To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Poland's accession to the European Union, Ludwig van Beethoven's Ode to Joy, the EU's anthem, will ring out on Polish Radio 1 as a symbol of common European values.
The station will air Ode to Joy at 12 noon on Wednesday instead of the traditional bugle call from St. Mary's Tower in the southern city of Kraków.
"Ode to Joy" will air on Polish Radio 1 at noon on Wednesday as a symbol of celebrating common European values. Image: Polskie Radio
The EU anthem is a fragment of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony composed in 1823 to the text of Friedrich Schiller's 1785 poem Ode to Joy.
In 1972, the Council of Europe decided that the fragment of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony entitled Ode to Joy would become its anthem.
In 1985, EU heads of state and government decided that this tune would be the official anthem of the European Union.
It expresses European ideals of freedom and peace and solidarity in the universal language of music, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Poland became part of the EU on May 1, 2004, a historic step that underlined the country’s re-alignment with the West after decades of communist rule.
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Source: IAR, polskieradio.pl