Vienna is the music capital of the world. No other city evokes such immediate associations with the great classical composers and the king of waltz. The House of Music was opened in the First District, in 2000 as a museum of the 21st century. The building is a former Habsburg palace where Otto Nicolai, founder of the Vienna Philharmonic, once lived. The creative concept of the museum combines futuristic new media applications with a strong didactic element. Here visitors can learn how a musical instrument works and can try composition, conducting and playing. A big attraction is the virtual orchestra where anyone can take a baton and conduct the Vienna Phil on a large screen with the score of the Blue Danube or Radetzky March. If successful the orchestra will reward the newcomer with applause but if the tempo is wrong the players down instruments with cries of disapproval.

Vienna is a city which has a very special and long relationship with Music. The Music museum in Vienna is one of its kinds. This new interactive museum specializes in Vienna's amazing musical history, with exhibits on all of the city's musical legends and displays on the mechanics of music.

Envision standing at the podium and conducting the world's most renowned orchestra, the Wiener Philharmoniker. Dreams can nearly come true at the House of Music, where one can earn a degree as a 'virtual conductor' without even having graduated from the Academy of Music. The venerable orchestra keeps the proper time, whether one chooses to conduct in the manner of Herbert von Karajan or Hans Knappertsbusch.

One floor of the museum is a ?sonosphere? where sounds can be felt such as those experienced by an embryo in the womb. A ?future sphere? is concerned with electronic music. On a floor for the great composers where visitors can learn with the aid of a computerized landscape more of their work and lives. A large map of Vienna from the beginning of the nineteenth century marks all 68 apartments where Beethoven once lived as well as the surrounding woods and spa resorts where he spent the summers. A ?virtual Vienna? gives visitors the chance to savor the city's musical haunts. One section, ?the Exodus?, is an artistic reminder of the musicians who were forced into exile or murdered by the Nazis.

One can poke his/her head into a device that looks like a salon hairdryer, sing into the microphone, and view images that are harmonious or discordant according to the person's singing skills.

For another type of experience one can use the ?Mind Forest? to create music by using one's voice, hands, and body, or turn your impromptu compositions into sound in the ?Future Music Blender.? A CD is prepared for it if one wants to take the music home.

For the serious music lover one can explore the Vienna Philharmonic Museum (which celebrates the history of the 150-year-old orchestra) and tour Genius Loci, a permanent exhibition with documents and memorabilia from the lives of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Johann Strauss, Mahler, and Sch?rg.

The House of Music also has a caf頡nd a collection of shops where you can buy instruments, sheet music, recordings, and other musical wares.

Anil Gupta recommends that you visit vienna hotels for more information.