Denmark: Odense

The last post I wrote was from when I was flying over Denmark and was about to land in Copenhagen. I always like to sit by the window of the plane if I’m going some place new and flying over Denmark was one of those unreal moments that you don’t too often get to see when flying over countries.

I actually went to Denmark a few weeks ago but I haven’t got around to writing about it since I’ve been so busy with other trips and university assignments. So this is a belated account of my time there.

While I arrived in Copenhagen, I wasn’t actually staying there, I was staying in Odense (the third largest city in Denmark) where my cousin lives. Perhaps you may not of heard of Odense? But if so, I am sure you would of definitely heard of their old writer in residence, Hans Christian Andersen. If the name doesn't ring a bell, then shame on you, because he is the writer behind well known children's stories such as "The Little Mermaid" and "The Ugly Duckling".

Odense is very proud of their old author, and hence throughout the town there are many museums about the writer, but there are also many odd and unique reminders of H.C.Andersen scattered around the city centre - you just have to look out for them, as sometimes they can be in your face, but other times they could only catch glimpses in the corner of your eye. For example, there are many statues and monuments, which are actually not of Andersen himself (although there are those too), but of the different well-known characters from his books (proving you don't necessarily have to go to Copenhagen to the statue of "The Little Mermaid", since there are plenty of fairytale statues here in Odense). Sadly I didn't get any pictures of these statues, which incidentally was probably a good thing, since the statues I came across I wasn't aware of which story the characters were from and more to the point, neither did my cousin who has been living in Odense and was meant to be my tour guide (let's just say I didn't give him any tips for his guide services!). However my cousin did rise in my eyes as a good tour guide for pointing out something to me that I would of completely disregarded: the green and red 'safe/not safe to walk across the road man' at the traffic lights. In most places in the world, this is just a standard, faceless, straight up-and-down man; BUT in Odense if you look carefully you will see this is no ordinary "it's safe to walk/not to walk" man - no, not at all, it is in fact actually a silhouette of H.C.Andersen. How could I tell the distinctions between H.C.Andersen and the common faceless, straight up-and-down man, I hear you ask me? Well, well, the way to know is very simple for the H.C.Andersen "it's safe to walk/not to walk" man has a top hat and a walking stick - two common accessories to Andersen's style and 'look'. Unfortunately again I was out of luck in capturing photographs of this peculiar but quirky symbol (more because I was never in a good position to take the photography, I was always situated in either being run over by cars or run over by cyclists, neither of which I was willing to sacrifice myself to in the hope of getting a photograph) but here is a statue of the man himself WITH his top hat and walking stick to hopefully spur your imagination into thinking what the lights looked like (or perhaps you can always google image it too...)

(This was actually taken in Copenhagen... but that is irrelevant to this particular post for now)

And to not leave you disappointed about the fairytale statues, while I didn't take these photographs, I did source them from a worthy site: Visit Odense, which one should look at before visiting the beautiful city (see link: http://www.visitodense.com/ln-int/funen/attractions/attractions-odense)

This one (above) is "Boy, who catches the eagle in it's flight" which I did see but we didn't know of the story, and so we weren't actually sure if it was based on a H.C.Andersen fairytale, or if it was just a statue dedicated to the arts.

And this one I also saw, although it was from a little distance away and therefore we were not able to read the plaque, which states it's a statue of Thumbelina, a story I HAVE heard of, so I was little disappointed (and embarrassed) that I did not realise this upon seeing it.

I guess these mistakes happen sometimes, but it goes back to my point - if you're not careful in Odense, you could miss some spectacular pieces of art based on well-known people and well-known fairytale characters. Take note of those objects that appear in the corner of your eyes, they could actually be significant.

While in Odense I also visited the H.C.Andersen museum, and here are a few facts I found out about the writer:
- he was considered odd and 'ugly' because he was taller than the average height (although he actually wasn't that tall compared to today's standards), and he had an 'ugly' face (I don't think he was ugly, he did have a rather big nose, but this didn't make him an ugly man, I actually thought he looked quite intelligent, yet I guess for that era a 'beautiful' man was one which had very 'feminine' appearances or had good facial hair, neither of which Andersen possessed).
- he had very big feet! His shoe size was about a man's 12 I think - so I was surprised at his height, with feet like that he should of been much taller.
- he was poor, and even when he was writing he still lived in poor circumstances
- he had quite a few romances, although he always seemed to be unlucky in love, and this could be put down to the fact he put his writing first before a woman (but that's dedication I tell you!)
- he upset Charles Dickens... yes you read that correctly. Andersen visited Dickens while he was in London, he was allowed to stay at the Dickens' residence, which the family soon regretted since they found him a bore and annoyance, and he couldn't even speak good English (so he definitely must of done something wrong to bore and annoy them without even speaking English)

Here are some of my favourite photographs from the museum:

Some photographs of Hans, and bits about his life - you can probably see for yourself he really wasn't an 'ugly' man.

