I’d set my alarm for 5:30 am. Mama thought it was too early, but I needed to be sure I had time for breakfast and a shower and to get the trumpet ready before meeting up with the others at 6:30 am. I didn’t have far to go, only to the church square, which is literally up the road from us; but this was my first time taking part in the Felddorf Musikverein’s New Year’s greeting, and I was anxious to get it all right.
There were some ten people already waiting in front of the church when I got there, dressed sensibly in boots, hats and winter jackets. It was cold this morning, and I was glad that Jürgen, our Kapellmeister, hadn’t insisted on everyone wearing their uniforms. A few of the others came over to wish me luck, ask me if I was nervous and so on. We stood and chatted and fiddled with the score clamps on our instruments until the full fourteen of our group had arrived: two clarinets, two saxophones, three trumpets (including me), a trombone, flugelhorn, French horn, and a tenor horn, drum and cymbals. And Jürgen himself on the tuba, of course.
There would be three groups of musicians going round the village this morning to make sure each household got their well wishes for the New Year – and that the Musikverein got its donations from each household. We set off down the back of Church Square and across the river to reach the Holzbauers’ farm, the first stop on our route. In the Holzbauers’ yard, we arranged ourselves in a semicircle as we’d practiced, and Jürgen counted out the rhythm to start us off on “Eagle of Tyrol,” our first march of the day. Right at the start, I managed to produce a croaky, tuneless elephant noise like a total beginner, and for a brief moment I panicked; but soon the energetic dipping and surging of the volume, kept in time by the militant staccato of Jürgen’s tuba, swept me along, and I finished the piece on a high.
We had just lowered our instruments when the door of the Holzbauers’ house opened a crack and their son Leo peeked out, wrapped in a fluffy pink dressing gown I suspected he must have borrowed from his mother. At the sight of him, Jürgen launched into the beginning beats of the Musikverein’s very own New Year’s song (music: Jürgen; lyrics: Verena, Jürgen’s wife and one of the clarinets). Leo watched us bleary-eyed as we played and then sang:
We’re coming to bring you
Much joy and much cheer
The old year is ending
The new year is near
To all in the household
Our music we bring
To wish you much fortune
And ev’ry good thing
When we’d finished, Jürgen approached Leo, who started shaking his head at him.
“We’ve already donated,” he said.
Jürgen stopped short. “How have you already donated? Did one of the others come round here?”
Leo nodded. “Yes, they’ve already been here, and I gave them the money my Mama left on the chest in the hallway last night.”
“Do you know who they were?”
“Well, yeah – they said, from the Musikverein.”
Jürgen briefly turned to us to give us a puzzled frown.
“Tell your Mama we say thank you for the donation,” he said to Leo. “And we wish her and your Papa and all of you a happy New Year.”
“I’ll tell them,” Leo said before pushing the door shut.
We got going again.
“Looks like one of the other groups got confused about their route,” Jürgen said. “I wonder which one – it should all have been clear.”
“I bet it’s Friedl’s group,” Verena said. “He always says yes yes yes to everything, and then it turns out he wasn’t listening properly.” (Verena doesn’t like Friedl much.)
“Well, we’ll see,” Jürgen said.
Our next stop was Frau Zweigl’s house. She’s an elderly lady who lives on her own, and she gets very bored as a result; so it wasn’t that surprising that she’d seen us coming before we even started playing. She awaited us in front of her door dressed in a coat and slippers and bearing a tray with schnapps glasses and a long-necked bottle on it. As we approached, she came shuffling to meet us in little, animated steps, calling across at us: “You’re too late, the others have already been! But you’re in luck, I’ve still got my schnapps left; they ran off straight away as soon as they were done, they were in a right rush!” She chuckled.
I felt disappointed; we’d prepared “Vindobona” for her, which I thought I was quite good at, so I’d been looking forward to playing it.
