Sunday, July 03, 2005

NPR voices read the Declaration of Independence

As I have done every year since I discovered the NPR archives, I once again listened to a classic piece of radio journalism, a montage of radio voices reading the Declaration of Independence.
It takes nine minutes and is one of the best nine minutes of the weekend for me. This year they have added a slide show with the images and names of the personalities as they read.
In the background a sotto voce trumpet calls, a muted, suggestive echo giving unity to the production.
The best moment is at the end when the home-town chocolate voice of Bob Edwards says,

On July the fourth, seventeen seventy-six, George the Third...King of England...wrote in his diary..."Nothing of importance happened today."
If you do nothing else this weekend, take a few minutes to experience this powerful, simple production.

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