The Heinrich Heine Schule Choir, Orchestra and Band, middle to high school students, met up early Wednesday morning to travel by tour bus about 40 minutes away to Schloss Noer (http://www.freizeit-am-meer.de/schloss-noer.html ) for the annual music retreat. Noer history dates back to the 1200s with the name itself meaning a slope/rock/cliff. Located by the Baltic Sea, the Castle houses rooms with about 40 beds and the Riding Stall about 36 beds, and both have been renovated and set up in a hostel/dorm style for different groups. After arriving we left our bags in our assigned bedrooms (I shared a room with three other girls) before joining in for the scheduled practices.
During our choir practices we sang a couple of Christmas songs but also some spirituals like, "Let My Light Shine Bright," which was very upbeat. We walked around while singing and it was fun to see people clapping, dancing and getting into it. We practiced a Christmas song "Juel" which is Swedish and beautiful, the harmonies and the images it creates are inspiring. Another fun song was “Fruit Salad” which we practiced in preparation for a musical “thank you” to the kitchen staff Friday after lunch before returning to Heikendorf. It was a canon and easily translated into English. I hope I can teach it this summer when a counselor at Girl Scout Camp Pisgah.
The orchestra and horns practiced in the Riding Stall’s big room where we all fit. We worked on "James Bond,” "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "The Lion King." Most of the kids had never seen the notes before so we didn't sound good but we didn't totally wreck either and made it through the whole song. As I played the alto saxophone I figured out I need to work on my counting because I was listening too much to the tenors since we played a lot at the same time, but they also played a measure before or after us sometimes and I blindly followed.
We took turns setting the tables for our meals together. On our retreat packing list it told us to bring a pair of house slippers - I don’t think I have ever packed slippers on a retreat before. The Schloss owners want to keep the floors as clean and smooth as they can and since shoes track in dirt, you wear house slippers basically the whole day. I had on my house slippers when I set the tables and I had a blast with that. The floors were mostly wood, allowing kind of a cross country skiing movement that made me laugh while gracelessly turning corners to get the plates to set the tables. Before our meals we would sing and then enjoy breads with multiple spreads for breakfast and dinner or another favorite dish of mine, potato pieces, green beans with a cream sauce and frikadellen for a warm lunch. During the day we would have tea time with basic black tea and lemon cake with a white chocolate glaze on top. It was funny to see some kids with their rectangular sponge looking piece of cake acting like they were cleaning the table with their cake. It really did look like a sponge, but it tasted great!
I had volunteered to help Lisa and Vivi with planning of the Thursday evening Buntes Abend where we play a lot of games and celebrate our last day. Most of the games were ones that they play every year and they all sounded like a lot of fun! That evening Lisa, Vivi and I were the three MC's of the night, starting off by welcoming everyone and then the talent show performances and games began. Some of the highlights:
During our choir practices we sang a couple of Christmas songs but also some spirituals like, "Let My Light Shine Bright," which was very upbeat. We walked around while singing and it was fun to see people clapping, dancing and getting into it. We practiced a Christmas song "Juel" which is Swedish and beautiful, the harmonies and the images it creates are inspiring. Another fun song was “Fruit Salad” which we practiced in preparation for a musical “thank you” to the kitchen staff Friday after lunch before returning to Heikendorf. It was a canon and easily translated into English. I hope I can teach it this summer when a counselor at Girl Scout Camp Pisgah.
The orchestra and horns practiced in the Riding Stall’s big room where we all fit. We worked on "James Bond,” "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "The Lion King." Most of the kids had never seen the notes before so we didn't sound good but we didn't totally wreck either and made it through the whole song. As I played the alto saxophone I figured out I need to work on my counting because I was listening too much to the tenors since we played a lot at the same time, but they also played a measure before or after us sometimes and I blindly followed.
We took turns setting the tables for our meals together. On our retreat packing list it told us to bring a pair of house slippers - I don’t think I have ever packed slippers on a retreat before. The Schloss owners want to keep the floors as clean and smooth as they can and since shoes track in dirt, you wear house slippers basically the whole day. I had on my house slippers when I set the tables and I had a blast with that. The floors were mostly wood, allowing kind of a cross country skiing movement that made me laugh while gracelessly turning corners to get the plates to set the tables. Before our meals we would sing and then enjoy breads with multiple spreads for breakfast and dinner or another favorite dish of mine, potato pieces, green beans with a cream sauce and frikadellen for a warm lunch. During the day we would have tea time with basic black tea and lemon cake with a white chocolate glaze on top. It was funny to see some kids with their rectangular sponge looking piece of cake acting like they were cleaning the table with their cake. It really did look like a sponge, but it tasted great!
