The View from the Towers 塔からの眺め A web log by Nigel Ruddock of life in Germany as an expat, with excursions to Japan and the UK.

Month: May 2026

  • 🪽 On Wings of Song 歌の翼に

    🪽 On Wings of Song 歌の翼に

    29th May 2026年5月29日

    🎵 I’ve been digging up some ‘cello classics and came across this…..a song….. (‘cellists love to steal songs to play for themselves…..😉)

    この歌は、何年も前に覚えました。

    I learnt this as a young `cellist many years ago……Here’s ´cellist Harumo Sato…….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWKj5PSaYxE

    So I check out the music. The only trouble is that…well….the pigeons are also interested……

    鳩たちは、聞きたがっている……

    Well, he is very interested…..

    I shoo them away. Swoosh !….off they go, “…..On Wings of Song……”

    🎵 I have been singing a lot of songs recently. Like in Haydn’s The Four Seasons . He put an awful lot of them into this work…….the score is as thick as a Bible……

    先日、フランクフルトで大きなコンサートに出演し、歌いました。

    …and as solid as the concert venue……The Alte Oper, Frankfurt….

    🎵 But of course I was singing with others…..that is, the combined forces of four Frankfurt concert choirs…120 singers in all….but you need that to fill the Alte Oper…..that was already obvious at the dress rehearsal…….

    ….with the Opern und Museumsorchester under Thomas Guggeis…..crackling with energy….🎇

    a view from the Parkett – The Stalls……

    🎵 But however impressive four choirs are, it’s nice to experience something at the other end of the scale……so here we are in Schwetzingen one week later. It’s a small town somewhere between Mannheim and Heidelberg, and it boasts an impressive castle and gardens……

    一週間後、私は音楽祭のためにシュヴェツィンゲンにいた。

    – a suitable setting for the Schwetzingen Music Festival. The audience seems different from Frankfurt…..is that John Cleese on the left?

    We sit on original Rococco seats in the little castle theatre

    ……in colourful company….(what flavour is that hat?)

    実に多彩な観客たち――フランクフルトとはひと味違う。PHOTO : TOMOKO

    ……listening to a Lute player and his merry band….

    🎵 It’s the Jupiter Ensemble, led by Thomas Dunsford (lute) and Lea Desandre (soprano). Wonderful….

    リュート奏者とソプラノ歌手が率いるバロック・アンサンブル

    And what a little gem the theatre is!

    …..set in the grounds of the vast palace and gardens……especially interesting for my visitor from Japan….

    日本から来客があり、その方は宮殿と庭園をとても気に入ってくださいました。

    Schwetzingen is not that far from Karlsruhe, where we rendezvous with a certain bass………..

    家族に会いに、カールスルーエへ行きました。

    🎵…………..

    🎵 The clean modern lines of the Wolfgang Rihm Saal contrast with the baroque fantasies of the nearby Schloss…..lots of buttocks on display here…..

    カールスルーエの宮殿庭園

    But it’s a pleasure garden isn’t it? built for Duke Karl himself. No modesty here….This is power and order…

    But it’s fun walking around. A weird tree….

    and clean lines under a blue sky…..

    ……we spotted this elderly Karlsruhe citizen patiently waiting for the bus. He has bought some flowers……..for his home? for his wife?

    ある老人が、妻のために花を買った……あるいは、自宅のためにだろうか？

    Water dribbles from the Marktplatz fountain…

    🎵.. and an odd Engländer appears in the lights of the metro station…..

    地下鉄にいた奇妙なイギリス人

    🎵 So. This blog has been mostly about song.

    *************STOP PRESS*************CONCERT TIPS**************

    And here are two dates not to be missed if you live in Frankfurt.

