made should rot and fall to pieces in ten to fifteen years. Our local guide tells us that the locals scrub the walls, once a year, with soap and water, and some of these buildings have stood for a century and a half, with only this treatment. The pictures show a famous local chapel and some other buildings. TEW was also taken with the cemetery, where one can only get buried if one is sufficiently noteworthy, either as a mountaineer or a Polish citizen; the criteria reminded me of Père LaChaise in Paris.

In the evening, we stopped at a local restaurant for an authentic local meal, accompanied by a trio playing Tatra music on two violins and what appears to be a three-stringed cello. Some of the music was fast and complicated, like Irish or Cajun tunes; other pieces reminded me of music of the late medieval period or early Renaissance, or what Händel might have written, were he writing music of shepherds or other rustics.

And to bed. Early start tomorrow; on our way to Auschwitz.

May 29, 2025:

Auschwitz. I took no pictures here. The pictures in this post, and the blog generally, are thing I find beautiful, interesting, funny. Auschwitz is horrifying. Auschwitz, and the surrounding camps (because there was a whole system of camps associated with Auschwitz), are what happens when people in power, and the mass that follows them, see some other group, not as people, but as a problem to be dealt with. Like the Chinese and the Uighurs. Perhaps like the US and the Latin-American immigrants.

We were lucky to have a long bus ride to Wroclaw after the tour here. I could come to some kind of peace, however uncomfortable, with what I’d seen and heard in the morning.

We got to Wrocław (say “Vrotswav”) late in the afternoon, and did a brief visit around some of the islands (Wrocław is on the Oder River, and the several islands in the river at the city have been connected by bridges for cars or pedestrians). We saw some of the Renaissance and later buildings, and a courtyard where had been hung neon signs that were one of the few colorful legacies of the Communist era.

I’ve had a thought about Poland. Poland was a force for almost a thousand years, but beginning at the end of the eighteenth century, it disappeared, having been divided between Prussia, Russia, and Austria. Reconstructed after the first world war, Poland was divided between Germany and Russia during the second world war. Nonetheless, it is full of beauty and culture, of much of which I (for one) was unaware. History, of course, is written by the winners, and in recent centuries, Poland has not been a winner. But that doesn’t mean that there is nothing here, or that the spirit of these people should be lightly discarded. I think that is true for other cultures that have not been dominant, as well. Just because they have not been dominant, doesn’t mean they are to be washed away.


  

Poland trip, first post.

Above, on the river in Gdańsk. That building on the right is a medieval crane; four treadmills, each powered by four men, could lift three tons of grain off a ship.

 This is gonna be long, so I'm splitting the notes of our Poland trip over a few posts.

 May 22

We flew Lufthansa. A close friend who’s a better traveler than I told me I’d love Lufthansa, and he was right. I am not a great traveler, and so don’t have a lot of experience with different airlines… but I’ve flown economy on a number of US airlines in the past several years, and I will stand by the statements I’m about to make about them.

Look, I’m not talking about flying business class, or first class, or whatever. It’s not hard to be flashy if money is unlimited, or even just available. But after having flown economy on Lufthansa, and comparing it to US airlines… well, don’t ever come to me with that “USA! Number One!” balderdash. Seats were comfortable and less cramped; food was acceptable; service was efficient and surprisingly friendly. 

Still, I didn’t get much sleep on the plane.

We had a layover in Munich, which was unremarkable (except that Coke Zero was surprisingly expensive). The Excellent Wife (TEW) asked me to get her a decaf iced latte, and the woman at the coffee booth was delightfully contemptuous of both the request for decaf and the request for iced. TEW went coffee-less, I’m afraid.

In the toilet stall was a mostly-ripped-away sticker from an anti-nazi organization (“organization” may be too formal a word). I was sobered by the fact that there had to be an anti-nazi group in Germany, and also by the fact that the sticker was partly torn away. Had it been torn by a person in the stall who disagreed with its sentiment? By an insufficiently-effective custodian? If the latter, why had nobody come back to complete the job? (The piped-in music was obscure Bach, by the way.)

The flight from Munich to Warsaw was short, and I got no sleep on that plane either. We got a cab from the airport to the place where we had to meet the person who would take us to the AirB&B, which is in the Old City. The roads are narrow and winding enough that some are impassable to cars. This part of the city is lovely, though, and the accommodation is pleasant. 

We went to dinner at a place TEW found, where the food was excellent (I expect Polacks can generally cook very well, when they’re not being starved, enslaved, or attacked), and where the waitress, who spoke excellent English, gave me a tip on money exchange. We then went to a chocolate lounge, where I nearly fell asleep into my confection, I was that jet-lagged. (Where coffee places in the US go for the raw-brick-and-exposed-pipes vibe, the chocolate lounges have much more plaster and wall sconces. I half expected a violinist to come around playing Mozart.

May 23:

We got up and walked around the old city. 

Later, we took a trip to the Wilanow palace.

Then back to Warsaw for a trip to the city fort, now another museum, including an art museum, where I did not get pictures. 

In the evening to a Chopin concert, in a tiny venue (seating maybe 200?). A delightful performance by a young Asian woman who had studied in the conservatory in Warsaw; she was excellent, and TEW later said she would have bought the CD. TEW was impressed by how many of the audience appeared to be Polish; this venue may not cater primarily to tourists (although there was a group that, at the end, were clearly being herded by a guide in Norwegian Cruise line mufti).

May 24:

Early in the day, we went for breakfast to another E. Wedel, which, of course, included a bit of chocolate. 

From there, we went into the center of the city to the Culture Center, a building imposed by Stalin. Poland was almost completely destroyed during the war: the Old City, to which I’ve referred, was a reconstruction. The Culture Center was built on land destroyed during the war, and was apparently to be a reminder to the Poles who the real power was. There was to be a whole city center built around it, but Stalin died before it could be started, and Kruschev, his successor, never began construction. City residents seem to be ambivalent about the failure of the expansion.

From there, on neat old, “antique” buses, we went on a tour of Praga, the area of the city on the other side of the Vistula River from city center. Praga was a workaday, manufacturing center. The factory for the excellent E. Wedel chocolate is still there.

However, manufacturing started to drift away (as it does), and the region fell on hard times. There were few jobs, and the area became crime ridden, and was known as one of the most dangerous city areas in Europe. 

Because the area was cheap, artists moved in, and as buildings either fell down or were demolished, leaving flat walls, murals were painted, some of which were excellent, some of which still remain.

Gentrification began. An old distillery (they call it a “vodka factory”, but they distilled spirits from grain as well as from potatoes) has been rehabilitated as a “vodka museum”, including restaurants, retail space, and offices. Real estate in the area has been improved, with the ensuing rises in rents, and evictions of less-well-off residents.

In the evening, we met with our tour group, and went out for an “authentic Polish dinner”. I don’t think my mother-in-law would have been impressed.

May 25:

In the morning, we went with the tour group on a bus tour of the city. In some places we were turned away, because of demonstrations relating to the run-off elections to be held next weekend.

Then we went on a walking tour, first of the Polish Uprising museum area, and then of the old town. TEW and I had been in the old town when we first started, so we escaped to catch the outdoor Chopin concert in Lazienski Park. This series of weekly concerts (I don’t know how long the season is) has been going on over sixty years. They get world-class pianists (ours was no exception). The audience was of all ages, all apparently enjoying the music, on the most delightful day.

After that, we made our way back to the hotel, and in the late afternoon, went out to a quiet dinner, and another trip to an E. Wedel for chocolate. AND we made three trips, on two different lines, to different destinations, on the Warsaw tram. We are annoyingly proud of our navigation capabilities.