23 August 2016

15 years on from 11th September 2001 ("9/11")...


Transcript:

Lee: My name is Lee Hanson.

Eunice: I’m Eunice Hanson.

Lee: We’re here to talk about our children - Peter, our son, Sue Kim, our daughter in-law, and our granddaughter Christine Lee - who were all killed on 9/11 while flying on United Airlines 175. The morning of the eleventh we got up and we were having breakfast. We were talking about the kids taking the trip and it was Christine’s first trip in an airplane. And um, the phone rang and it was Peter, and he said: “Dad, we’ve been hijacked”. He said: “I think they’ve already killed somebody and I don’t think the pilot’s in control of the plane.” I hung up and I called the police and they said: “A plane’s crashed into the World Trade Center and you ought to turn your television on.” Uh, then I waited. I didn’t want to call Peter because I didn’t want to attract any attention to him. He called again and told me he thought they were going to crash into a building because they’d been talking about it. He said: “Well don’t worry Dad, if they do, it will be quick.” And, just after that, Peter very quietly said: “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.” Then I heard what sounded like a woman screaming, and everything was cut off. We turned to the television.

Eunice: And we saw the plane burst into flames and the building explode. And uh, I wanted to reach out, I said: “my kids are on that plane.” I kept shaking my head. “This isn’t real, this can’t happen.” To this day, Peter’s friends are in contact with me, and, I get cards and pictures of their children. I should be happy for them, and I am. But I think “I don’t have that anymore.” I have nothing of the people I love the most. It had to be that they stayed together right to the end, died in each other’s arms.




7 comments:

  1. It's horrible. I don't understand why people can be so cruel. It makes me think to Nice : innocents who just wanted to enjoy life. Its inhuman. :(

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  2. WTC 9/11 is an original creation of Steve Reich, new yorker composer, composed in 2010. It was originally written for a string quartet and a digitally recorded sound track. The soundtrack that accompanies instrumentalists is a Christina Rossetti's poem.
    This piece belongs to the genre called contemporary music. This work is a tribute to the victims of the attack that hit the United States of America on 11 September 2001. We can heard three movements in this piece. The first movement acts as an introduction. It is based on dissonances played the more staccato possible with a slight bow stroke that just touch the rope. The second movement is related to development. It is similar to the first by the few plucked however we note the emergence of sustained notes acting a support for the soundtrack. In the last movement, which serves like a conclusion, we can heard the few sustained notes present in the seconde movement before giving way to the staccato notes from the beginning that bring the piece a special sound and strange side. This strange side led by the many dissonances reinforces the artist's message : the incomprehension and the sadness caused by this attack.

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  4. Steve Reich's WTC 9/11 is a very interesting piece. It's very surprising, we understand that it wasn't made to be appreciated by people.
    It's impressive so it stays in people's mind which is exactly it purposes, it wants people to remember this historical day; September 11, 2001.
    What really draw people's attention are probably the recording parts added in this and also the violin's one that i link with a phone line that has been cut and disconnected, it makes me think of the moment when the victims were calling their families but suddenly their line was cut and their world torn apart...

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  5. This attack is so terrible. There is a lot of dead people. It's so sad. It makes me think to France's attacks like Charlie Hebdo or the attacks on the 13 of november 2015 (Bataclan). It's so heinous.
    The music is so sad. She reminds me of this attacks.

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  6. We were born in 2000 and the terrorist attacks of the WTC occurred in 2001. We have almost always lived with this tragedy in our life even if we couldn't realize the horror of the event when it happened. Many people could say that we didn't face up these attacks so we can't have any feeling about this but from my opinion, it doesn't prevent us from being touched during for example the commemorations of the event. So my group and I listened to the song of Steve Reich. We divided this song in three parts or movements. The first part depicts the time of the terrorist attack. The voices seem to call for help and are scared. The violins give the impression that fate comes into play. Indeed, people had to face reality, they couldn't stop these planes. During the second movement, you can hear many voices that represent for us the witnesses who were seeing the scene and their powerlessness towards the situation. In the last movement, the voices disappear gradually : we easily understand that the victims are now dead.
    We found this music poignant and oppressive. It was as if we we were trapped under the WTC's rubble. At the end of this song, we were speechless because it really shows from our opinion the horror of these attacks.

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  7. I read the transcript and I listened the WTC 9/11.I think this is a barbaric act. It reminds me of the terrorist attacks in Paris and Nice. It was a tragedy because there are many victims and a lot of sadness for the victims' families. The music composed by Steve Reich is adapted to these events.

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