The final movement has fast quarter-note triplets in the strings, at presto. They move at a quickening pace with a perpetual-motion rhythmic sense. All leading to a grand denouement in the great German-romantic tradition.
Extraordinary aural tonic if you're feeling lazy, depressed, discouraged, or melancholic.
Hope they didn't over-use it. That happened to Also sprach Zarathustra, and, of course, Beethoven's 9th, "Ode to Joy." And don't get me going on Pachalbel's Canon in D. William Tell Overture...
(An otherwise peaceful soul, I can be provoked to violence.)
Thanks Caffiend, I didn't know anything about it's real origin. I'd always assumed it had been put together in a studio by a few session people. It's nice to know there really was an African precursor of the more swinged -up version we know.
Steyn's forte is political commentary, but he excels at musicology and history, just as the late William Safire had an excellent, regular non-political "On Language" in the NY Times, where he covered word history and current usage.
Look around Steyn's section on song history. Lots of fascinating stuff in there. Start with his piece on "Bridge Over Troubled Waters."
Try this song Star by Erasure. It's about falling stars and Armageddon. Part of the lyrics are, "God is love, God is war TV preacher tell me more...." Now I have that stuck in my head.
What if RfM formed a ballet company? We could hear all that great music, wear all those cool clothes; and by the time CoVid19 passes, I'm sure our hair will be that long.
Beginning at 2:29 is the most-played melody in the history of the world: for a few years this century it was played 20,000 times per second around the world...