© 2024
NPR for Northern Colorado
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Weekend Audition: A Musical Trip Back to April 1912 ...

http://www.123rf.com/stock-photo/titanic.html

At 11:40 in the evening of April 14th 100 years ago, what was to become the world's most memorable ocean liner struck an iceberg which would lead to the great ship sinking within 3 hours.  

Perhaps you are ‘Titanic’d out’ by now but, taking this opportunity to out myself as a Titanic geek,  I would like to share a bit of why I never could see myself  bored with a story of so many interesting aspects, of which I will share but a morsel.

I would also like to share some beautiful pictures along with the music of the Edwardian era--modern recordings of music that may have been played by Wallace Hartley'sband on Titanic, as posted by Thought Traveler on You-Tube:

Enjoy the journey...

Volume 1
http://youtu.be/-SYavuFC4Mo

  To me, the story (or stories) related to  Titanic are more profound than a tale of the demise of an ‘unsinkable’ ship (the ship’s owner’s , the White Star Line, never gave it that moniker... but apparently they never refuted it either), and so much more than  the tale of the 1997 James Cameron film with its Romeo and Juliet storyline--   there was neither Jack nor Rose on board, but many real- life love stories transpired, one being philanthropists Isador and Ida Strauswhose choices were as tragically romantic as Shakespeare’s characters.

It is said by many accounts that when Ida Strauss was repeatedly offered a seat on lifeboats, she declined saying that they had been together for so many years, that, “where you go, I go.” However, Cameron’s apparent adherence to historical accuracy of the ship’s interior was very impressive—even giving us glimpses to the ship’s ‘hell-hole‘--the one hundred and sixty-two fireboxes, or furnaces, and in a way honoring the men who not only kept the boilers in steam to power the ship’s massive engines, but who also kept the electricity burning till the end.  There are so many stories, so many numbers, so much speculation on so many levels... but I digress!

Volume 3
http://youtu.be/3774QgESZek

To me,the sinking of titanic was a pivotal moment in history that touched many countries, and certainly all classes, from millionaires, such as John Jacob Asterand Benjamin Guggenheim to the immigrant in Steerage.  Society was so stratified in the Edwardian Era-- from the beauty and grace of the very wealthy, to the hardships of the lower classes.  The varied stories of Titanic holds them all.

Society had made deep-seated changes during the Industrial Revolution, moving from a rather closed, home-based agrarian society functioning in subsistence, to one that was expanding into a new existence due to advances in agriculture, textiles, metals, machinery, mining, and more, all helping to feed, clothe and power the masses thronging to the cities for what they thought would be a ‘better life’…  Steeped in the heady excitement of expansive adjustment, the ‘modern’ society of 1912  received a jolt of awareness that it was not technologically omniscient. 

Volume 5
http://youtu.be/brGld0LD7qE

Memorials honoring those who perished are happening all over the world-- and the  tales of bravery and heroism, fear and weakness from an event that shifted the earth 100 years ago still  remains a subject of passionate discussion today.   

Though the majority of my radio experience has been in the commercial sector (from Colorado to Utah to Alaska), my radio was always tuned to the public station... I am an NPR junkie. I was blessed to work with some truly amazing and creative people in radio since my first professional job in the industry during my freshman year in college. That blessing has continued by being part of the family of one of the most incredible radio stations (and staff) in the country - KUNC.