# 10,000 in Japan perform "Ode to Joy" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2012, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-in-japan-perform-ode-to-joy/615883 "2012-03-15T18:15:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-in-japan-perform-ode-to-joy/615883/21 "2012-03-16T05:02:19Z")
Does anyone know who planned this event? ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-in-japan-perform-ode-to-joy/615883/22 "2012-03-16T10:55:34Z")
Two years ago, I was involved in doing sound in an event much like this - only bigger! It was in a soccer stadium in Germany with about 50-60,000 people singing all your favorites from Ode to Joy, Habanera, Hallelujah to Land of Hope and Glory. Pretty amazing to be there! We had an orchestra in the middle and about 5000 choir singers on the playing field who were all miked, together with about 50,000 people in the stands singing along with the conductor on the big stadium screen. Getting everyone in sync was a concern, and we solved it by using a shitload of speakers and putting them as close as possible to each section of the audience, so you wouldn’t have twice the delay. [Here’s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81uJZIF9TCs) a video of Bobby McFerrin doing an improvisation with the audience, [here’s Habanera with Vesselina Kasarova](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyMGnttE4NE&feature=related). ---
**Author:** ![storyguide3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@storyguide3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/storyguide3)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-in-japan-perform-ode-to-joy/615883/23 "2012-03-16T15:00:48Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > 10,000 Japanese in London following a manuscript drafted by a German genius… and nothing gets bombed except with Awesome! Top that Mormon Tabernacle Choir… According to the description on YouTube, the performance was in Osaka and Sendai, linked by video. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-in-japan-perform-ode-to-joy/615883/24 "2012-03-16T16:09:09Z")
I gotta say - I love me some Ode to Joy music, but I’ve never been a big fan of the singing that was grafted onto it. This performance with the ex-tra hard con-so-nant e-nun-ci-a-tion did not disabuse me of that sentiment. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-in-japan-perform-ode-to-joy/615883/25 "2012-03-16T16:16:26Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > I gotta say - I love me some Ode to Joy music, but I’ve never been a big fan of the singing that was grafted onto it. This performance with the ex-tra hard con-so-nant e-nun-ci-a-tion did not disabuse me of that sentiment. Grafted? Have you ever heard an Ode to Joy without singing? It’s kinda built-in. I know what you mean about consonants, but I think that’s pretty standard and not just this performance. In my recording, in the end section by the 4 soloists, the “T” at the end of “flugel weilT” really pops. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-in-japan-perform-ode-to-joy/615883/26 "2012-03-16T16:48:16Z")
> [@Pitchmeister](#): > > Two years ago, I was involved in doing sound in an event much like this - only bigger! It was in a soccer stadium in Germany with about 50-60,000 people singing all your favorites from Ode to Joy, Habanera, Hallelujah to Land of Hope and Glory. Pretty amazing to be there! We had an orchestra in the middle and about 5000 choir singers on the playing field who were all miked, together with about 50,000 people in the stands singing along with the conductor on the big stadium screen. Ah yes, the Day of Song concert! Looking for the [webpage](http://www.dayofsong.de/die_idee/die_idee.php), I see that it’s being repeated this year: > [@](#): > > Das wird es 2012 wieder geben! Am 2. Juni 2012 lädt die Neuauflage des !SING – DAY OF SONG Sängerinnen und Sänger, Musiker und „Noch-Nicht“-Sänger zum Singen, Mitsingen und Musizieren ein. Profichöre treffen auf Laiengruppen, Einzelsänger auf Ensembles, Kita-Kinder auf Grundschüler und Kurzentschlossene auf Kirchenmusiker. > > „Verbindung durch Gesang“ lautet das Motto für den !SING – DAY OF SONG 2012, der Menschen, Orte, Kulturen und Generationen wieder miteinander verbinden wird. Gesang vermittelt als universelle Sprache zwischen Jung und Alt, zwischen kirchlich und weltlich und baut Brücken zwischen den vielen Kulturen und Mentalitäten in der spannenden Metropolregion an der Ruhr. Alle zwei Jahre soll !SING – DAY OF SONG zukünftig wiederholt werden und als großes Gesangsfestival Ruhr ein Magnet für Chöre und Gäste aus aller Welt werden. Jeder kann mitmachen, jede Stimme ist willkommen. > > In rund 50 Städten sind 2012 wieder Veranstaltungen geplant, renommierte Kooperationspartner bringen sich ein, Theater, Bühnen und Veranstaltungshäuser feilen an ihrem Beitrag für !SING – DAY OF SONG, und von Dortmund bis zum Niederrhein wird nach kuriosen Orten für außergewöhnliche Gesangseinlagen gefahndet: Der !SING-Virus ist aktiviert! > > Machen Sie mit und motivieren Sie Ihre Freunde, Nachbarn und Kollegen für ein gemeinsames Lied am 2. Juni 2012. Die Metropole Ruhr wird dann zu einem singenden Klangkörper! Aus allen industriekulturellen Fugen und Gemäuern, aus allen Ecken und Winkeln darf es singen. So if you are in the area on June 2nd, you can join in again. ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-in-japan-perform-ode-to-joy/615883/27 "2012-03-16T17:17:05Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > Ah yes, the Day of Song concert! Looking for the [webpage](http://www.dayofsong.de/die_idee/die_idee.php), I see that it’s being repeated this year: > > So if you are in the area on June 2nd, you can join in again. Thanks for the info - although it looks like they will repeat everything but the big concert in the stadium. Bummer! ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-in-japan-perform-ode-to-joy/615883/28 "2012-03-17T03:16:01Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Grafted? Have you ever heard an Ode to Joy without singing? It’s kinda built-in. > > I know what you mean about consonants, but I think that’s pretty standard and not just this performance. In my recording, in the end section by the 4 soloists, the “T” at the end of “flugel weilT” really pops. I’d really love to hear it where the soloists used natural voice rather than classical. That vibrato sounds terrible to me. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-in-japan-perform-ode-to-joy/615883/29 "2012-03-17T21:12:39Z")
Daniel Barenboim (the conductor famous for starting the East-West orchestra, where young Palestinian and Israeli musicans play together in Europe) has started a [Beethoven for everybody](http://www.beethoven-fuer-alle.de/) project. Everybody, whether choir or single person, can download the MP3 for Ode to joy, record a video of singing it, and upload it to the website. Then snippets from all videos will be edited together to one grand video. He does it because he says that music connects people across borders all over the world. For one project that was already done, there’s a dance video of the Maus dance edited together from fan videos[here](http://www.wdrmaus.de/enteseite/maustanz/index.php5). ---
**Author:** ![beaglefun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ce7236/32.png) [@beaglefun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beaglefun)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-in-japan-perform-ode-to-joy/615883/30 "2012-03-18T04:18:26Z")
I totally agree! So incredibly amazing! When I see this kind of cooperation to produce such beautiful music, I long for the day when we all, on this earth, can cooperate to produce much more. If we could just stop fighting and see the beauty instead of our differences! I would love to have been a part of that performance… Thanks for sharing. 😃 * * * peace and joy to all [http://www.plushcomforters.com](http://www.plushcomforters.com) ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-in-japan-perform-ode-to-joy/615883/31 "2012-03-18T15:48:57Z")
Please tell me I’m not the only one waiting for Nakatomi Plaza to blow up. It is pretty cool though, and just think, no one will notice if you screw up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-000-in-japan-perform-ode-to-joy/615883.md?page=1)