Paintings of the city of Odense

Quotes from some of his fairytales and other written works of his. My favourite was "A great poet must have a great toothache, a little poet a little toothache" (Hans had very bad teeth which suffered him great pain, probably why he thought to write this - he had lost all his teeth and had to wear dentures, maybe this contributed to his 'ugliness')

Moving on from Andersen, it was really nice staying in Odense, not just to see a city which perhaps doesn't get enough attention when cast in the shadow of Copenhagen, but also to spend time with my cousin and his girlfriend. While it is nice being surrounded by new friends in Bergen, there is nothing that makes me happier than spending time with family.

What lies beneath

The sun is shining bright, and the clouds are low beneath us, it looks like a scene from a movie when a person awakes in heaven, completely white and bright with nothing or nobody in sight. The clouds look like a thick blanket. But then as we descend through the clouds it's like we are stuck in suffocating fog. I don't understand how they know how to find their way to the safe terrain, it's so dark and grey. Whereas before we were blinded by the gleaming brightness of the sun, now we have lost our sight in the unknown darkness of the clouds.

Suddenly the city appears, yet there is still little light and the darkness from the grey clouds shows no signs of letting any of the brightness through. It's completely opposite to what I had seen in the clouds above. To the people below in this city they would be completely unaware of the overwhelming clearness above those clouds which are isolating their city from what lies above.

Yet although the greyness is trying to take over the city, it fails to make it dull. I still feel the excitement and beauty waiting to be explored once I take my first footsteps on this new land, for I have arrived in Copenhagen...

It's The Age of Anxiety

Well not exactly... "The Age of Anxiety" is actually the title of the orchestra (played by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra) conducted and directed by Andrew Litton, which I had the pleasure of going to watch last night at Bergen's Grieghallen.

The symphony itself is not titled “The Age of Anxiety”; in fact it accompanies the long six-part poem by W. H. Auden, The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue. In short (and from what I was told, since I have not actually read the poem) the poem is about a man’s journey to find his own identity in a transforming post-wartime industrialised world. The poem was so inspiring in fact that it influenced composer Leonard Bernstein to write a symphony that would compliment the poem’s themes.

Yet it is Andrew Litton who has brought this music to the attention of the students (and residents, although it was free for students) of Bergen by being the conductor and director of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, and presenting this delight to our ears.

Now in all honesty, I have never actually been to see a symphony – I have seen musicals and plays which have had orchestras for accompaniment, yet they have just been the substitutes on the bench of a team: never fully taking the centre stage and attention of the audience, it’s just been a ‘background enhancement/effect’. So I was quite intrigued to see and more importantly hear what this symphony would be like. The resulting verdict? It was beautifully incredible. 

Not only was it a delight to watch – to see the conductor Andrew Litton get so involved with directing the music to perfect, all the different musicians of the orchestra play with complete love for the music – but it was also amazing to hear. Before the symphony began, Andrew Litton gave a brief presentation of what the poem itself was about, and how the symphony reflected the plot. As I had said previously, the poem is in six parts, and reflecting this, the symphony is divided into six parts (although you have to really listen out to the changes in parts, because it was that fast, there is not a big intermission in-between, but actually the piano was used as a sort of flowing guidance of where one part ended and the next began: like a deep breath before beginning the next paragraph in written work).

Even though I have never read the poem The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue, I felt through Litton’s brief explanation of the plot and the ways in which the orchestra reflected the ‘scenes’ or parts of the poem that I could understand and imagine this story just through listening to the symphony.

And this made me reflect about all music…

We don’t often realise (or sometimes we do, maybe not all the time though), but unconsciously we create a story or a narrative is created for us through any type of music – if we take away the lyrics of most songs, we can still decipher a narrative through just listening to the music itself: the instruments. Music is in fact actually so complimentary to narratives, yet we don’t always realise, however if you begin to think about it, a film or television show is viewed as incomplete if no soundtrack is tied to it. I mean I know perhaps some of the music chosen for the soundtrack is not always a reflection of the narrative, but actually a marketing ploy but choosing music that the larger audience will enjoy – however films or television shows that do this generally do not have any deeper underlying meaning, they are just ‘best-sellers’ of a generalised theme and plot. (Note: I am aware this is a different circumstance for print narratives i.e. books, although there are some cases where books and dramas will describe music in a particular scene to help aid the reader to create a visual and even aural story in their mind).

Perhaps I am just thinking too deeply into this, and perhaps I have had too much coffee and therefore my brain is thinking about so many different ideas a mile a minute.

One thing I am certain of though is that I did sit there for this one-hour symphony mesmerised and in fact hypnotised by the story created through the music.

AND, I definitely would be more than happy to go watch an orchestra again to uncover even more obvious or hidden narratives within the music… or if not, to just simply enjoy the delightfulness of watching and hearing music!