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15:35 GMT, Friday, 22 August 2008 16:35 UK

Olympics 'Monkey' theme

Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy

Sorry - BBC Sport's Monkey theme tune for the 2008 Beijing Olympics is no longer available for download.

The two-minute track, which has been heard by fans of the Olympics on BBC TV, Radio 5 Live and online, could be downloaded in the UK only between 22-29 August 2008.

The music, which features in an animated campaign produced by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett - the team behind Gorillaz - twists the tale of the classical Chinese novel "Journey to the West", turning it into a "Journey to the East" for this year's Games in China's capital.

There are 20 instruments on the audio track which accompanies the "Journey to the East" animation - the most unusual being Chinese instruments like the Pipa, Ur Hu, and Zheng. Thirty-eight people sang in the Chinese choir, but their voices were "doubled up" in the recording studio to sound like 76 singers.

The female vocal line is sung by a character called Guan Yin, who is a goddess of good fortune. Her melody is then played by the Er Hu and the strings. Towards the end of track she sings the same melody, but at double the speed.

The Chinese singer is called Jia Ruhan. She sings in Mandarin Chinese.



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Related to this story:

Monkey quiz (16 Jul 08 |  Meet Monkey )
Monkey on your mobile (17 Jul 08 |  Meet Monkey )
Monkey's creators at work (05 Aug 08 |  Meet Monkey )
Download Monkey, Sandy and Pigsy masks (15 Jul 08 |  Olympics )
Meet Monkey and friends (15 Jul 08 |  Olympics )

RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
Adobe Reader
BBC Sport Olympics group on Flickr
BBC Topics: China '08
BBC coverage of Beijing
Olympics blog: Monkey's journey begins
Journey to the West on Wikipedia
Gorillaz
Monkey Magic group on Facebook
Beijing 2008
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