Zentralfriedhof

Austria,¹ in case you’re not aware, has a bit of a reputation for being the center of music culture. There’s a reason it’s referred to as the Viennese School, after all. So it’s a bit understandable that I, being a music major, wound up doing my study abroad program here.
What does that have to do with the title?
Nothing, yet. See, the title is the name of the biggest cemetery in the city – it translates literally as “Central Cemetery.”
Now, one thing about the Great Composers of History is that they were… in history. As in, a long time ago. And since we have yet to invent a cure for death, they’re all. Well. Dead. What’s a music major to do if they want to see the greats?
You go to a cemetery, of course. And, being the camera-toting sort, you take pictures of some of the rather impressive graves.

I’m going to start off with a few different graves that we² saw while we were making our way to the musicians quarter – we went in through the wrong entrance. The place has 18; we wound up walking more than a kilometer inside this sprawling graveyard.

First off, I quite liked this statue, watching over the grave itself.

I can happily report not to have seen any Weeping Angels; this was the closest I found. So of course I took a picture and am sharing it with as many people as possible.

And finally, this little lantern seemed like a nice touch.
Now, the composers. Most of them are pretty easily identifiable, so I’m going to leave them without comments. The first is a bit tricky to spot the name, so I’ll go ahead and tell you: Arnold Schoenberg.





And finally, a close-up of the statue atop Mozart’s gravesite: