I became aware of this tune incrementally. It is played in the background of a television commercial — for a French insurance company — we have seen many times, here in France.

By the time I figured out what was going on in the vaguely uplifting commercial spot (young school teacher finds car wrecked by fallen tree, hitch-hikes cross-country, gets to rural school on time), I realized I liked it for the strange, haunting singing in the background. It sounded like enthusiastic but talented amateurs. South African, maybe?

But how to find out the provenance of that music?

It took a lot of hunting on the web before we finally figured out it comes from a piece arranged for use in the 1998 film: The Thin Red Line.

It is Melanesians singing a Christian hymn (all five verses) in a sort of pidgin Malay.

Have a listen.

The version linked, just above, comes from the movie and features the nuanced introduction of musical instruments on verses 2-5.

The tune fits the music from a fairly well-known English hymn, Take My Life and Let It Be … and the Melanesian choir appears to approximate the same hymn. Not in English, of course. The lyrics can be seen side-by-side here.

In the “Thin Red Line” movie, the hymn is sung by a “before the fall” community of Melanesians on Guadalcanal, part of the Solomon Islands, ahead of a bloody six-month World War II battle between Japanese and American forces.

In the movie, Pvt. Witt, played by Jim Caviezel, is AWOL from the U.S. military on Guadalcanal, having gone to live with the islanders. The joyful singing of the local people is part of the attraction but, alas, Pvt. Witt is tracked down by the military and brought back to join the war.

The music in the Terrence Malick film is by Hans Zimmer, a German musician with lots of Hollywood credits, including Lion King, for which he won an Academy Award.

The Melanesian choir singing is probably not even the best-known piece from Thin Red Line. That probably would be Journey to the Line.

But I prefer the choir. The joy and the enthusiasm … it sticks with a person.

An earworm, yes, but a sweet one.