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Wanderlust
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The following song is a co-production of Belgian-Australian singer Gotye and New Zealand singer Kimbra, who was born in Hamilton. When I first heard the song on the radio, I only noticed the chorus, which reminded me somehow of Sting in style. And I didn’t know who wrote this song for a long time (until I did research for this topic 😀 ) All in all an interesting song and an extraordinary music video.
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This is one of the very few songs of the past 40 years that I heard at the time of release and actually liked. Such a uniquely intriguing vibe; the musical equivalent of trying a new condiment for the first time. I had no idea there was a New Zealand connection, which makes it even cooler. And I had never seen the video until now.
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Well said David ! The song also had a very special effect on me when I first heard it.
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Musically, my little trip to New Zealand is gradually coming to an end. Unless one of you knows any nice New Zealand songs. Of course, like everywhere else in the world, the charts there are populated by younger bands and singers who produce pop or electronic pop. Then for example names like „Lorde“, „The Naked and Famous“, „Ladyhawke“, „Gin Wigmore“ and „Opshop“ pop up. If you are interested, you can just google it. But wait a minute: “Th’ Dudes”, founded in Auckland in 1970, are said to enjoy a certain cult status in New Zealand. I don’t know if that’s true, but see for yourself:
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By the way Auckland: a nice drone flight over Auckland city and surroundings:
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Thanks for the aerial tour of NZ as well.
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Wanderlust 🔔🎺„Christmas Special 2023″ 🎺🔔 – Castles in Winterwonderland
„To travel is to take a journey into yourself“
– Danny Kaye –
For me, Christmas is always a time to dream, to pause. A colorful, iridescent soap bubble hanging high up on the Christmas tree of life. A little world of its own that invites you to wonder, to linger and to dream. A world and a time in which fairy tales could perhaps come true. And what goes better with fairy tales than castles? Castles in snowy magical landscapes.
There are many videos and documentation about beautiful and fascinating castles. But the selection of snow-covered castles is surprisingly small. I have made a small selection here and tried to add local Christmas music or at least music that goes well with the winter mood. Maybe you know one or two castles in a winter setting. I would like to introduce some beautiful, snowy castles for the remaining days of Advent.
Neuschwanstein Castle stands above Hohenschwangau near Füssen in the Bavarian Allgäu. The building was built in 1869 for the Bavarian King Ludwig II as an idealized idea of a knight’s castle from the Middle Ages. The king only lived in the castle for a few months. He died mysteriously before the facility was completed. He is said to have drowned in a nearby lake.
https://youtu.be/f_bnMFaXaP4?si=-TXI7Cf113rf_Y1y
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Michael Praetorius was a German composer and organist who was born in 1571. He left behind a large collection of church compositions, including some well-known Christmas carols. Such as “A rose has sprung”. A song that can often be heard in Germany at Christmas time.
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Juergen
this is very beautiful.
Merry Christmas to all.
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Thanks Tom. I wish you all the best for Christmas too. I hope you are doing well.
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Hi Jurgen
Wow the video is breathtaking, and that Neuschwanstein Castle is unreal, like straight out of a fairytale. I never thought a castle like that could exist in real life. The scenery, the music just raises goosebumps. That would be a fascinating place to visit. Sad to hear that King who had that castle built died before it was completed. Thanks for sharing it.
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Yes Jung, a beautiful and enchanting building. Made for dreams, not for reality. The castle can be reached via a long winding road that leads through the forest. If you follow this path, you can see parts of the castle from different perspectives. Like walking through a fairytale forest. The interior of the castle is partly very magnificent, but construction was never completed. Once completed, the castle would have had over 200 different interior rooms, including rooms for guests and servants as well as for access and supplies. Around 15 rooms and halls were completed and equipped.
I have included a short tour of the castle. Unfortunately only in German, but the pictures speak for themselves.
