-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=ANTHEM-06-07-02&cat=LS
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EDUCATION
Debate over anthem surprises principal
By TODD HARTMAN
Scripps-McClatchy Western Service
June 07, 2002
DENVER - Poudre High School's decision to play the World anthem for its
graduation ceremony sparked an angry reaction from a parent who wanted to hear
the national anthem and stirred a dust-up on talk radio this week.
Gail Wagner, whose daughter graduated May 24, wrote a letter to the school
principal, the district superintendent and the Denver Rocky Mountain News calling
the anthem "an insipid little song about a world of peace and love" and an insult to
America.
She said it took the place of the national anthem.
It did not, said Poudre High Principal Sandra Lundt.
Lundt said she was surprised to find the decision scolded on Mike Rosen's KOA talk
show and Peter Boyles' KHOW show Thursday morning. Lundt said the Fort Collins
school has never played the national anthem at its graduation.
"This was never meant to take the place of the national anthem," Lundt said. "It's an
anthem that really celebrates every nation."
Wagner's husband, Fred, and daughter, Erin, also opposed the playing of the world
anthem. Erin said she was surprised "The Star Spangled Banner" wasn't played.
"It didn't make much sense," Erin said. "We live in America, so they should have
played it. I guess I would say I was offended."
Lundt said the school's senior class council, a group of 15 to 20 students,
participated in the decision to play the world anthem. The school's orchestra, band
and choir teamed to perform the piece.
The senior class council "was very excited about the opportunity," Lundt said, noting
that one of the people who helped promote broader performance of the anthem, Ed
Goodman, is a 1973 graduate of Poudre High.
The world anthem was conceived in 1996 and completed by 2000. The idea behind
the piece, according to the Web site www.worldanthem.org, is this: "We believe there
is a wonderful way to bring a message of hope, healing, peace and unification to all
people through the universal language of music ... to give the world a gift, to bring
about a symbol for peace and a common spirit of trust toward the idea of one people,
one world."
Its creation, even those involved acknowledge, borders on the bizarre. Music from
the anthems of every country in the world were combined in a computer. Using
musicology software, a blended creation emerged. The same technique was used to
produce the lyrics, according to Goodman.
"This is not two bars of 'The Star Spangled Banner,' then a bar of 'O Canada,'"
Goodman said.
"It's more like if you took all the melodies, harmonies, rhythms and tempos and
somehow were able to average them. ... It's very, very sophisticated; it took years of
work to accomplish."
This means, Goodman said, that the piece wasn't composed by any one person or
any one nation. "The point of it was to have one song that all nations could share," he
said.
The piece has a significant history in Colorado. It was heard for the first time at the
Denver Millennium Celebration on Dec. 31, 2000, at the stroke of midnight in
conjunction with fireworks, according to historians of the anthem. In November 2001,
the Colorado Symphony Orchestra provided the first live performance of the piece.
Goodman said that even Air Force's Band of the Rockies is taken with the piece and
arranging its own version. It's slated to be played at an upcoming global peace
conference in Croatia and at a ceremony celebrating the 40th anniversary of the
Peace Corps this summer.
The Wagners are not impressed.
"No matter how much the principal gushed over the privilege of being one of the first
to hear this piece performed, we did not feel privileged or find it inspirational,
heartwarming or moving," Gail Wagner wrote to the News.
(Contact Todd Hartman of the Rocky Mountain News at
hartmant(at)RockyMountainNews.com.)
End<{{{
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