We have a guest contribution today from Paul Lim, who is a Principal Device Engineer at our company. Paul tells us some interesting info about MonolithIC 3D Inc.'s first commercial.
During the staging of the 2011 Semicon West in San Francisco two weeks ago, some of you may have taken the shuttle bus service between San Jose and the Moscone Center. If so, you might have seen our video promo of Monolithic3D technologies played in the video system (copied below).
If you happen to be a person reasonably familiar with classical music, you would have instantly recognized that the background music used in the video is that of an excerpt from the Fourth Movement of Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor, “From the New World”, or more popularly known as the “New World Symphony”. In particular, the excerpt consists of the glorious introduction of the theme by the brass followed by the repeat of the theme by the strings.
This particular piece of music was chosen by our CEO, Zvi Or-bach, not by simple coincidence, but because he believed that the driving force behind the music represents well the push for innovative technologies that Monolithic3D is introducing. To understand the meaning of the Symphony, let us delve a little bit into the life of the great Czech composer Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) around the time of his composition of his Symphony No. 9.
The year was 1893, and Dvorak was at the peak of his career. Two years prior, he was invited to come to the United States of America, then commonly referred to as part of the “New World”, by Mrs. Jeanette M. Thurber, the founder and president of the National Conservatory of Music of America. He was offered a very lucrative teaching position in the conservatory, and his responsibilities would include teaching composition, conducting a few concerts a year of his own music, and supervising orchestral rehearsals. After some consultation with his friends, he accepted the generous offer, and arrived in New York in September 1892. He had a magnificent reception and his first concerts were very well received. Conditions were thus highly auspicious for the composition of his new symphony, which he finished in May of 1893.
One of Dvorak’s goals in America was to discover, and engage in, “American” music. He studied the various forms of African-American spirituals and Native-American music and determined that they should be part of the foundation of the new American music, and so his newly minted Symphony No. 9 included these elements. Incorporating such elements in the traditional western form of the symphony was a bold and unprecedented move at that time. However, the resounding success of the symphony, together with Dvorak’s other similar works, not only went on to provide the momentum in the development of American-style music that influenced future generations of composers, but also ignited the trend in the entire classical music world to get out of the traditional mode of thinking and include styles that were previously considered too foreign.
What better music to choose then, for a company like Monolithic3D that is all about bold innovation and unconventional thinking, than this representation of breaking centuries-old traditions and heading forward to a “New World”? Even Neil Armstrong will agree, after all he took a recording of the New World Symphony with him to the moon!
One of Dvorak’s goals in America was to discover, and engage in, “American” music. He studied the various forms of African-American spirituals and Native-American music and determined that they should be part of the foundation of the new American music, and so his newly minted Symphony No. 9 included these elements. Incorporating such elements in the traditional western form of the symphony was a bold and unprecedented move at that time. However, the resounding success of the symphony, together with Dvorak’s other similar works, not only went on to provide the momentum in the development of American-style music that influenced future generations of composers, but also ignited the trend in the entire classical music world to get out of the traditional mode of thinking and include styles that were previously considered too foreign.
What better music to choose then, for a company like Monolithic3D that is all about bold innovation and unconventional thinking, than this representation of breaking centuries-old traditions and heading forward to a “New World”? Even Neil Armstrong will agree, after all he took a recording of the New World Symphony with him to the moon!
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