“Toll im Quadrat”

Advertised as being “not just a Flamenco Revue”, it was a mixture of dance, songs and one might even say sketches performed by local graphic designer and dancer Nathalie Karg with John “Lobito” Opheim on the guitar and singer and percussionist Manuel Lojo “Ardillita” in front of an audience of 140 people.

Much of the music had a Spanish feel to it, even to the extent of “My Way” sung in Spanish, with more serious tones such as the homage to Salvador Dalí but mixed with light-hearted elements and in some cases performed against daring backdrops, such as a large photo of a cucumber.

Would you perform in Spanish in front of a giant cucumber?

After the interval, the audience were treated to an explanation of the flamenco style, accompanied by a yodelling flamingo, and given a chance to try out the rhythms for themselves in a “clapping flamenco”.

And whilst comments were often forthcoming from Messrs Statler and Waldorf, it was left to two other puppets – Manni and Deppi – to explain the more serious side to the proceedings.

Manni and Deppi

Manni and Deppi represented the two extremes of bipolar disorder,  a condition that Nathalie was diagnosed with 17 years ago.  Manni represented the “manic episode” and Deppi the “depressive episode”, taking it in turns to visit their host.  They reminded us of the serious side to the evening, that sufferers of the disorder are treated at the clinic.

The evening coincided with the start of Nathalie’s art exhibition by the same name, “Toll im Quadrat”, in the corridors of the clinic, in which she uses art to express “surviving bipolar disorder from A to Z”.

Pure flamenco!

In the exhibition, which is open until the end of November, she asks the question “who am I?” and looks at how her life with the disorder and its treatment progressed using works of art including sketches that she made at different stages.

The topics of the pictures are explained further in the accompanying book, which also offers a more detailed and personal account of how the author’s disorder developed, was diagnosed, and treated.

But what the visitors to the exhibition and readers of the book will be missing is the humour and the energy that only the audience at the opening were privileged to see.

The book “Toll im Quadrat” is can be ordered online at Amazon.de.

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Of course, the UK never did win during those years, but I had hardly moved to Germany when Katrina and the Waves did indeed bring the contest to Birmingham, and I had to watch it with a German commentary.

So when Germany won the contest last year I was rather hoping that Frankfurt would get be on the shortlist of contenders for the 2011 competition. As we now know, the final is being held tomorrow in Düsseldorf and I will not be there for a couple of reasons, one of which being that the tickets sold out within hours of going on sale.  With a previously agreed appointment on the same day, I didn’t stand a chance.

Which does not mean, that I will not be following the event on the television and making up my mind who I would like to win, but whereas until a few years ago I would listen to the songs in advance and get to know them, now I watch and listen to them on the night for the first time before making my decision.

Of course, the German song is usually played on the radio during the weeks leading up to the concert and the artist is on a a variety of chat shows.  Some of these are more memorable than others, with “Guido hat euch lieb” (1998) and “Wadda hadda dudda da” (2000) being two that I remember particularly well.  By coincidence the writer of both those songs is Stefan Raab, one of this year’s hosts.

Yet unless I’ve missed something, the hype around Eurovision (also called the “Grand Prix” in Germany) has just not been there this year.  Admittedly I am not in Düsseldorf, but other than conversations about whether people I know will  be watching and what we’ve heard about the linguistic capabilities of the hosts, I can’t say that it’s been a major topic.

I always got the impression, then when the Song Contest came to town, the whole country got excited, a bit like a major sporting event.  But it hasn’t been that way in my opinion.  Maybe we’re too tied up with preparations for the Hessentag here and have other things on our minds, but I think the hype was bigger last year when Lena actually won.

And since Germany has only won twice in the entire history of the contest, I guess I may have to wait for it to happen again and a chance to see the final live.

Tomorrow I shall be watching it with millions of others on the television, but at least I won’t need to look for a parking space.

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

• Germany wins the Eurovision Song Contest
• Landing in crosswind at Düsseldorf airport
• Parking in Düsseldorf on a Sunday

Germany picked up points from most of the countries voting, so even though many gave 12 points to their traditional neighbouring recipients, eventually they could not be caught.

German television has shown live scenes from Hamburg with a crowed of 70,000 people celebrating the win.

Here is the winning song:

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

• The Eurovision Song Contest in Düsseldorf

This was something I first discovered many years ago whilst visiting a school in Willich near Düsseldorf, when spotted something labelled as “H” in the music room.

It came as a shock, as I had always assumed that any country using the standard 5-stave notation also called the notes by the letters A to G as well.  But Germany does not, it uses A to H.

My question back then was “what is H?”  And the answer is quite simple really: it’s B.

But in the German system this is also a ‘B’ – and this is the B flat.

Other notes have their own names as well.  When referring to a sharp, the note below has an ‘is’ attached to it.  F sharp (F#) is therefore ‘Fis’, C sharp (C#) is ‘Cis’.

For flats, an ‘es’ is added to the note above, so D flat (Db) is ‘Des’, although E flat (Eb) becomes ‘Es’ and A flat (Ab) becomes ‘As’.

But why is ‘H’ so an exception?  Well, according to Wikipedia this is a result of changes made to musical notation in the 12th Century.  At this time there were two ways to write a note on the stave, with the angle of the lines denoting a note to be played at the normal pitch or a half-pitch deeper.

These two forms of writing a note later evolved into the sharp and flat signs that we know today, but in the case of B something special happened.  The sign of B-flat looked so much like a ‘b’ that it was written simply as a single letter.  With the lines slanting in the other direction, for a normal ‘B’, the note resembled an ‘H’ and when printed music arrived it continued to be referred to as such.

Hence a scale in C major contains the notes C-D-E-F-G-A-H-C’, a scale in F major contains F-G-A-B-C-D-E-F’.

Another musical difference is that whilst it may be common in English speaking countries to tune an instrument to “middle C”, German orchestras prefer to use “Kammerton A”  which is exactly 440Hz and the A above middle C.

In Austria, you can even tune an instrument using your telephone.  To do this, you dial special telephone number and you can hear a 440Hz tone.  This even works from outside the country, so if you want to try it for yourself, dial +43 1 1507 – but remember that international call rates will apply, so a tuning fork might be cheaper!

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

• Thank you, whoever you are
• Our new flat: 1. The Decision

The GEMA is responsible for managing the rights of composers, songwriters and music publishers.  As such, it is responsible for collecting the royalties from users of music and re-distributing them to its members, similar to the Performing Right Society (PRS) in the UK.

Using music that is GEMA-registered, eg. at an event or on a website, requires the usage to be registered and paid for.  This is usually straight forward for “traditional” events, however some circumstances are more complicated, as we found out last year in the Monday Podcast.

To hear a simple explanation and a short discussion in German, listen to the podcast:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download the MP3 file | Comment in the forum

Subscribe to the podcast | Listen by telephone

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