2008 OLYMPICS — OPENING CEREMONY MUSIC
Most of the opening event ceremony was in the style of “Western Art Music” (i.e. “classical” ish ) — including the Chinese National Anthem itself. Instead of choosing to celebrate traditional music, the Chinese largely deferred to the West.
The “percussion instrument fou and stringed instrument Guqin” ( http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20080808/876/twl-chinese-culture-shines-at-dazzling-o_1.html ) were played. Overall, the entire score sounded like a Hollywood score for a movie that takes place in China. It was very orchestral and occasionally New Age-styled.
The “Parade of Nations” music was pointless and annoying. Instead of playing a short audio segment to match each given country, a short number of songs were looped ad-nauseam. They could have made it INTERESTING by at least not playing the same Scottish bagpipe track half a dozen times.
The Olympic Anthem (not the John Williams theme!) sung by the Athens children’s choir was first rate.
Visually, of course, the entire show (FIREWORKS!) and massive coordinated dance pieces was breathtaking.
It sucks that we will have to exposed to sappy music for the next couple of weeks.
August 10th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Also, as my brother pointed out, this Olympics Opening Ceremony did not feature Bjork. Minus 5 points!