Saturday April 20th

Although I first added a post about Sunday April 21st, I now like to mention a few events from the past week.

   The past week has been a busy and enjoyable week. Last Saturday (April 14^th) the first brown frog splashed around in my pond. Quite a lot later than last year. But everything is later. I did not envy the frog, quickly followed by a number of fellow frogs, as the water is still very cold. Is it the light that draws them out and urges them to mate, or the temperature?

  Caught in the act on my doormat, totally oblivious of their surroundings. They did not move, even when I tried to push them carefully with my foot towards the pond and the safety of the water away from the greedy herons.

I noticed them early in the morning, before setting off for Antwerp where we had our first choir rehearsal for our week in Southwell Minster in August. We have a provisionary programme, and concentrated on a few new – that is new to our repertoire – compositions. Not every singer could attend the rehearsal. One of pieces we read was Ascribe unto the Lord by S.S.Wesley. The notation is rather complicated, as voices split, are left out, and added again, so at one point one's voice is notated in the third bar line and then again on top or in the second bar. I was screeching away at terribly high notes in what I thought was the first alto line, growing quite desperate. Nobody said anything till we finished. It was quite a relief when they told me I had been singing the second soprano part! The last part, "The Lord has been Mindful..", we have sung several times and are familiar with, but we have never before sung the whole composition. It is beautiful, but I will have to attack my lines with a highlighter, as it seemed all rather confusing.

   I was back just in time to drop off a few fellow singers as we car-pooled, and to take a quick snack before setting off for The Hague again to attend a "trombone extravaganza", an amazing concert with 10 trombone players. Before the interval we listened to ancient music, a lute, harpsichord, baroque violin and an old – baroque trombone, the latter totally different from the modern instrument with that name. After the interval well-known music by later composers arranged for trombones was performed. It was funny to see the constant change of position of the musicians. Sometimes there would be five of them, one conducting, then 6 or 10 or whatever, changing position all the time and taking their music stands with them. An amusing form of musical chairs, although they had no chairs. The most impressive and really very moving part was at the beginning of the concert, when the trombone players were standing along the sides and at the back of the audience and the sound came from all around us, quite mesmerising.

It was a weekend filled with music, starting with our regular choir practice on Friday evening.

The week brought a variety of activities, appointments with doctors and internet providers, meetings with friends from far and near, and meetings of the board of the "Volksuniversiteit" of which I have been the secretary for the past  3,5 years. Not to mention a tea afternoon for the women in this street, a monthly event, fitness classes and another choir practice.

Haarlem revisited

One day – the last possible date – I took advantage of my "free rail day" and took the train to Haarlem. Haarlem is an interesting old town. I have often been there, for choir practice and for services and concerts in the Bavo, the main church in the market square, as well as several other churches on various occasions. Just before Easter we sang Stainer's Crucifixion in one of the catholic churches there. Haarlem also has at least two museums in historic buildings, with attractive and interesting exhibitions which I have often been to see. This time I wanted to do a tour of the well-hidden almshouses. I have seen most of the ones in Leiden, and in some other Dutch towns, but was not familiar with the ones in Haarlem. And I was amazed at the variety. They are well hidden in parts of the city where tourists and shoppers wouldn't normally go. Quiet parts as well. It is wonderful to find these hidden corners in a busy city. It is always a surprise when I open a door in a gate, ornamental or not, and then hit upon a beautiful court, surrounded by small houses, with pots of flowers on most doorsteps and a well tended communal garden. There is always a stone pump, and the absence of traffic noise is unexpected and so wonderful. Living in such a serene place in the middle of a busy city has always appealed to me. The almshouses were often purposely built for single women, and did not start out as beguinages, as most of those houses do in catholic areas.

 An interesting variety of water pumps in the different almshouses 

 

 

  

 I also discovered that Haarlem has many narrow streets, lanes and alleyways, lacking  front gardens. In many of those streets people have taken out a pavement stone or two directly in front of their house and planted climbers, roses, honeysuckle, wysteria, all sorts of plants. They have even put lines high across the street so that climbers form a canopy over the street. Many colourful pots with annuals en roses decorate the pavements.

No flowers yet, but wait and see

Another attraction are the shops. Haarlem still boasts many specialist shops, unique ones, not part of a chain. Cook shops, camera shops with lots of tantalizing lenses, the latest gadgets and very nice cameras , many restaurants and cafes. And not just around the big and impressive market square with the Bavo church taking pride of place, as well as some other old buildings.

 Top and below: two entrances to (former) almshouses

 Doors in Haarlem

Below: various almshouses

 

 

 

 Three women gossiping

St. Olofs Chapel

Talking about old buildings: The day after my Haarlem visit I attended a symposium in Amsterdam. This took place in the St. Olofs Chapel, a very old chapel on the Zeedijk in Amsterdam, at the top of what is now the red light district, but once was the dike along the former Zuiderzee. The chapel is very interesting, but no longer used as a church. It now is part of a big hotel, and is connected to it by a tunnel under the Zeedijk. It is sad that so many churches and chapels are no longer used for religious services. On the other hand, by using this chapel as a conference room it has been saved from ruin and destruction. Walking on large stone slabs which were originally used as gravestones, still engraved with the names of the people once buried there, I felt I was trespassing. The deceased and their relatives surely thought they would lie in peace under those gravestones forever, or till the end of time, the second coming they believed in. When the chapel was rebuilt and restored after various mishaps and a fire, the graves were opened. I suppose they removed the bones, which is usually done, and buried them elsewhere. That seems sacrilege, as I think it is also sacrilege that we exhibit Egyptian mummies in glass cases in museums. Mummies which were at one time so well preserved for eternity, their graves hidden in the depths of pyramids, almost impossible to discover, buried with all they thought they needed in the afterlife. When is a dead person no longer considered to be a dead person and can a body be relocated or displayed to curious eyes? Is there a time when a body is no longer a body but just an object? Somehow to me it seems totally wrong.

   The symposium was interesting, and I was glad to see the inside of the chapel which I had so often passed on my way to the station but never been able to enter. It is a place full of history, and I hope it will be preserved, even if not for the purpose it was originally built for.

Here are a few more links to the history of the chapel, and to some pictures