A very gentle song. It's good that the Vienna Boys' Choir sings, Brahms is really talented. I'm a good adult, but this song will help me sleep better. Beethoven would never have been able to compose such good music.
Prev anon from before. Yeah, I get what you mean. :/
In that case, tell us all about your fave Kyle Broflovski. Wholesome hcs?
yeah…honestly just sucks. i’m getting through it though, i’m just really jumpy ig.
as for kyle headcanons? i have a few
He has an extremely close relationship with his mother. He’s a mama’s boy and would sell his kidney for his mother. His father, he’s not AS close with, but he loves his father. They have a healthy dynamic
He gets hiccups real easily
Hes really good at sewing, his mom helped him make his High Jew Elf King outfit and ever since he’s just associated sewing with something he liked to do with his mom
He’s an angry crier, doesn’t cry often, but he has to be absolutely livid before he cries
After the toilet papering incident, he felt kinda bad about not at least giving art a shot, turns out he genuinely enjoys painting. Namely spray painting. He’s really good at spray painting space scenes and such
Hes terrified of centipedes
He’s actually a very nurturing person, but he has to really know and care about you in order to let this side show
He does swim, he’s canonically a good swimmer and can also hold his breath for long amounts of time, so he would likely do swim in the fall, basketball in the winter and lacrosse in the spring
He did football for a year, likely his junior year, but he didn’t have time to do swim and football, and he enjoyed swim more, so he picks swim over football
He’s not a good reader unless he’s genuinely enjoys the topic, otherwise he’s awful at reading
He’s the kind of person to drag his feet about getting a pet but then if you catch him with said pet he’s treating it like his child, snuggling with it, playing with it and doing that stupid baby voice with it, but claims he “never wanted a pet”
He was very tall and lanky in his freshman year, it was really awkward for him because he would get huge growth spurts and be super clunky because of it. Think of a puppy whose paws are too big for its body. That’s Kyle.
He’s a sleep cuddler. If he’s sleeping in the same bed as someone, he absolutely just holds them and when he wakes up he gets really embarrassed
Sends Cartman Happy Father’s Day things
His love language is quality time
Honestly doesn’t know how he ended up in honors. Things just come naturally to him, he doesn’t actually try that hard in school
He sometimes goes to choir concerts or drama shows because he finds them nice. He’s canonically a person who enjoys theater somewhat. (Lion King?? remember?)
Vienna by Billy Joel makes him cry
He thinks Taylor Swift is overrated. He respects her as an artist but extreme Swifties piss him off.
He ends up learning to play guitar, but doesn’t really play often. He’s not a music kinda guy.
He’s a rainbow baby (I made this hdc before but y’know)
Went to law school before he ended up deciding it wasn’t for him, he ended up going to a Colorado school instead to become a child psychologist (or a teacher, idk)
Hey, you - yes, you! Travelling to Vienna? Too much of a hipster to want to devote your trip to Mozart or Sisi things? Or just looking to expand your horizons even while you're doing the more traditional tourist stuff? Look no further than here :D I'm going to take you through some of the Rudolf things you can do in Vienna. (And some Elisabeth das Musical things as well.)
General Tips
Stuff you may find very useful to have:
- A public transport day/week ticket for the entire time you're in Vienna. Vienna public transport is generally awesome because of the short intervals (3-10 minutes during weekdays for most lines), and you can get pretty much everywhere by bus, tram, the underground (U-Bahn) and S-train, all of which are included in the Wiener Linien ticket.
- An international student card if you're a student under 26. I have an ISIC card and in some countries it doesn't qualify you for all discounts, but in Vienna, it works everywhere. You can save a lot of money on museum and theatre tickets! There's also something you can get called the Vienna City Card which gets you discounts as well, but you would have to calculate whether it would be worth it to pay for the card (depends on how many places you intend to visit and if they're covered by the discount). I didn't get it because I was interested in a very narrow scope of things (= Rudolf).
- Change in Euros. You can pay by card basically everywhere, but for souvenirs that cost less than 10 euros, it just feels more convenient to use cash/coins (and from what I gather, a lot of people do use cash to pay in Austria compared to Finland :D)
- There are combo tickets like the Sisi Ticket (Schönbrunn + Hofburg Sisi Museum and Silberkammer + Möbelmuseum) if you want to do all of the museums that it covers. I didn't get any of those because again, Rudolf priorities, but if you do end up doing that combo, definitely get the combo ticket instead of separate ones!
