Sunday, May 30, 2010

Il Silenzio (aka TAPS) - UPDATES

From a friend:
Thought all of you would enjoy this! I found this very moving.

You may never have heard the full rendition of Il Silenzio, otherwise known as "Taps". This is a most beautiful rendition.

The girl's name is Melissa Venema and is playing with maestro Andre Rieu from Maastriecht in the Netherlands. She is 13 and has been performing for years. This performance is in 2008 Masstriecht where city officials sealed off the town square and closed everything down so they get perfect noise control. Any of you that have studied music will appreciate such talent from such a 13 year old young lady. This is the first time I have ever heard the full rendition of Taps and I enjoyed it very much. It is a wonderful performance.
VIDEO

UPDATE - I just received this comment (which is in the comments below but I am also posting it here):
I suspect that your inspiration to post this article came from viewing my long running post on Musicouch: http://musicouch.com/musicouching/il-silenzio-and-bugle-call-a-k-a-taps/ and my blog at http://www.wdcplace.blogspot.com/. To my knowledge, I am the only person on the web who has dubbed il Silenzio as Taps. I did so after much research - read the comments on Musicouch. You might want to link my two addresses to your post since your material came from my posts. Wess
UPDATE #2: I just received another comment (which is in the comments below) but I am also posting it here since it, too, adds to the information about this piece of music:
Correct information on this piece can be found at:

www.tapsbugler.com/bugle-calls-in-other-nations/

Bottom line. It's a nice piece of music but

IT IS NOT TAPS
Thanks to both people who posted--it's great to learn more via people who are generous with their time and their knowledge!

UPDATE #3:

FROM A FRIEND: The link to the performance has been around before but I have never seen the story of the performance. At least one country celebrates their liberation by the Americans.
About six miles from Maastricht, in the Netherlands, lie buried 8,301 American soldiers who died in "Operation Market Garden" in the battles to liberate Holland in the fall and winter of 1944. Every one of the men buried in the cemetery, as well as those in the Canadian and British military cemeteries, has been adopted by a Dutch family who mind the grave, decorate it, and keep alive the memory of the soldier they have adopted. It is even the custom to keep a portrait of "their" American soldier in a place of honor in their home. Annually, on "Liberation Day," memorial services are held for "the men who died to liberate Holland." The day concludes with a concert. The final piece is always "Il Silenzio," a memorial piece commissioned by the Dutch and first played in 1965 on the 20th anniversary of Holland's liberation. It has been the concluding piece of the memorial concert ever since.

This year the soloist was a 13-year-old Dutch girl, Melissa Venema, backed by André Rieu and his orchestra (the Royal Orchestra of the Netherlands). This beautiful concert piece is based upon the original version of taps and was composed by Italian composer Nino Rossi.

3 comments:

W C said...

I suspect that your inspiration to post this article came from viewing my long running post on Musicouch: http://musicouch.com/musicouching/il-silenzio-and-bugle-call-a-k-a-taps/ and my blog at http://www.wdcplace.blogspot.com/. To my knowledge, I am the only person on the web who has dubbed il Silenzio as Taps. I did so after much research - read the comments on Musicouch. You might want to link my two addresses to your post since your material came from my posts. Wess

lgstarr said...

As I said, this was "from a friend" and I had no idea who you are or that you had written about it. Thanks for sending me your info, which I have posted as an "update". (And thank you for your service to our country.)

Tapsbugler said...

Correct information on this piece can be found at:

http://www.tapsbugler.com/bugle-calls-in-other-nations/

Bottom line. It's a nice piece of music but

IT IS NOT TAPS

Thanks

tapsbugler