PS: King Ludwig II was considered a megalomaniac. In order to build his dream castles and realize his ideas, he exploited the people and was obviously not very popular. His political opponents had him declared insane and he was deposed. The mysterious death was the end of this sad chapter. Ludwig II’s wishes and demands grew with the construction, as did the expenses. The designs and cost estimates had to be revised several times. Neuschwanstein was intended to serve as a sort of livable theater backdrop for Ludwig II. This certainly had something to do with the fact that he was enthusiastic about Richard Wagner’s music and supported him. The royal family itself was heavily in debt. Parallels with today’s politicians are purely coincidental. 😁
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Juergen, et al,
I am just catching up.
The German mountain scenery and this castle are very beautiful.
I am looking forward to the live stream.
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The Neuhäuser Castle Park near the city of Paderborn was voted one of the ten most beautiful German parks.
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“Ave Maria” by Bach/Gounod is not a classic Christmas song in the true sense, but is often played on festive church occasions, including at Christmas time.
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Ave Maria is beautiful Jurgen. Towards the final years of Bach’s life while he lived in Leipzig, he produced some of the greatest Choral works like this, and many Masses and Passions all in praise of God. Bach wasn’t particularly religious living a quite rebellious life, but in his music it reflected praise of beauty in the universe.
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The “Hohenwerfen” Fortress is a medieval hilltop castle in the Salzburger Land. It was built between 1075 and 1078 and further expanded in the later centuries. The castle is very popular as a film set. The movie “Where Eagles Dare” starring Richard Burton and Clint Eatswood was filmed there in 1968.
PS: Tom, the mountain landscape in Austria is also very beautiful.
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Johann Georg Leopold Mozart, the father of Wolfgang Amadeus, was an Augsburg composer who spent most of his life in Salzburg. In December 1755 he composed “The Musical Sleigh Ride”. A relaxed Christmas journey through the snowy land of pre-classical music.
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It seems Pater Mozart was no slouch.
Why don’t we here of him more?
Juergen will Migros produce another multi-lingual musical Christmas card this year?
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Hi Tom,
you’ve given me a real brain teaser. Who is “Migros” ? Then it clicked. No, no multi-lingual musical Christmas card this year, but a new adventure of Finn the Christmas elves (Weihnachtswichtel). 😀
PS: I think Leopold Mozart lived in the shadow of his famous son and was therefore not recognized as an independent musician and composer. Maybe Jung knows more about it.
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Hi Juergen,
i guess i remember the name better because i was in the store in Lausanne times in a month. They were sort of the Swiss Walmart.
This popped up in Youtube thumbnails when i checked out your video.
Is this a repeat? I think i remember the tune.
I swear to God, the swiss are borne speaking deutsche, swieze-deutsche, francais & italinano
and learn english in high school
<div>
</div><div>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BVFjiQz8fM
</div><div>Happy New Year.</div>
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Hi Tom,
yes, it’s a repetition, but still nice. I remember that the train station in Basel is signposted in three languages: Italian, French and German. Romansh is also spoken in the canton of Graubünden. Speaking many languages is a blessing. I wish you a happy new year too.
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Of course, the Palace of Versailles cannot be missing from this collection. This is the largest palace complex in Europe. Construction began in 1661. The palace was continually expanded and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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Il Est Né (He is Born). A traditional French Christmas song that was published for the first time in 1862 by Jean-Romain Grosjean, Dawot Michel, and Pol Wobber, organist of the Cathedral of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, in a collection of carols entitled Airs des Noëls lorrains.
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Trakošćan Castle was built in the 13th century within Croatia’s northwestern fortification system, as a rather small observation fortress for monitoring the passing trade route.
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“Oj pastiri” (Oh Shepards). A traditional Croatian Christmas song. Performed by the German-Croatian band Januš.
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Guthrie Castle is more of a country house than a real castle. It was built in the village of Guthrie in County Angus, Scotland. The tower of this complex was built in the 15th century. The remaining buildings were added in the 19th century.