I had volunteered to help Lisa and Vivi with planning of the Thursday evening Buntes Abend where we play a lot of games and celebrate our last day. Most of the games were ones that they play every year and they all sounded like a lot of fun! That evening Lisa, Vivi and I were the three MC's of the night, starting off by welcoming everyone and then the talent show performances and games began. Some of the highlights:
- The A Cappella Choir sang the “Pitch Perfect” cup song.
- A group game where everyone gets a playing card, memorizing whether they are a heart, spade, diamond or club. Everyone is then seated in a large circle with the MC's taking a deck of cards, calling out the cards “heart,” “spade,” etc. which causes those “cards” to move one to the left either onto a chair or someone's lap. There is an unlimited number of people who will be sitting on each other’s laps because you can only move on if there is no one on your lap. The goal of the game is to get all the way around the circle, and two people succeeded! The longest chain was about seven people long and there were smiles and laughter all around!
- Two traditional dance/games, beginning with "Hacke Spitze" or "Heel Toe.” We had an outer and inner circle that faced one another and after one dance rotation, the inner circle shifted right and the outer left so everyone got a new partner. You didn't touch your partner but a lot of kids hammed up the dance with different partners. The dance ended once you reached your original partner, which did take a while. We had a soundtrack of music playing originally but when we hopped (part of the dance) the CD skipped tracks, so the choir director played on the piano instead. We were all sweaty after this but everyone was having such a good time, it was great! Last, but not least, was "Ein Kleiner Mann" "One Little Man", a dance and challenge of sorts. We started off with two circles again, the outer rotating right and the inner left, and walked normally singing the "Ein Kleiner Mann" song twice. Each time we would finish it became more complicated as you would first put your hands on the shoulders of the person in front of you, walking the circle and singing two rounds. Then you would hold the shoulders of the person in front of the person in front of you, then the hips of that person, then shoulders of three people away then hips. By then the circles shrunk a little bit and we were really close, so close that we all squatted a little bit and ended up sitting on the knees of the person behind us. We did a sort of waddle version of the dance and then we ended. Usually if everyone hasn't fallen down by then, they would do the waddle version backwards until they did fall down.
After that we all gathered and the choir director told everyone to get their warm jackets on and meet outside the front of the castle in 10 minutes. I got my stuff and waited with some of the older kids just chatting and waiting. I realized that by being a MC with Lisa and Vivi, I put myself in a place that people could see me, and now people knew who I was. There were so many kids on the trip it was easy to blend in, but I unknowingly surfaced and the friendliness I received after was nice.
Once everyone had gathered, the choir director started off saying that this was a year of many firsts, since we were in two buildings (the Schloss and the Riding Stall) instead of one, we had a lot more people than normal and that we wouldn't be going to the beach this year. They have been going to Noer since 1988, I think, and they go to the beach every year on the last night - it's a tradition. It was raining and they didn't want people getting sick or hurt, but the seniors were so disappointed that they found an alternate safe route through a neighborhood so we started off to the beach. The walk took about 15 minutes and, while it was slightly raining before we left, the rain stopped by the time we got to the beach. We sang "Evening Rise" and then had some silent time to look over the water and just be. Then some of the seniors started some songs with the rest of us joining in - it was really spontaneous and pretty. We walked farther down the beach before walking up a back road to the castle. This was a perfect end to such a fun trip. In these two days I really got to know the people and the music and can’t wait to see them at our next practice as we prepare to sing together in our Christmas concert.
Once everyone had gathered, the choir director started off saying that this was a year of many firsts, since we were in two buildings (the Schloss and the Riding Stall) instead of one, we had a lot more people than normal and that we wouldn't be going to the beach this year. They have been going to Noer since 1988, I think, and they go to the beach every year on the last night - it's a tradition. It was raining and they didn't want people getting sick or hurt, but the seniors were so disappointed that they found an alternate safe route through a neighborhood so we started off to the beach. The walk took about 15 minutes and, while it was slightly raining before we left, the rain stopped by the time we got to the beach. We sang "Evening Rise" and then had some silent time to look over the water and just be. Then some of the seniors started some songs with the rest of us joining in - it was really spontaneous and pretty. We walked farther down the beach before walking up a back road to the castle. This was a perfect end to such a fun trip. In these two days I really got to know the people and the music and can’t wait to see them at our next practice as we prepare to sing together in our Christmas concert.