August 26, 2004
Olympic Anthems and Politics
A few posts ago I gave my nomination of posting of the year. Now I find a commentary by a print journalist so fascinating that as far as I'm concerned, it's the article of the year. I haven't had this good a time reading an article in months. Those of you who know me can probably figure out why - it's an exploration of the music theory choices behind the arrangements of the Olympic national anthems, and the political impact they have. There's incredible nuggets of trivia in there about Congress's attempt to legislate the music theory behind our own national anthem, about police threatening to arrest Igor Stravinsky for his arrangement of the anthem, and how Madame Butterfly is technically against the law in the state of Michigan. And don't miss Poland's protests that the Olympic arrangement of their anthem doesn't sound more like a march, when their anthem is in 3/4.Great writing. I could read a book on this stuff.