Celebration of Liberty / Праздник вольность / 自由慶典 / Feier zur Befreiung / احتفال بالحرية
Our opening post on Substack / Наш первый пост на Substack / 我們在 Substack 上的首篇文章 / Unser erster Beitrag auf Substack / منشورنا الافتتاحي على Substack
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Howdy. Welcome on our Substack. We are two good friends. Raven and Keylam. We are new here and we want talk about the basics things for people inside of that world. We will say more about that in our introduction, which we will published in the next few days.
In this article, I (Keylam) would like to share my impressions of today with you. First, I will take a brief look at the past and then look at the present.
36 years ago, I was 8 years old. I remember it being a difficult time for me and my family. It was unclear what would happen next and what to do.
The people had revolted to free themselves from the ruling system. The Iron Curtain had fallen. On December 25, 1989, a special celebration was held to mark the occasion.
Introduction by the commentator of the television broadcast at the time:
“A celebration of freedom. Under the leadership of the conductor, Leonard Bernstein, orchestral players and choirs from both East and West Germany are joined here in Berlin, just a few hundred meters east of the Brandenburg Gate, by musicians from America, Russia, France, and Great Britain, the four countries who still have a formal presence in this no longer divided city. The concert is being televised in over 20 countries, from Japan in the east to America in the west.
The wall is down and the city is euphoric, and never was a musical work more suitable for a celebration than the one we shall hear now, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Its grand design is crowned by a setting of Schiller’s Ode to Joy, a poem which sings exultantly of the brotherhood of man. «Alle Menschen werden Brüder.» And this is the message we send from Berlin this Christmas.
For this performance, in which unusually the adult choirs are joined by children’s voices, Leonard Bernstein feels authorized by the power of the moment, as he puts it, to make a significant change in the poem. Instead of the word «Freude» joy, the choir will each time sing «Freiheit» freedom, and so this becomes in word as well as deed the Berlin Freedom Concert. A statue of Schiller stands outside the Schauspielhaus, which was once the city’s principal theater. It was completely destroyed in the war but has been restored to become one of the world’s finest concert halls.
The orchestra of Bavarian Radio is joined by members of the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Kirov Theater Orchestra of Leningrad, the London Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Orchestra de Paris. The Bavarian Radio Chorus, also from Munich, is joined by singers from the Berlin Radio Chorus and the Children’s Chorus of the Dresden Philharmonie. The soloists are June Anderson, Sarah Walker, Klaus König, and Jan Hendrik Rotering. The conductor, Leonard Bernstein.”
A cutout of the “Ode to Freedom” from recording of the event (Source: YouTube, full recording at the end of the post)
People were in a spirit of departure (decampment). People were filled with enthusiasm: We are taking action, developing ourselves further and flourish. We are creating a community that serves the people and building a world in which future generations can live a lives worth living.
Today, I am 44 years old and I can no longer find it. Governments are preparing for war and playing like 3-year-old children with weapons systems that could wipe out the entire human race. In the 1980s, it was five minutes to midnight. Today, it is 3 seconds before midnight.
I cannot accept responsibility for the extinction of humanity. For me, it is my duty and my pleasure to use my lifetime to ensure that future generations find a world in which they can live their lives.
How is that for you?
Complete recording of the event (Source: YouTube)
We wish us all a Merry Christmas with our families, friends and fellow human beings. See you and here you. Keylam and Raven. And don’t forget, life is good.
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We are Raven & Keylam – just ordinary people like you, talking about the things that matter for all of us.
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