Hey Guys. If there's anybody here who wants to listen, I have a few things to say:
I find it hard to believe that nine years have passed since the Nine Eleven attacks. I was only in grade six at the time, but I can still vividly recall huddling around a small TV in my classroom with my schoolmates, watching in both shock and utter bewilderment as the towers collapsed. At the time it didn't seem real, and to some extent sometimes it still feels like a bad dream.
Be that as it may, it seems fitting on this the anniversary of that terrible tragedy to say a few words in memory of it and those effected by it. And for my own part, I thought I'd mention an aspect of the story that is rarely mentioned, the response from the world of music:
Music has been known throughout history to provide comfort even during the most the horrible and chaotic of times. Often repeated is the story of the string quartet on the RMS Titanic, who selflessly chose to stay on deck and continue to play right until the ship finally plunged beneath the waves, all losing their lives in the process. And following this example, groups of Musicians, many from the New York Philharmonic orchestra flocked to ground zero and played music to the army of firefighters, rescue workers and volunteers who labored their day and night. During the rescue effort in the days following the attack, there was no point at which music was not being played in the area.
Nine days after the attack on September twentieth, the New York Philharmonic gave a concert to honor those who had died and more importantly to give comfort to those who were still grieving. The piece they chose was the German Requiem by Johannes Brahms. This at first glance might seem like an odd choice, a German requiem for a grieving American nation. And while partly to blame is the relatively short Musical tradition of the United States, which hadn't yet given rise to a piece of music totemic enough to encapsulate the feelings of a grieving country. But the Brahms Requiem turned out to be more fitting than anyone expected.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaGWHsbwlDQ&hd=1 (This is a link to my favorite movement if anyone cares to listen to it)
For those who don't know, a Requiem is a type of classical piece written to honor someone who's died, most of the great composers wrote one at some point. And while we can never be sure why the Brahms requiem met with the response it did, I suspect that it is because it is an overwhelmingly hopeful piece of music. Brahms wrote it in 1865 after his mother died, and wanted to write a piece not only to mourn her loss, but to celebrate her life. Perhaps it took a genius like Brahms to encode those feelings into a piece of music that could resonate so well with people almost a hundred and fifty years later. Moreover, while many requiems are very religious, Brahms' is very human. His first name for it was "A Human Requiem". Which perhaps allowed it to reach an audience so ethnically and religiously diverse as the one in New York.
Whatever the reason, at the concert there was an incredible outpouring of grief. The show was free and open to everyone, and was attended by many who didn't usually listen to, or even like classical music. Most of them were moved to tears. Proving the universal power of great works of music to touch the soul even in a time of crisis.
A few days earlier on the fifteenth in London, the annual BBC Proms concert, an event usually reserved for patriotic British music, saw the BBC Orchestra play Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings in mourning of the attacks. The adagio for strings is often cited as the most mournful piece of music ever written, and many tears were also shed by those in attendance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV3SHBFyDZM (This is the recording of that concert)
Why do I say all this? What does music have to do with anything? Well... As Jack Russell once put it, "Music is the definition of where the World's at, at that moment. It's a snapshot of our society." And the music that was made in the aftermath of 9/11 showed a great solidarity between people. While Brahms steadfastly hopeful Requiem provided comfort to those in New York who had been directly effected by the attacks, the BBC orchestra symbolized the solidarity of the entire world with the grieving people of New York. A funny by-product of the attacks was an outpouring of support for the United States all over the world, even in some countries traditionally hostile to it. While over the years this has vanished, for a brief moment, people all over the world were united in mourning of a great human tragedy, almost regardless of where it had taken place.
In the last several years 9/11 has become muddled in controversy, politics, paranoia and conspiracy theory. And I think to remember it as such is a tragedy in and of itself. What we should be remembering is what brought the whole world together in its aftermath, human tragedy. So, I offer my condolences to those still grieving over lost loved ones and my salute to the selfless heroism of those who sifted through rubble day after to day to rescue people they didn't even know. On a day that brought out the worst, and best in people.
Thanks for listening. If anyone would like to add anything, please do so.