Now onto the actual tour stops. We shall start from the city centre and work our way through the city from there.
1. Hofburg / Rudolf's Apartments
The whole Hofburg area is super cool and imposing, so I definitely recommend going there just to walk around - it's completely free. You can also take tram 1 towards Prater Hauptallee from the opera to the Schwedenplatz & back (which I did) to observe the palace from the Vienna Ring Road, which takes you past many gorgeous buildings, including those of the Hofburg (and the Wiener Eistraum, a famous skating rink that features in the Affaire Mayerling musical, complete with its trauma-inducing snowman). But don't only do the overview, it's really super cool to actually wander around the palace area!
The most interesting area of the palace is the Schweizerhof. When you enter the palace through the big entrance on Michaelerplatz (idk if it's the main entrance but it's probably the most tourist trappy one) and walk through the "tunnel" (my English architectural vocab is failing me) to the main courtyard (Innerer Burghof), the smaller Schweizerhof courtyard will be on your left. From there, you can enter the Hofburg Chapel / Hofmusikkapelle (which has very limited opening hours due to it being an important practice and performance site for the Vienna Boys' Choir; it's open to tourists Monday and Tuesday from 10 am to 2 pm & Friday 11 am to 1 pm) for free (once you have entered the courtyard, it will be on your right) and sit there listening to some nice choral music. It's very quiet and off the beaten path imo, so it's very nice.
But the main point of interest on the Schweizerhof is, of course, Rudolf's apartment, located on the left side of the courtyard on the second floor (I think). You can't go in because it now houses the offices of the State Monument Office (Bundesdenkmalamt), but you can peer up at the windows >:D
2. Augustinerkirche
The Augustinerkirche is a stone's throw away from the Hofburg (4 minute walk), so it's very easy to get to once you're already there. Just go out through the Schweizerhof exit (directly in front of you if you've just entered the small courtyard from the main Burghof; visible in the photo above) and exit to the Josefsplatz (the plaza in front of the Austrian National Library). Walk across the plaza, past the statue of Kaiser Joseph II, and enter the church from a door on the west side.
The Augustinerkirche is where Sisi and FJ got married, but less famously, it's also the site of Rudolf and Stéphanie's wedding. You can go in for free and guided tours are forbidden within the church, so it should be quite quiet and peaceful. Opening hours 8 am to 5:30 pm (Mon, Wed, Fri) / 8 am to 7:30 pm (Tues / Thurs) / 9 am to 7:30 pm (Sat / Sun), though be aware that the church is in active use by the parish so sometimes services may be taking place.
3. Kapuzinergruft
The Kapuzinergruft is a three-minute walk away from the Augustinerkirche. Just proceed down the Josefplatz until it turns into Augustinerstraße, go past the Theatermuseum, make a few turns (Google Maps will help you with this better than I can) and you're there. You can enter the crypt for 7 euros (student) / 8 euros (adult). The price of the ticket ensures that it's quite quiet, at least on winter weekdays - I basically had it to myself for ~20 minutes. Remember that it's a graveyard, so you should avoid making any kind of ruckus while there. You can see the graves of many famous Habsburg personalities, but what obviously interests us most is Rudolf. His grave in the Franz Joseph vault is pretty hard to miss accidentally.
Do consider bringing him something. It doesn't have to cost anything (and perhaps you shouldn't spend a lot of money given that mementos are regularly cleared away. I think pretty rocks work as well as anything), but it's a nice gesture.
4. Theatermuseum
The Theatermuseum is very close to the Capuchin Crypt, so you can easily proceed there directly if you want to. It doesn't have much to do with the historical Rudolf, but right now (Feb 2023) it has the original 1992 costume sketches for Elisabeth displayed in the Mozart to Falco exhibition. In the museum gift shop you can buy the 2004 blue Elisabeth Vienna cast album (Lukas Perman as Rudolf) for 13 euros (cheap!), as well as the 2005 Vienna Elisabeth DVD & the 2016 Vienna Mozart proshot DVD and official CD. They are quite expensive (~16 euros for the Mozart CD and 30 euros for each of the dvds iirc) and not really cheaper than what you could find while online shopping imo, so I didn't buy them.
5. Raimundtheater
We're making a pretty large jump across town :D The Raimundtheater, operated by the VBW, is the leading musical theatre venue in Vienna. In the theatre you can do the following Rudolf-related activities:
- Buy Elisabeth merch (a wide variety of things from VBW productions from the last 10 years; when I went they had the 2012 and 2019 CDs, iirc 2022 as well, and the 2012 libretto. Basically anything you can find in the online VBW gift shop will be here.)
