Saturday afternoon was the annual concert of the Lutheran Trombone Choir Feucht (Evangelischer Posaunenchor Feucht) in St. Sebald, one of the two main churches in Nuremberg’s Old Town. If you want to find out why this is so special for me that it deserves an “off topic” blog post, to see more photos and even a video of one of the Christmas Chorals played continue reading after the jump…
Both my significant other as well as the daughter are active members of the Trombone Choir of our local Lutheran Church in Feucht, a small town just outside Nuremberg. So music is an important part of the family, and although I don’t play any instrument I enjoy listening to the Trombone Choir very much and I’m also paying my duties as the (unofficial) company photographer. Which led to some spectacular travel for me when accompanying the Choir on a trip to Tanzania earlier this year (I still want to do a blog post about this trip and my Street Photography in Africa).
Fixtures of the Choir around Christmas time are concerts in St. Sebald (more about the history of this 800 year old Basilica at the end of this post) and on the stage of the famous Christkindlesmarkt (coming this year on December 23rd).
The sound of the brass music in this huge church is spectacular and makes you shiver to the bone. I recorded a video of one of my favorite pieces on my iPhone, just to give an impression how it sounds, although it can’t match reality. This is actually a first on this blog, I never posted a video so far. Let me know in the comments how you like it.
The piece played is the Christmas Choral “Tochter Zion, freue Dich” texted by Friedrich Ranke (1798-1876) based on music by Georg Friedrich Haendel.
It is so amazing when at the end of each piece the last tunes raise up towards the ceiling and then slowly fade away.
After the concert, while receiving the well deserved applause of the audience, the choir raises the instruments to the traditional “Bläsergruß”, the salute of the brass players.
St. Sebald is one of the two main churches in the Old Town of Nuremberg. Construction of the Basilica, which is situated at the Albrecht Dürer Platz and opposite the City Hall, began early in the 13th century. Along the centuries the huge church was remodeled various times to now have a mainly gothic interior. It was severely damaged in the second World War. Priceless artworks that survived are the bronze shrine of Saint Sebaldus (a work by famous artist Peter Vischer and his sons in the years 1508-1519), wooden sculptures by Veit Stoss (1447-1533) and some the original glass windows from 1500, designed by Albrecht Dürer and made by glass painter Veit Hirsvogel.
I hope you enjoyed this off-topic post about church brass music and a bit of history to one of Nuremberg’s magnificent churches.
If you missed my previous post about my visit to the Christmas Market next to the church click on the link “Christkindlesmarkt” below.
The images inside the church were taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 and the mZuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, the outside shot with the PEN-F and the mZuiko 12mm f/2.0.
Have a great week!
Marcus
Related Posts:
StoNur on the Road – Innsbruck Christmas Markets
Nuremberg Explored (3) – Hangman’s Residence