An Odd Musical Note

A few months ago, I stumbled upon a rebroadcast of the old PBS documentary series, The German Americans: 300 Years in the New Land, first aired in 1983. 

I was listening to the last episode of the series, which included an interview featuring one of President Eisenhower's granddaughters. She was describing a panoramic photo, of the D-Day landings in 1944, which had hung on the wall behind Eisenhower's desk after he had left the White House. 

As I listened to the interview, I began to notice the musical underscoring, which sounded familiar but which I couldn't quite place. Suddenly, I burst out laughing: the tune was nothing other than the Welsh national anthem, "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau."

Thinking about it now, I can almost recreate the chain of "thought" leading to this odd occurrence. The usual title of the standard English translation of the Welsh national anthem bears the title "Land of My Fathers." Can't you hear it, too? "'Land of My Fathers' equals 'Fatherland' equals German, right?" And if any little fact checker pointed out the gaff: "Well, nobody but you would know the difference."

And thus do silly and preventable errors come into this world of ours.