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What goes better with Scotland and Christmas than the song “Mull of Kintyre”? Published on November 11, 1977. Not actually a Christmas song but still a great Christmas hit wonder. The single was Wings’ biggest hit in Britain and is one of the best selling singles of all time in the United Kingdom, where it became the 1977 Christmas number one and was the first single to sell over two million copies nationwide. Thanks to Paul.
I wish everyone here a wonderful Christmas time and may your dreams come true for next year.
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My wish for the next year sounds like this:
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Thank you Jurgen for sharing all those beautiful Christmas traditional/folk music, castles and scenery. A beautiful collection of videos I enjoyed. You always bring so much beautiful content: music, cultures, places and things to the forum I never would have known about.
I’m not familiar with any of Leopold Mozart’s work, but that one you posted is quite good. Talent certainly ran in the family, with Wolfgang’s sister witnessed to be the greatest talent in the family actually. If times were different, and women were allowed to express and develop their brilliance in art equally like men, it might be Marianne Mozart’s work eclipsing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but the world of music is less because of the short sightedness and inequalities of humanity at the time.
John Lennon’s music and legacy certainly lives on, knowing no boundaries in nationality nor generation, so broad and wide. “Mull of Kintyre” is one of my favourites of Paul’s solo songs, the bagpipes are awesome in it and makes that song.
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Hi Jung,
thank you for the touching feedback. Glad to hear you liked it. There are so many beautiful and interesting things to discover, foreign countries and places, the music that goes with them and of course the people who write this music. I’m always happy when I can share these impressions with other people who like it.
I wish you and everyone else here in the forum a happy new year (or at least a year that turns out the way you want).
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The Heart of Southeast Asia
I’ve wanted to introduce Southeast Asia in this thread for a long time because I’ve grown very fond of the cultures and people there. I just didn’t know exactly how to start, since Southeast Asia is a huge area, a microcosm of its own that is almost completely unnoticed by our Western world. A dazzling kaleidoscope of cultures, customs, colors and exotic scents. As diverse as the many languages spoken there, as colorful as the breathtaking landscapes that spread out in front of you and as delicate as the many delicious dishes there to try. If you want to discover Asia for yourself, you should do so with all your senses. Pictures can only give an imprecise idea of what awaits you there. When I traveled to Thailand for the first time many, many years ago, I was very surprised: the variety of impressions that awaited me there: the scents of exotic plants and flowers and the tasty smells of the small restaurants and food stalls that are everywhere are found. Impressions that images unfortunately cannot convey. So the idea came to me to simply introduce the individual metropolises of the countries there. A good start to a colorful, varied trip to Asia.
Singapore
I would like to start with Singapore. In general, Singapore is a good place to start if you have never been to Southeast Asia. Modernity and culture flow seamlessly into one another and the city seems both familiar and exotic to us Western travelers. Singapore is a small island and city state that was once part of the British Commonwealth. A melting pot of different nations and cultures. The smallest country in Southeast Asia, geographically part of Malaysia. In modern times, Singapore has become a wealthy and influential nation. One of the four so-called Asian Tiger States (South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong). An important financial and shipping hub and perhaps the westernmost of all the Asian metropolises I have gotten to know so far.
“The traveler sees what he sees; the tourist sees what he visits.”
-G.K. Chesterton - -
As a musical introduction, a short medley in which traditional and modern music styles from Singapore and Malaysia are taken up. Singapore combines the traditional and musical heritage of different nations. Including Malaysia, South Asian, East Asian and Eurasian influences
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However, if we take a step back from the traditional music of Singapore and the present – and approach one of our favorite decades – we will be surprised to find that when the Beatles flew to Manila in 1966, they were not bringing the rock and beat music of the western 60s to Asia, but that this kind of music had arrived there long before even a single Beatles foot set foot in Southeast Asia.
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Some beat bands of the time played purely instrumental guitar music. That reminds me a little of the Shadows.
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