    これらのコンサートをお見逃しなく。

    On Saturday 30th May, ‘Cellist Aki Kitajima will actually be playing that Mendelssohn song” On Wings of Song” in her recital in Bockenheim with Marco Ramaglia – She is usually to be found in giving concerts in all corners of Japan, but this time she is in Frankfurt. Here’s the link….https://sound-of-spirit-frankfurt.de/konzertuebersicht/kac-2026-05-08-19-uhr-duo-zero-kammermusik/

    Screenshot

    🎵 And on Friday 5th June as part of the famous Nippon Connection Film festival in Frankfurt, there is an interesting live event that you should not miss! Here’s the link….book your tickets now. And I mean that, because the Studio 1 in the Mousonturm gets rapidly booked out ……..https://db.nipponconnection.com/en/event/2073/nippon-live-on-stage-moh-x-shiki

    🎵 The extraordinary violinist/guitarist/song writer Moh (aka Momo Yamamato) has put together an eclectic group of young musicians to perform a weird and wonderful programme threaded with Japanese texts and instrumental improvisation.

    https://db.nipponconnection.com/en/event/2073/nippon-live-on-stage-moh-x-shiki

    🎵 There we are. In conclusion I can only say…..don’t give up practising and pine longingly out of the window….just take a break and get a coffee…!

    As always, thank you for your interest, and if you know anyone who might be interested in this blog then do forward it on.

    Wie immer vielen Dank für euer Interesse. Wenn ihr jemanden kennt, der an diesem Blog interessiert sein könnte, schickt ihn gerne weiter.

    読んでくれてありがとう

    See you…….. matane!

    Nigel 🎼

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com.

    https://www.instagram.com/nigelruddock/

    THE END

    終わり🎵

  • 🏰 Crumble castle*

    🏰 Crumble castle*

    I don’t know how to translate this title into Japanese, except maybe simply to use the term Wabi Sabi – 侘び寂び.…..the beauty of imperfection and impermanence

    May 6th 2026年5月6日

    ▷ Hello again, and greetings from The Towers…..

    タワーからのご挨拶

    ▷ Now what’s this guy doing? Are they filming a new Anatefka , in which the fiddler drops his violin over the other side of the roof?

    屋根の上のバイオリン弾き

    ▷ Every day I am woken up to the sound of some new machine being delivered outside. (last week it was a massive cement machine that made instant Estrichbeton (floor cement)…they just pumped it straight into the house). Then there was the man and his fork lift truck……

    配達

    Hello. The electricians and plasterers have arrived….all at once…..

    Where do all the materials come from, and how are they transported?……

    建築資材はどのようにして入手されるのか

    ▷ I know a house in the Odenwald that could use a few plasterers and electricians. It’s owned by the Erbach-Fürstenau family, and the’ve lived there quite along time – since 1717 to be precise. Schloss Fürstenau has been converted neither into a wellness hotel nor a conference centre, and you can’t even visit the interior. In fact most visitors to the area miss it completely because they are all agog with famed Michelstadt, which is on the other side of the river.

    ▷ Acting on a hunch, and deviating from my planned komoot hike , I follow a path through dense woodland. Then unexpectedly I come across a charming old bridge and a Rennaissance-looking building.

    オーデンヴァルトで城を見つけた…
    L. Schloss Fürstenau Bridge 1850 R. Today

    Some defunct looking sluices and a weir suggested a mill of sorts – which indeed it is, built in 18thc.

    The Mümling river still flows past its walls…….

    水車小屋

    ▷ And on the other side of the bridge a rather out-of-place looking baroque house nestles amonst the trees…

    廷臣たちの家

    ▷ This is the Cavalier house built in the 18thc…for the members of the court.

    The court? Yes, cross the bridge and enter through the gateway to reveal…….Low and behold!……… A crumbling medieval castle adorned with a huge Rennaisance arch….

    Bearing in mind John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers , I instantly gave it a name: Crumble Castle. It is indeed badly in need of maintenance, and crumbling……..

    崩れかけた城

    ▷ Random ladies and gentleman, some with very few clothes on, seem to have been lounging about here for some time….

