"Go to your fields and your gardens, and you shall learn that it is the pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower,

Photo credit: Nicola Gavin

Track credit: Boytjie - Hun E 2 The B

But it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee.
For to the bee a flower is a fountain of life,
And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love,
And to both, bee and flower, the giving and the receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy."

This may be a bit over the top for some of you, but it does show how far remixers and mashups can do when given freedom to do so.

In a contest organized by Penguin Books, anyone can participate to re-mix and mashup one among many classical passages of world literature already recorded and available as a download.

Participants need only to download the literature passage they want to remix, and they can edit, add or mix in any music, sound effects and voices as they like, as long as they own the license to those contributions.

The results are nothing short of amazing, and while you may need to spend a little time to find the true jewels, I found the experience fascinating.

My view is in fact that we should do more of this, as the human brain is particularly apt at picking up and memorizing words and ideas that have been matched to music and rhythm. If you want to learn something while enjoying some innovative music listening, this may be a road to try.

Hats off to Penguin books for this initiative.

((c) Penguin books)