Location: Motel One, Leipzig

Listening to: Ke$ha - Tic Toc

Let me start by saying I'm only listening to Tic Toc because I heard Ryan Miller singing it from the bathroom.  Not a huge fan, but whatever.

"Die Abend Werden" is from a song we sang today in the St. Thomas Church - Abendlied. You can find the translation in Luke 24:28, and after being awake for something like 36 hours you can probably figure out the title of this post.  We're all exhausted, but it was a fantastic day once we arrived in Leipzig.  Our bodies were pretty confused by the time we got here, but we took our experts' advice and stayed up through suppertime.  A very stupid few of us are still awake.

Our hotel is literally right next to the Nicholaikirche, and today we made the walk that J.S. Bach and a small army of singers a bit younger than ourselves would make, over to the Thomaskirche where Bach was officially employed.  It is an absolutely beautiful space in nearly every way - you can view my online album here or subscribe to it as an RSS feed here.  We were extremely privileged to meet Pr. Wolff, and afterward to begin the singing portion of this tour by reproducing #17 from the Saint Matthew Passion in the space for which it was conceived.

It was an absolutely surreal experience, being in that church for the first time after hearing about it and studying its music for quite awhile.  The choir loft is "relatively unchanged" from Bach's day, according to Dr. C, though I doubt the double-wide bicycle seat has been in the director's area for quite that long.  We also had an audience for much of our rehearsal, but they were very quiet and respectful.  I'm sure I'll be writing more on this church in the next few days, so let's move on before I completely pass out.

I had a great chat with prof. Bjornstad on the way back from St. Thomas, and all of us ate together at a nice little restaurant less than a block away (good move, Jeff).  The food was fantastic and by the end we're all just about ready to go into a coma.