Music: The Universal Language

I happened upon an article in Sunday's paper that really got to me. This guy is compiling all the music he can find that was composed in WWII concentration and prison camps. The first thing that caught my attention: who knew that there was music composed in prison/concentration camps? You wouldn't think of that as the most nurturing environment for the creative process. Secondly: Who knew that there are volumes of this stuff? "The library, set to open in September at Rome's Third University, will offer scholars a repertoire of 4,000 papers and 13,000 microfiches including music sheets, letters, drawings and photos." That's a lot of music! And finally: Who knew that anything like this could survive not only the camps themselves, but the test of time. It mentions that at least one composer used mostly toilet paper to write all his music down. Toilet paper. The stuff that is made to decompose easily, right? How on earth has this stuff made it to 2007? Incredible, really. I just thought it was really cool, and I for one would love to hear some of these pieces performed.