2 posts tagged “copenhagen”
It's been interesting to read stories in the American press lately about the spike in public transit ridership—attributed to higher gas prices. Here in Denmark we're paying just over $8 a gallon, double what folks are paying stateside, and though prices have gone up here, they haven't risen as much as in the US. Europeans have been paying high prices for many years.
From the moment we stepped out of the airport in Copenhagen and saw hundreds of bicycles parked between the terminal and the automobile parking ramp, we knew we were in another world. It is all but impossible to imagine anyone getting to work at an international airport in the United States. I stepped out of Newark airport hoping to take a walk in the sunshine only to find the sidewalk came to an abrupt end at the point where cars and taxis turned to connect to the highway. Like most international airports, Karstrup is well outside the city limits. Nevertheless, enough Danes live close enough to it that commuting to work on a bicycle is possible. (The average Dane rides 4 km a day, which doesn't seem like so much until you realize that that number takes into consideration all Danes, 2 year olds and 90 year olds.) And there's an infrastructure in place to accommodate the bicyclists.
The Copenhagen government recently announced a big, well-funded project to increase bicycle ridership in the city. Currently, 36% of commuters travel by bicycle, 27% by car. The city is hoping to increase bicycle commuting to 50% (that's about where it is in Amsterdam, the bicycle capital of the world). So they're going to build bicycle ramps over particularly busy streets (the first went up just a couple months ago), create more bike lanes, build more bicycle parking areas, and put in pumping stations. Have a flat tire? Not to worry, air will be close by.
Of course, Denmark has a few things going for the bicyclists. The mild climate means that if you're particularly stalwart, you can keep your bicycle going year-round, but even if you're not, there are only a few months when ridership really drops. Denmark is basically flat, so traveling by bicycle in your Gucci suit is not unheard of. We've seen women in furs and stiletto heels spinning along. Really, everyone bicycles: our mail comes on a bicycle, senior citizens bike to the grocery store, teenagers bicycle along drinking soda pop, dog owners run their dogs alongside the bicycle, and dads with toddlers in car seats run errands.
Though you see people on high-tech road bikes wearing sleek latex gear, most people are out on sturdy, upright bicycles meant for getting around comfortably, and bicycle shops are found in any shopping district. (Aside: in our neighborhood shopping area are a grocery store, two banks, a shawarma/pizza joint, and a bicycle shop. No Blockbuster or McDonald's or Dunkin' Donuts.) Bicyclists have the right of way and bike lanes (where no parking is allowed) run alongside most streets and many country roads. There are even street lights just for bicyclists. Trains have special cars with room for bicycles, and at the stations are elevators or ramps for bicyclists to get up or down from the tracks and huge bicycle parking areas (in Roskilde it's a two story parking ramp!). It is not unusual to find large bicycle parking areas near public buildings and no car parking whatsoever.
This bicycle culture has many benefits, of course: people get into the outdoors, into the fresh air and the weather; it is unusual to see obese Danes; there are not huge ugly environmentally stupid parking lots everywhere you go; traffic is slow and light; and people aren't spending $8 a gallon every time they drive to work or go out for a gallon of milk.
So, as I read the stories about spikes in public transit ridership in the US, I think of what it might mean if Americans were paying $8 a gallon for gas, like the rest of the world does. Maybe we'd actually enter the 21st Century.
Last night Arne and I rode the train into Copenhagen to attend a free concert--unheard of!--at the Black Diamond, the new addition to the Royal Library. The Black Diamond, which opened in 1999, is covered in glass and Absolute Black granite, stone that was mined in Zimbabwe and then cut and polished in Italy. When the sun is right the building throws its elegant shadow right over the canal toward Christianshavn. In addition to more archival space, the Black Diamond features a
lovely cafe with seating along the canal, a fabulous small bookstore, a gallery (where a show of Sally Mann's work opens next month, eat your heart out), and a gorgeous and acoustically perfect auditorium. It was here that we enjoyed a debut concert by Danish composer Peter Due.
Due grew up just north of where we live, in Hillerød, and then went on to the Fynske Musikkonservatorium in Odense where he studied violin and composition. From there he attended the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, and in the last couple years he's been in Los Angeles studying film music. A respectable crowd came out for his music, many of them family and friends, judging from the number of folks who walked onto the stage at the end with bouquets of flowers and bottles of champagne, and judging also from the man sitting beside us who took pictures throughout the concert, even of Due himself who came out between numbers to attend to the arrangement of music stands.
One of Due's interests is astronomy and that interest has influenced
his music. The first piece of the evening was a brand new composition
for computer called “Sub-Limit” that featured two competing
“melodies”--the first a thrumming note from deep space that was
insistent and almost grating, and the second “melody” reminiscent
of insects on a spring day--the two melodies working against and into
one another. The second composition, “Han Den Det - Scene 6,”
featured three singers, a saxophone, trumpet, slide trombone, piano,
violin, cello, and two fellows on a variety of percussion
instruments. Oh, and two water glasses. The music was eerie and
soothing, returning in waves to the tonic but exploring atonalities
on the way. Here is what it sounded like:
thththhhhh mmmm thk thk thk rrrrrrreeeeeeeeththththhhhh
phthkphthkphthk mmmmmm
The third piece featured a whole string orchestra (14 violins, 6 violas, 4 cellos, and 3 basses) and two flautists (one the composer's sister). This music drew its inspiration from the two-star system in the constellation Leo called Gamma Leonis. These two stars have an orbital period of some 500 years which means that since they were first seen we've only witnessed a fraction of their orbit and therefore know little about them. The music hinted at the power of these two stars (having a luminosity 23 and 10 times greater than our own sun) but the hints matched the incompleteness of our knowledge about them. And what virtuosity on the flutes! The musicians had to hum and play simultaneously, blow and suck air through their instruments, and use the keypads percussively, all of this in quick succession with traditional playing intermingled.
The last piece before intermission featured Due's music for a short animated film by a Danish film student, and when we came back from the break we heard a longer piece for the string orchestra, one flute, harpsichord, and computer. This last piece made me realize how a baroque sensibility underlay all of these compositions: a fugal, linear method brought into the 21st century by a wide-ranging experimentation with the sounds that can be made from the instruments.
We walked back to the central station by way of the moat surrounding Christiansborgslot, the sprawling white castle and outbuildings constructed in the 17th century by King Christian IV, the inspired one-eyed king and member of the Order of the Elephant. Stars shone brightly above us, their music thrumming in our ears.
