{"id":928,"date":"2004-11-09T10:17:44","date_gmt":"2004-11-09T18:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2004\/11\/harmony_comes_to_the_un\/"},"modified":"2004-11-09T10:17:44","modified_gmt":"2004-11-09T18:17:44","slug":"harmony_comes_to_the_un","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2004\/11\/harmony_comes_to_the_un.html","title":{"rendered":"HARMONY COMES TO THE U.N."},"content":{"rendered":"

Kofi Annan, global musicologist? “Today, our subject is music,”<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> the U.N. Secretary-General
\ntold his audience yesterday in New York. “What’s that got to do with the U.N.?, you may be
\nasking. My answer is that music has to do with everything.”<\/P>
\n

It’s the “soundtrack” of our lives, Annan said, beginning with “the first lullaby sung to us as
\nnewborn babies.” It penetrates our daily existence so thoroughly, he added, that “many of us take
\nit for granted — just as we do the soundtrack of a film.” He even quoted Plato, who wrote that
\nmusic “gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination.”<\/P>
\n

Annan spoke about clashing values, world diversity and the unifying force of music. Aware
\nthat his orotund remarks might be a bit much, he caught himself and said: “You see, I am getting
\ncarried away I’d better stop.” <\/P>
\n

With that he introduced the real musicologist, professor Leon Botstein<\/FONT><\/B><\/A>, president of Bard College and music director
\nand principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra<\/FONT><\/B><\/A>,
\nwho had come to the U.N. to lecture on “why music matters.”
\n

The U.N. Secretary-General was merely playing the genial host, as he has done for previous
\nlectures on more familiar U.N. topics such as human rights, cloning, Islam, globalization and
\nclimate change.
\n

I have no idea what Botstein himself said. It’s doubtful, however, that anything he might have
\nsaid about the unifying force of music could heal the divide between the United States of Canada and Jesusland<\/FONT><\/B><\/A>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kofi Annan, global musicologist? “Today, our subject is music,” the U.N. Secretary-General told his audience yesterday in New York. “What’s that got to do with the U.N.?, you may be asking. My answer is that music has to do with everything.” It’s the “soundtrack” of our lives, Annan said, beginning with “the first lullaby sung […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-eY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}