Jürgen, however, seemed positively alarmed. Though his back was turned to me, I could virtually hear his frown when he asked, “What? Which others have been here already? You mean another group from the Musikverein?”
“Well, yes,” Frau Zweigl said. “Those ones from Rottberg, Hubertus Wiesegger and them. They said they’re helping you out this year because there are so many new houses one Musikverein can hardly get round them all anymore.”
“He said what?” Jürgen looked at us. “Did any of you know anything about this?”
“No.”
“First I’m hearing about it.”
“Not me!” I glanced around at my fellow group members, who were all shaking their heads and looking as confused as I felt.
Verena stepped forward. “So… Did you give them a donation, then?”
“Well yes, of course!” Frau Zweigl said proudly. “I always give something for the Musi, every year.”
Jürgen grabbed the bottle, poured himself a shot and downed it in one go, then repeated the whole procedure a second time.
“Just you wait,” he mumbled, “if I get a hold of you…”
“Is there a problem?” Frau Zweigl asked.
“No, no problem. Just… if the Rottbergers ever come here collecting again, you tell them to go to the Devil!” Without waiting for a reply, he turned and strode off. “Let’s go!”
We scrambled to follow, accompanied by Frau Zweigl’s excited chuntering for quite some time.
(…to be continued…)
Transadaptation Volume 7 – Via Ellipsis – Continuation of Uncertainty, Instability and Extremes Transadapted
January: An Unexpected Trip Down Memory Lane – Sarah-Leah Pimentel (South Africa)
February: Blow-up – Veronika Groke (Austria)
March: Futuros Murguistas – Alejandra Baccino (Uruguay)
April: The Nomenclature Man – Paulius Limantas (Lithuania)
May: Amanecerá y veremos – Adriana Uribe (Columbia)
June: Finding Light in Yerevan – Armine Asryan (Armenia)
July: The Last Judgement – Nadia Silva Castro (Brazil)
August: Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Worm? – Narantsogt (Natso) Baatarkhuu (Mongolia)
September: Second Steps – Jonay Quintero Hernandez (Spain)
October: New Normality – Svetlana Molchanova (Russia)
November: Pandemic Love – Li Xiakun (China)
December: Beyond Comprehension – Rahaf Konbaz (Syria)
Background – Context
Transadaptation Volume 6: Meaning? – Uncertainty, Instability and Extremes Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2025)
Transadaptation Volume 5: Of Flowing Vicissitudes – Life Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2024)
Transadaptation Volume 4: Material Dissent – Adulthood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2023)
Transadaptation Volume 3: Evanescent – Young Adulthood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2022)
Transadaptation Volume 2: Conceived – Childhood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2021)
Transadaptation Volume 1: In the Middle – Prelude to a Contemporary Transadaptation, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2020)
Peripatetic Alterity: A Philosophical Treatise on the Spectrum of Being – Romantics and Pragmatists by Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
La Syncrétion of Polarization and Extremes Transposée, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2018)
L’anthologie of Global Instability Transpuesta, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2017)
From Wahnsinnig to the Loony Bin: German and Russian Stories Transposed to Modern-day America, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2013)
Emblems and stories on the international community
Perception by country – Transposing emblems, articles, short stories and reports from around the world
Credits
Top left to top right: 1. Hallstaat, Austria – After snowfall – Dahee Son (Unsplash); 2. Nassereith, Austria – In the valley – Robin Dessens (Shutterstock)
Bottom left to bottom right: 1. Austria – An Alp village – pymata (Shutterstock); 2. Salzkammergut, Austria – In the village – Canadastock (Shutterstock)
Inner group (top left to top right): 1. Hittisau, Austria – On the periphery – Ulrich Knoll (Unsplash); 2. Austria – The village – Sven D (Unsplash)
Inner group (bottom left to bottom right): 1. Hallstatt, Austria – The mountain homes – Radek Kozak (Unsplash); 2. Brixen im Thale, Austria – The valley villages – Stephan Seeber (Unsplash)