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Let us be Joyful
May. 7th, 2009 05:53 pmOne hundred eighty-five years ago a piece of music was premiered. One might say it was magical music. Certainly it was powerful music. Not just the structure of the piece... with it's incomplete themes in the first movements, finally stitched together in the fourth, with a chorale.
No, it happened to have just the right amount of schmalz. The composer took a really long (and slightly overwrought) poem and cut it down, using three verses, as they were, and doing some libretto work with another couple. The music, and the sentiments (which are, so I understand, seem a little less overdone in the German; sort of like O' Tannenbaum, which always feels a trifle trite in English: I do know the lyrics feel better to sing in German than they ever do in translation) were so effective that this piece of music; the fourth movement; all by itself, stopped a war in 1910. Perhaps, it made the war which finally broke out worse, but how many musicians, alive; or dead, can credit a work of theirs with staving off war?
That may be why it's the Anthem of the European Union.
So... for those who've not figured it out: I present the Ode To Joy (Youtube: conducted by Leonard Bernstien)
O Freunde, nicht diese Töne,
sondern lasst uns angenehmere
anstimmen, und freundenvollere.
Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder,
was die Mode streng geteilt:
alle Menschen werden Brüder,
wo dein snafter Flügel weilt.
Wem der grosse Wurf gelungen,
eines Freundes Freund zu sein,
wer ein holdes Weib errungen,
mische seinen Jubel ein!
Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele
sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!
Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle
weinend sich aus diesem Bund!
Freude trinken alle Wesen
an den Brüsten der Natur,
alle Guten, alle Bösen
folgen ihrer Rosenspur.
Küsse gab sie uns und Reben,
einen Freund, geprüft im Tod;
Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben,
und der Cherub steht vor Gott.
(and a translation)
[for the more seriously minded, here's another: also conducted by Bernstein. The music starts about 4:25 in, if you don't want to hear him talk about it first]
No, it happened to have just the right amount of schmalz. The composer took a really long (and slightly overwrought) poem and cut it down, using three verses, as they were, and doing some libretto work with another couple. The music, and the sentiments (which are, so I understand, seem a little less overdone in the German; sort of like O' Tannenbaum, which always feels a trifle trite in English: I do know the lyrics feel better to sing in German than they ever do in translation) were so effective that this piece of music; the fourth movement; all by itself, stopped a war in 1910. Perhaps, it made the war which finally broke out worse, but how many musicians, alive; or dead, can credit a work of theirs with staving off war?
That may be why it's the Anthem of the European Union.
So... for those who've not figured it out: I present the Ode To Joy (Youtube: conducted by Leonard Bernstien)
O Freunde, nicht diese Töne,
sondern lasst uns angenehmere
anstimmen, und freundenvollere.
Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder,
was die Mode streng geteilt:
alle Menschen werden Brüder,
wo dein snafter Flügel weilt.
Wem der grosse Wurf gelungen,
eines Freundes Freund zu sein,
wer ein holdes Weib errungen,
mische seinen Jubel ein!
Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele
sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!
Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle
weinend sich aus diesem Bund!
Freude trinken alle Wesen
an den Brüsten der Natur,
alle Guten, alle Bösen
folgen ihrer Rosenspur.
Küsse gab sie uns und Reben,
einen Freund, geprüft im Tod;
Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben,
und der Cherub steht vor Gott.
(and a translation)
[for the more seriously minded, here's another: also conducted by Bernstein. The music starts about 4:25 in, if you don't want to hear him talk about it first]