- Buy the Rudolf: Affaire Mayerling CD and DVD (don't) (XD)
- See a show in the theater where Elisabeth 2012 happened
- As long as Rebecca is playing: Meet a Rudolf/Young Hungarian Nobleman (choose your pick from u/s Vienna 1992 and/or u/s Vienna 2012) at stagedoor 😎 You can also meet several Elisabeths and Franz Josephs and watch Mark Seibert run away from his fans at lightning speed.
You should definitely join the VBW Musicalclub to buy last-minute tickets for 22 euros (available 2 hours before the show starts), especially if you're alone. The membership is 17 euros a year but just one good last-minute ticket will make it worth it. I sat in seats worth 120 euros in the 5th and 6th rows (stalls) and paid only 22 euros each for them, plus the membership. You need a bit of luck but it's definitely worth it, especially on less busy weekdays. The visibility from category C and D seats, at least those on the balcony, isn't amazing - you miss some action even from seats where it isn't indicated that there's limited visibility.
6. The Crown Prince Apartments at Schönbrunn
The crown jewel of the experience, in my opinion. >:] Take the U4 from the centre and get off at Schönbrunn station. Once you enter the main courtyard of the castle (on which the war crime that was the Elisabeth Konzertante Aufführung was committed), head for the entrance seen on the left corner of the main facade. If you go straight ahead once you enter the building, you will find a small unassuming door. This is the entrance to the horribly kitschy Schönbrunn Virtual Reality experience. It's also the entrance to Rudolf's apartment.
Watching the 24-minute VR film is pretty okay. It looks cool, even though it's not a great film for people who already know the history. (We only see Rudolf for a few seconds on the carriage to Mayerling, and then darkness, a whisper of "mother, forgive me" and two gunshot sound effects. Gross. Lucheni has more screentime than Rudolf and he's depicted as a whistling cartoon villain living in a rat-infested apartment.) I did learn new things about the early history of Schönbrunn, which was nice. But the important thing is that after the film you get to walk around all the rooms (at least if it's not super busy) and look at Rudolf's apartment!!! Only the bedroom is off-limits. It's not known what each of the rooms' function was (except that the first room you enter was his living room), but it's really cool to look at the 18th century bird murals, which were ludicrously expensive to create and took 7 years to complete (by only one artist and then his student when he passed away). The apartments were Empress Maria Theresa's favourite part of the castle because they were hot in winter and cool in the summer.
The VR tour only costs 8.50 (student) / 9.50 (adult) as an add-on to a regular Schönbrunn ticket. Definitely do that! The regular tickets (Grand Tour and Imperial Tour, and some combos that are available in the summer) get you a nice tour of the first floor of the castle, with Sisi and FJ's apartments and the glorious Spiegelsaal. I would get the Grand Tour because it's 18 extra rooms for only a marginal increase in price. I'm too lazy to google the prices rn and they might change in the future, but it was something like 20ish euros.
After the tour you can buy merch at the gift shop. Sadly, the Rudolf merch is limited to two postcards - one a photograph of him as a young boy and another a hunting clothes portrait photo from 1888. I think the latter one is super cute so I bought it :D You can also buy a Sisi themed nail file 💀
That concludes my Rudolf Tour experience. XD There are additional things you could do that I don't have personal experience of, so I'm listing them briefly here.
Things you could also do but I didn't do (and why I didn't do them)
- The Sisi Museum / Imperial Apartments at Hofburg. I read online that the apartments aren't very different from those at Schönbrunn, and I don't have a great interest in Sisi, but you could do this if you want to. Like in Schönbrunn, FJ has pictures of all of his children in his apartment, which is cute.
- Imperial Treasury/Kaiserliche Schatzkammer in Hofburg. I didn't particularly care xD It's on the Schweizerhof so easy to pop into while going to see Rudolf's Hofburg apartment if you want. Not free.
- Silberkammer - another which is next to the Sisi museum afaik. Again, didn't care xD
- Paniglgasse 19. This is a now-random building that once contained the apartment Rudolf bought for Mizzi Kaspar, his favourite mistress. You can go stand outside it if you're in the Wieden area (underground stop Karlsplatz) anyway to see the famous Karlskirche or the VBW main office / Theater an der Wien. The latter is being renovated so there's nothing to see but I did it anyway. I didn't go to Mizzi's apartment because I found the area a bit weird to navigate and was tired at that point of my day :D
- The Museum of Natural History / Naturhistorisches Museum. The mineral collection contains some geological objects of interest from Rudolf's private collection, as does the ornithological collection. There's a pair of white-tailed eagles on display that were shot by him on Jan 22, 1889, only nine days before his death. I realised too late that I should go and missed it - maybe next time. Tickets 16e (adult) / 12e (student/reduced).
