20th August, 2017
THE METRONOME/ BLOG POST 21
The song is an attempt to narrate the many different faces by which I've come to know Vienna, over the years. First through the waltzes of Johann Strauss Junior, which were a part of my teenaged years ; then through a series of films set in very different periods and backgrounds in this city - Before Sunrise, Woman in Gold, Amadeus. Then, morbidly, through Adolf Hitler's biography which fleshes out his relationship with this glittering city of his dreams - first as a teenager who repeatedly fails to gain admission to the Academy of Fine Arts to pursue his dreams of becoming an artist, then as a homeless hobo who's at times forced to shovel snow at a luxury hotel to make ends meet, and then as a dictator who marches in as a conqueror and is given a jubilant welcome at that very same hotel!
I was quite thrilled to collaborate with Voylla Studio on this post - I'm wearing their range of handcrafted fashion jewellery, mostly from their Oddball collection throughout this video. The clean geometric contemporary lines on the pieces that I selected for this shoot went beautifully not just with both my casual and formal day and evening wear while I was in Vienna, but it also blended in quite beautifully with the lines and hues of the city and its architecture!
This video was shot mostly by me, on a G7X and an iphone, during a recent visit to Vienna, while CB was busy shooting his award winning VR panoramas for an International Virtual Reality Conference in Vienna which he was part of. I shot at multiple locations - along the grassy sloping banks of the Donaukanal, and on its steps, at the Albertina Museum terrace and Prater ( all of them featured in Before Sunrise, one of my all time favourite films ), at the Maria Theresien Platz museum complex, along the Museum Quarter, on the steps of the Volkstheatre, at the historic Goldener Saal in the Musikverein, inside the Augustinerkirche....and at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste, which rejected Hitler, at the luxurious Hotel Imperial where Hitler shovelled show as well as reigned supreme as conquering dictator during Anschluss in WWII, and at 31 Stumpergasse, the room he shared for a while as a teenager, with his best friend ( not used in the video, finally).
SONG AND VIDEO CREDITS :
Song written, composed, performed and produced by Sawan Dutta
Video created by C.B.Arun Kumar and Sawan Dutta
SONG LYRICS :
Who will you be, Vienna, Vienna when we meet again?
Will you wear flowing green in the sunlight, or rippled reflections in the rain?
Will you sweep me away with your music, with Haydn and Strauss and Mozart?
Or will you show me the monster you sculpted from a boy who came to you pursuing art?
Shall we dance to your waltzes, roam your streets throught the night? Is that wise?
Shall we search for the poet who wrote about milkshake, in Before Sunrise?
Shall we listen for the thunder of a conqueror crushing his foe?
Hear the crowds hail a dictator at a hotel where he once shovelled snow?
Spin me around, Vienna, let your wind blow its way through my hair...
Will you dazzle and stun and intrigue me, with colours and lights that you wear...
Vienna, will your tales be of glory or pain?
Which of your songs will you sing to me, Vienna when we meet again?