Olympic opening ceremonies unthinkable without music

By Sarah Marsh

LONDON (Reuters) - Imagine the Olympics Games void of music - the raising of the Olympic flag without the Olympic hymn, the parade of nations in a hushed stadium and synchronized swimming to the sounds of silence.

Music has helped turn the Olympics opening ceremony into one of sport's great occasions and Beijing organizers have already released pre-Olympic jingles, including the theme song for the 100-day countdown celebration featuring vocals by Hong Kong film hero Jackie Chan.

The musical lineup for the Beijing Games, which start on Friday, remains secret although the Olympics Cultural Festival, from June 23 to September 17, will include performances by Italian pop tenor Andrea Bocelli and British soprano Sarah Brightman.

The founding father of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, felt the Games needed to integrate sport and the arts and his zeal led to the creation of competitions in music, sculpture, painting, literature and architecture in 1912.

Winners of the so-called "Pentathlon of the muses" were, like their athletic counterparts, awarded gold, silver and bronze medals.

"He wanted (to include) the arts pretty much from the start and this was all part of his vision," said Olympic historian Phillip Barker.

"It was a nice idea to try and make out that everybody wasn't just a muddied oaf."

The competitions suffered, however, because judges deemed many of the entries substandard and refusing to award medals.

Another sticking point was the amateur rule that forbade professionals from participating in the Games, thereby preventing contributions from the artistic elite.

After 1948, the arts competitions were abandoned, and the host cities focused instead on the cultural festival held in the run-up to and throughout the Games.

Music has been especially prominent at the opening and closing ceremonies.

"In the opening ceremonies you have a lot of prescribed music. The Olympic hymn has to be sung ... and the national anthem of the host country," said the author of "100 Years of Olympic Music", William Guegold.

Increasingly though, host cities have integrated top class music acts into these ceremonies. Some of them have provided one for the Games' highlights and given worldwide fame to the artists.

On the occasion of the performance of opera star Montserrat Caballe at the Barcelona 1992 Games, journalist William Livingstone wrote in Stereo Review:

"Which champion gets the gold medal? Montserrat Caballe! Again, she demonstrates that she possesses one of the most beautiful voices ever to issue from a human throat."