- The Hofmobiliendepot / Imperial Furniture Collection / Furniture Museum. I was going to go because they had some Rudolf stuff (... including the bed he died in, which I find a bit gauche to display), but I was too tired after Schönbrunn and skipped it. Located at Andreasgasse 7, served by the U3 underground line. Student ticket 10,50 / adult 11,50.
- The Kronprinzengarten in the Schönbrunn grounds. It's named so because it's located right outside Rudolf's apartments, so going there will give you a view of the outside of his place & his yard, basically. Definitely pop over if you can, it's very practical to do if you're in Schönbrunn anyway! The gardens were closed for the winter when I was in Vienna. You can get a Schönbrunn Classic Pass (from April 1 onwards) to do the castle Grand Tour and visit all of the Schönbrunn gardens.
Thanks for reading :D Hope you have fun and please bring Rudolf all the rocks
The Christmas spirit is in the air, just in time to celebrate the holidays with The Vienna Boys Choir 🇦🇹 and their angelic voices.
The Vienna Boys Choir is one of the most iconic cultural institutions in Austria. The choir is the modern-day descendant of the boys' choirs of the Viennese Court, dating back to the late Middle Ages. The Wiener Hofmusikkapelle was founded by a statute issued and established by a letter from Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I on 30th June 1498, instructing court officials to employ a singing master, two basses and six boys to the Imperial court as members of the newly formed court music band. Ever since the Vienna Boys' Choir has been a fixture in Austrian musical life.
In 1924, the Vienna Boys' Choir was officially founded, and it has evolved into a professional music group. The choir adopted the now-famous blue-and-white sailor suit, replacing the imperial military cadet uniform that included a dagger. 🗡️
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The Vienna Boys' Choir has produced numerous highly respected musicians, among them Joseph Haydn and Franz Schubert. Today, the 100 or so boys range between the ages of 10 and 14 years and give about 300 concerts each year, around the world.
Countries and territories the Doraemon franchise has visited through >70 movies.
UnadamantlySmall:
The Doraemon franchise takes place somewhere in suburban Tokyo, Japan. While some of its movie sets take place in another planet/world (2019 takes place on the Moon), they have also travelled throughout the world through its numerous movies. In order of mainline appearance, the list of places include:
1980: Nobita's Dinosaur in USA and Canada (remade in 2006)
1982: Nobita and the Haunts of Evil in Democratic Republic of Congo (remade in 2014, my personal favorite movie)
1984: Nobita's Great Adventure into the Underworld in Croatia (remade in 2007)
1988: The Record of Nobita's Parallel Visit to the West in People's Republic of China (also featured in 1989's Nobita and the Birth of Japan that would be remade in 2016. Xinjiang and Tibet were also featured in 2003's Nobita and the Windmasters)
1991: Nobita's Dorabian Nights in Iraq
1992: Nobita and the Kingdom of Clouds in Germany (also featured in 2001's Nobita and the Winged Braves)
1993: Nobita and the Tin Labyrinth in Italy
1994: Nobita's Three Visionary Swordsmen in France
1997: Nobita and the Spiral City in Slovenia
1998: Nobita's Great Adventure in the South Seas in Oceania (country not specified)
2000: Nobita and the Legend of the Sun King in Mexico (shut-out to Austria's Wiener Sängerknaben (GER: Vienna Boys' Choir) for providing the opening track for this movie)
2002: Nobita in the Robot Kingdom in Ukraine
2003: Nobita and the Windmasters in Mongolia
2004: Nobita in the Wan-Nyan Spacetime Odyssey in New Zealand
2010: Nobita's Great Battle of the Mermaid King in Palau
2012: Nobita and the Island of Miracles—Animal Adventure in Fiji
2013: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum in United Kingdom
2017: Nobita's Great Adventure in the Antarctic Kachi Kochi
2018: Nobita's Treasure Island in The Carribean (country not specified)
Edit: 1983's Nobita and the Castle of Undersea Devil took place somewhere in The Atlantic Ocean. While not part of the mainline movies, the Doraemon franchise has also visited The Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland in 藤子不二雄スペシャル ドラえもん・ヨーロッパ鉄道の旅 (JP: Fujiko Fujio Special Doraemon: Europe Rail Travel). The Doraemons spin-off includes characters from Spain, Russia, and Brazil.
