Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Beethoven Meets Goldie



Last night I took a walk around Bonn. Yesterday I wrote that Bonn was really a haven for classical music. But at night, I heard a lot of disco and jungle rhythms coming out of cafés and bars. Most interestingly, I heard (and more than a few places) classical remixes done in a drum and bass style. I know this make someone think of the 1980s remake of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and a disco style, but what I heard last night was much more tastefully done.

There is one thing here it stops all music. As you walk through Bonn right now you won't hear a single note being played unless it happens to be something going on in the Czech/Portugal soccer match. I swear it's playing on a big screen television every café I walked past.

I also stopped into a music store today. I was surprised to see how expensive things were. For example, starter electric guitar and bass kits made by Yamaha were selling for over €200. The same kits (made by Fender) sell for around $200 at my local Long & McQuade. The store had Cort guitars selling for between €300 an €500. I picked one up and it was just what you would expect from a Cort guitar: it felt like it was going to break in my hands. Although I was shocked at the prices, I was impressed by their sheet music selection for double bass. They even had a few pieces written for Bertram Turetzky. I thought about purchasing them (and still may) but alot of the specifics about the notation and instructions for performance were in German. Still these pieces are hard enough to find in Canada and the prices seemed reasonable. (In fact it look like these pieces had been marked down substantially from their previously crazy prices.)

Oh yeah, I'm also getting some of my work done.

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