Musicians in six different countries united across the airwaves last Thursday night to perform a new tone poem composed to mark the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht.
The musical piece, “Crystal Psalms,” was written by composer Alvin Curran. It was performed on radio by violists in Copenhagen, cellists in Amsterdam, trombonists in Frankfurt, saxophonists in Paris, flutists in Vienna and clarinetists in Rome.
Curran sat in a main studio at Italy’s RAI state broadcasting company in Rome, where he mixed the incoming sounds and then beamed them out to radio stations across Europe.
Curran initiated the project to reunite Europe for an hour to revive memories of the Nazi atrocities that took place in Berlin and other cities beginning on the night of Nov. 9, 1938.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