Last song: "Ellens Gesang III (Ave Maria!), OP. 56, No. 6, D. 839, Hymne an die Jungfrau" by David Cordier, Cologne Radio Orchestra & Vienna Boys Choir
Favorite color: Navy blue and ruby red
Currently watching: "The Gilded Age" s2
Last movie/show: I've been watching some Christmas movies, just for a curiosity 😅: "A Hollywood Christmas" (2022)
Spice/Savory/Sweet: Savory
Last thing you googled: "wallace and gromit mug eu"
I would like to get to know better with: @ihaventcomeupwthanameforaheroyet @this-writer-needs-coffee
When it comes to the song "Wild Rose", whether it is Schubert's or Werner's, the Vienna Boys' Choir sings the best. I did some research around the choir.
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The Vienna Boys' Choir (Wiener Sängerknaben) was a boys' choir founded in 1498 by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I as the Court Chapel Boys' Choir. It is based on the Wilten Boys Choir of Innsbruck, whose members were brought to Vienna by Emperor Maximilian I when he founded the New Court Chapel Boys Choir in Vienna.
The number of members is about 100. The orchestra members were divided into four groups of about 25 people each named after the orchestra and composers associated with Vienna: "Mozart", "Schubert", "Haydn" and "Bruckner". goes on a concert tour for 11 weeks a year, and one group performs about 80 performances in various parts of the world. One of the groups always goes on a concert tour, so three groups remain at school and take classes. One of these three groups is supposed to sing at Mass every Sunday in the Royal Chapel. Three groups will sing in turn every week, so one group will sing in the Royal Chapel every three weeks.
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Excerpt from Wiki "Vienna Boys Choir"
It's a group with a long history. Founded in 1498, it was a little earlier than Luther's Reformation (1517). (It is said that even before the birth of Christianity, even under Judaism, boys were hunted out to sing hymns.) , there was something that could not be replaced, whether it was a countertenor or a sopranist. Here, in the case of the Vienna Boys Choir, the voice quality is called boy soprano and boy alto.
"Therefore, a forbidden move was used." It is to castrate the boys before they reach the stage of dysphonia and to keep the quality of their voices in the state before the dysphonia. A person who has undergone this procedure is called a "castrato" in English. verb castrate: to castrate
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By castrating males, it suppresses the secretion of male hormones, artificially hinders the remarkable growth of the vocal cords during the male secondary sexual characteristics period, eliminates the dysphonia (so-called "voice change"), and improves the voice quality of boy soprano. An attempt to keep the range as long as possible. On the other hand, since growth hormone is secreted, the height and ribcage grow as normal, and the growth of the skeleton, including the ribcage, and lung capacity is almost the same as that of adult men, and the tone of voice and the sustaining power of singing voice are not different from those of minors. It is said that it cannot be reproduced by female singers. Their voices were said to be sweet, wild and yet very sensual.
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From Wiki (castrato)
It seems that the castrato singing voice could not be replaced by any other vocal parts. But, as expected, this inhumane custom was banned by the Pope, and it seems that it was abolished. "Falsetto" here means falsetto. I don't want to hear "artificial" voices that have undergone this kind of treatment, no matter how difficult it is to obtain. I feel sorry for these boys.
Pueri Concinite--Christmas Motet Vienna Boys Choir
Pueri Concinite is a beautiful Christmas motet that touches the hearts of all who hear the soaring melody of the boy soprano. Like an angel, he proclaims the birth of God to the Virgin "as the Divine Mercy willed" while the children kneeling before the creche are encouraged to sing songs to the newborn king. The first composition by the name of "Pueri Concinite" was written by Jacob Handl, a devout Cistercian monk from the 16th century. Roughly three centuries later, set to the same lyrics, the Austrian Composer Johan Von Herbeck (1831-1877) composed a new version of this sacred motet that is used in this video.
Sing together, children, sing songs to the newborn King; in pious tones, say: He who was born of Mary appears. Now we see fulfilled the word of Gabriel: Eya, eya! The Virgin has given birth to God, As the divine mercy willed.
Please note that music for this video is for the purpose of educating the general public https://catholicharboroffaithandmorals.com/25.html