"V" sign, BBC and Beethoven

[kcrosby at wppost.depaul.edu]

I heard on some PBS show about the war in London that the opening of 
Beethoven's Fifth became a sort of victory tune after Churchill began
using the "V" sign because the opening bars of the Fifth correspond to
the letter V in Morse code (da da da dum = dot dot dot dash = V).
Neat.
Did the Nazi forces have any similar musical catch-phrase that was
played everywhere? (Wagner, perhaps?)


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
     Greetings,

    If this point has been mentioned in the past, pardon, it is new to  me. I
recently encountered  the follwing fact about "V", relating to
 Churchill's "V" for "Victory" salute. It seems the BBC World Service
 used to broadcast, all over Europe repeatedly during the war, the
 opening five notes of  Beetoven's Fifth (V) symphony, as a kind of
 audio signifier of the British/Allied victory sign.  It seems people all
 over occupied Europe would play the Fifth  in order to annoy  the Nazi
 army. To play  it, one still  maintained "plausable deniability," for one 
could, of  course,  merely be appreciating fine  music.

     It drove the German millitary potty to have the BBC and its millions of
European listeners turn this particular symbol of German culture against 
them.

    ( Yes, folks, this is the kind of stuff you can learn during three days of
 non-stop V-E day media coverage.) 

    E.A.Weinstein
    Centre For English Studies
    University Of London
     E.A.Weinstein at qmw.ac.uk


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