August 8, 2009 - Contrasts: Foam Party & Renaissance Castle

The last 24 hours spanned a range of Czech cultural experiences. Last night almost my whole Czech class (7 of 10) and about 25 others went to the local disco with our teacher at 11:00 p.m. for dancing. We basically filled the place, though there were a few locals. It turned out to be "foam party" night which left me wondering about what would be involved. It was more innocent than I expected - basically a small snow making machine that blew "snowflakes" all over the dancers - kind of refreshing with the feverish dancing. Maybe this would be a solution for the CSPS Hall until we get air conditioning? Our first stop this morning on our all day trip was to a bobbin lace museum in Vamberk, a small town where handmade lace was an important product, then after lace making machines were invented, the skill almost died out. In the late 1800s, a school was established in Vamberk to teach the skill of making the handmade bobbin lace. The school still continues. Some pretty amazing things were on display in the museum.
More on the Vamberk Lace Museum

Litomyšl Castle

Litomyšl has a renaissance castle covered in Scraffiti - individually made figured tiles (about 11,000 with no duplicates), a collection of old keyboard instruments, and a Smetana museum in the former home of the Czech composer, Bedřich Smetana. The castle tour included the private theater and a chain of decorated period rooms. The third floor of the castle had the keyboard museum and another Dobruska student from Mexico and I had the opportunity to play on an 1846 pianoforte! This wasn't the most interesting instrument there, but the one they were willing to have people play. 1846 Pianoforte

Playing the 1846 Pianoforte

Link to Paula Eliska’s video of part of this improvisation

Frank Trnka en el Museo de Pianos del Castillo de Litomyšl

There were claviers, clavichords, etc. as well as a quarter-tone piano that had three keyboards like an organ with three manuals, but with the middle keyboard pitched half-way between each half-step on the other two keyboards, something that never really caught on, as the pitch difference is not noticable to most listeners. Quarter-tone Piano

More on Litomyšl