‘Ode to Joy’ has an odious history. Let’s give Beethoven’s most overplayed symphony a rest

Toronto Star ^ | 6/26/2018 | John Terauds

[Borges]

It is a rare piece of music — any kind of music — that can bolster good as well as evil intentions. One classical work in particular has an uncanny, seductive power to become exactly what its fans want it to be.

When the Canadian Opera Company opened the doors to its new opera house in 2006, the gala concert included “Ode to Joy,” the last movement from Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.

Music director Peter Oundjian has chosen the whole, 75-minute-long composition to cap and celebrate his 14 years with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra on June 28, 29 and 30.

Adolf Hitler adored the Ninth Symphony. Musicians waiting for their deaths in Nazi concentration camps were ordered to play it, metaphorically twisting its closing call to universal brotherhood and joy into a terrifying, sneering parody of all that strives for light in a human soul.

More than four decades later, Leonard Bernstein conducted several performances to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall, substituting the word “freedom” for “joy” in Friedrich Schiller’s 1785 poem to which Beethoven’s movement was set. And Emmanuel Macron chose this music as the backdrop for his victory speech after winning the French presidential election last year.

Western classical music usually thinks of itself as being apolitical. But the Ninth is political. Beethoven saw it as political when he wrote it in the early 1820s. And his fellow Germans, looking for a sense of identity, embraced it with fervour.

Beethoven’s Ninth became the musical flag of Germanness at a time when nationalism was a growing force in all of Europe. It also became a Romantic monument to the artist (Beethoven, in this case) as a special creature worthy of special treatment.

Franco-Argentine scholar Esteban Buch analyzed these intersections and the good-evil paradox in an insightful book, Beethoven’s Ninth: A Political History. Buch argued that the Ninth was the right piece of music at the right time — socially, politically and aesthetically.

But from today’s perspective we know that unilateral calls to world brotherhood in joy have a flip side, which is tyranny. We appreciate now more than ever that joy is accessible to everyone only if some people are taking antidepressants.

We live in a time no more peaceful than Beethoven’s. Our conflicts today pit the great traditions and ways of thinking of the 19th century against a (hopefully) freer, more spontaneous, more shared, more inclusive 21st century.

We have the 19th-century ideal of strength in unity — expressed in the “Ode to Joy” — scraping up uneasily against a 21st-century ideal of strength in diversity. The change in perspective makes some people afraid and angry. It makes others hopeful and optimistic.

Until we see whether we can achieve a paradigm shift or whether we fall back into something like the genocidal chaos of the mid-20th century, I think we should press pause on Beethoven’s Ninth.

I, personally, would be satisfied to never hear it again.

Am I saying we should destroy an icon? Of course not. We should treat it as any other piece of fine art — and take time to appreciate how difficult it actually is to parse.

Besides, shouldn’t we be encouraging — and showcasing — Canadian composers who might be able to galvanize us into attention with something homegrown?

Beethoven’s Ninth has three long movements before the “Ode to Joy” finale, each filled with contrasts and discontinuities. The Ode itself shouts its message at us unrelentingly, insistently, sometimes more as a taunt than an exhortation.

Don’t we have enough shouts and taunts in our world? Let’s stash Beethoven’s musical rant down back up in the pantheon of musical treasures and give other works some ear time instead.

[Sans-Culotte]

Still, Schiller’s Ode isn’t to Unity, it’s to Joy.

I was frankly annoyed with Bernstein's "Ode to Freedom" version. "Freiheit" does not sound as good as "Freude", and Freude (Joy) is what Schiller and Beethoven wrote.

[BigB60]

All kinds of great classical pieces have political overtones or undertones or celebrate nationalism:
Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture
Shostakovich Sym. 5
Anything by Sousa
Copland Fanfare for the Common Man
Britten War Requiem
Adams Nixon in China and several other pieces.

Hitler loved Wagner. Is she going to ban all Wagner?

Put on your big girl pants Lady

[BigB60]

Sorry, he...

[rfp1234]

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 is also the Anthem of the European Union.

[freefdny]

Play it Sam. If Hitler can take it I can take it.

[Veto!]

Thanks for link. Wonderful. Brings back memories of my friend who grew up in Nazi Germany and could not have hated Nazis more. She and I attended San Francisco Symphony together and she never stopped reminding me that the music was Beethoven’s but the words to Ode to Joy were by Schiller. Lyric here:

https://www.elyrics.net/read/l/ludwig-van-beethoven-lyrics/ode-to-joy-lyrics.html

[Responsibility2nd]

So you got it (and all the comments) deleted?

WTF?

[Henry Cavendish]

This is very bourgeois.

[NorthMountain]

Beethoven’s Ninth — particularly the Chorale — is the finest piece of music ever written.

I once believed that.

Then I heard the Verdi Requiem.

Live.

When it ended, the entire audience sat, utterly silent, stunned, pinned to their seats, for about 5 seconds … then simultaneously erupted into the greatest standing ovation I have ever witnessed.

Now I am not so presumptuous as to label anything the finest piece of music ever written.

But I will admit Beethoven #9 is in the (no order) top five.

[IronJack]

There are other “big” pieces ... glorious works (Wagner, Handel, Bach, Mozart, et.al.). But their best doesn’t rise to the level of the Ninth. It stands alone.

[SuperLuminal]

Senseless drivel assembled into a dumbass screed...

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Don’t worry, you’ll get yours with the drops in the eyes.

Meanwhile, I will now be hearing the Glorious 9th in my mind all day long, unless I start Dvorak’s the Symphony from the New World, or Rachmaninov’s Concerto, or Grieg...

I can overcome it all with some Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys...

[sparklite2]

San Antone!

[heartwood]

I wonder what percentage of indigenous women were killed by indigenous men? Upwards of 80%? And since men are generally murdered at a higher rate than women, what about the male victims? And, țhe unanswerable question which should still be considered, how would the murder rate on the reservations compare to thd murder rate if the indigenes had not been conquered by Europeans?

[Publius]

Hitler loved Wagner too. Should we ban his operas?

[Sirius Lee]

This is the opening shot in the war to erase western civilization. Ban all the great composers one at a time for their white privilege. The future of music is all primal grunting to be used as a tool to either insure violence or dispair. The human soul must be crushed.

[Cecily]

Cue Daffy Duck: “Ahhhh, shut up!!!!”

[NorthMountain]

Opinions vary …

The author's opinion deserves contempt. Yours is fit for friendly discussion, preferably over adult beverages.

;'}

[kaboom]

That article was printed June 26, 2018. Still worth comment, but a bit dated.

[rockrr]

Because burning books (or records) accomplishes so much...