    They don’t look very happy. Maybe because of all this modern stuff over on the other side of the courtyard…..

    …..or because their owners are parking right in front of them….?

    城は改修が必要だ

    ▷ Now, have you ever thought about that stereotypical medieval castle 🏰 in children’s books ?….pennants fluttering from round towers, knights on horseback and ladies with tall conical hats….?

    Well here you have it. Right here In the middle of the Odenwald. This is a view which a resident must have taken, for I found no way to access this angle…..

    L. Schloss F[rstenau by Christian Kehrer 1800. R. Foto by Graf

    ▷ It is extraordinary. There are no signposts and no admission fee, no café and no souvenir shop. You are requested politely to respect the privacy of the place, and are allowed to wander around the courtyard.

    The inner courtyard is a eclectic mixture of medieval, rennaissance and classical buildings…

    …with views out to the meadows….

    …and some shiny art……

    Would you ring this doorbell?

    …….bits and pieces litter the place……

    …I even discovered a nice scroll…..

    ▷ Apparently the original castle was built in the 14thc. to “protect” the nearby Steinbach Abbey. What is left of this abbey today is the church. But not any old church. It was built by Einhard, advisor to Charlemagne (Karls des Großen). Charlemagne? yes, the emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian Empire. He united most of Western and Central Europe in the 9thc. and was the first recognised emperor to rule from the west after the fall of the Western Roman Empire approximately three centuries earlier. Not a bad CV.

    ▷ It is incredible to think that this church – a Roman basilica in fact, has been tucked away in this corner of the Odenwald since the 9th century.

    In fact it only survived because it was used to store hunting equipment and timber. Timber has to be stored in a dry place. Hence the roof was always kept in good condition.

    ▷ Only about 100 years earlier, in the north of England (the Anglian Kingdom of Northumberland at that time, now County Durham) …..

    …..the little church of Escomb was built. It also still stands today.

    イングランドのエスコム教会は、エーベルハルトのバシリカより100年前に建てられた。

    ▷ And I still remember my teacher, Prof. Rosemary Cramp, telling us students to look at this building from the outside first, before entering. To build Escombe, they had to pillage a nearby Roman fort for the stone. Whilst here, in the Odenwald, there was excellent sandstone in abundance.

    ▷ I had been here before with some hiker friends, in 2013. It was a hot summer, and we were grateful for the cool interior of the basilica…..

    ハイキンググループと一緒 2023

    The main doorway….

    The interior….

    But this time it was not too hot.

    ▷ It was May 1st 2026, and I kept on encountering groups of merry men (and women), pulling carts of beer through the forest. None to be seen here however. Time for a hard-boiled egg……….(thank you Phe for this idea)

    森の中のひととき

    ▷ Sophia’s temple would have also been a spot to linger, but it had already been requisitioned by a homeless man. I left him in peace….

    18世紀の「寺院」

    ▷ On descending back down the hill to the town of Erbach my eye was caught by this monster on the hill. No need for plasterers or electricians here. The’ve got it sorted……I named it The Paperclip.

    私はこの家を「ペーパークリップ」と名付けた。

    ▷ And as if all historical eras had not already been covered on this hike, I bumped into this relic from the 1940s near Michelstadt station…..

    1940年代の古いトラック

    ▷ So there we are. My train took me back to Frankfurt via Hanau,

    ▷……..and then over the Deutchherren Brücke (passing the European Central Bank and the former Market hall) to Frankfurt Süd.

    フランクフルトへの帰路

    As always, thank you for your interest, and if you know anyone who might be interested in this blog then do forward it on.

    Wie immer vielen Dank für euer Interesse. Wenn ihr jemanden kennt, der an diesem Blog interessiert sein könnte, schickt ihn gerne weiter.

    読んでくれてありがとう

    See you…….. matane!

    Nigel 🏰

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com.

    https://www.instagram.com/nigelruddock/

    THE END

    終わり🚶🏼‍➡️