Copenhagen

June 20–21, 2019

Copenhagen is spelled København in Danish, and is pronounced something like "Krbmhoun." When speaking English, everybody pronounced it like "Co-pen-hay-gun." Danny Kaye fans and probably Germans will make the third syllable like "hog," but otherwise that comes off as an affectation. Thursday morning we had a guided tour of the city. Our guide was from Scotland, to go with our Spanish host and our Greek bus driver.

We got exterior views of the opera house we would tour the next morning.

The theater is across the water from the opera house.

House boats

Parts of the city look a lot like Amsterdam. The houses are not as narrow. The bike riders are more aggressive.

You can see some of our group here in the square between the royal palaces.

We were in time for the changing of the guard. This was the more elaborate version with a band.

This is the palace for the crown prince. The queen's palace is very similar and around to the right.

View of the opera house from across the water

No tour of Copenhagen is complete without a view of the Little Mermaid statue.

Several members of our group climbed this church tower. After many, many steps inside the tower, you go outside and walk up the spiral.
It is sort of like Mt. Everest in that there is a crowd, so you spend a long time standing there.

After the tour we had some free time. I went back to the hotel and thought about walking over to the National Museum, which was not too far the other side of Tivoli. But the phone said it was a 20-minute walk each way. I decided that would not leave me much time to see the museum before I had to be back to catch the bus for a rehearsal. So I chose instead to explore a bit of the neighborhood and have some ice cream.

Then we caught the bus for a 5pm rehearsal and 7pm concert at Jerusalemskirken, the first Methodist congregation in Denmark.

The choir had prepared twelve pieces in a variety of styles, too many to include in any one program. Kevin had told us that the Danish churches expect an American choir to sing spirituals, so our program included the pieces we had in that tradition, and not the Palestrina or Mozart, which fared better in the acoustics and the context of the churches where we would sing in Sweden. The handbell choir presented four pieces. All but three of the ringers also sang in the choir. The audiences wherever we went were interested mostly in the bells, which are more of a novelty there. DUMC has a plethora of handbell choirs, so no novelty here. We brought three octaves of Malmark bells and some hand chimes, about $10,000 worth. Fortunately, I didn't have to deal with customs and such getting them out of the US and back in.

 

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