Wednesday, June 19, 2002

from "Social Studies: A Daily Miscellany of Information" by Michael Kesterson, The Globe and Mail, Monday, May 27, 2002:

The 'Ode to Joy', a hymn to the brotherhood of humanity, is now used as the European anthem. In 1989, The Ninth was played in Berlin to commemorate reunification of the city; the vocalists sane 'Freiheit' (freedom) instead of 'Freude' (joy) in the choral final. In Japan, The Ninth is played hundreds of times, by professionals and amateur orchestras, in the New Year holiday season, as their equivalent to 'The Messiah.

(Is there a word for when one 'sings' a song but replaces the proper words with 'das' or 'las'? I ask because I need to replace the word 'singing' in the next paragraph)

It was impossible to ignore the boisterous Korean fans during the Italy - Korea World Cup semi-final match. At one point I heard the entire stadium singing Ode to Joy. It was a beautiful thing.

On the same day that I read about The Ninth in the Globe and Mail, I heard a story on NPR that also touched on the power and the beauty of music:

Taps: Host Bob Edwards speaks with army veteran Bill Sheebler about the history of the military memorial song, Taps. (7:29) Sheebler's essay appears in a book called, "Taps: Notes from a Nation's Heart,"

Ooops. A link to NPR. Evidently, I am required to fill out this form in order to do such a thing. Learned this from boing boing.

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