Posted on 06/05/2019 9:35:54 AM PDT by 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.
agree! The 9th is my FAVORITE piece of music.
I’ve performed it twice, once as a Tenor, once as a Baritone. It’s simply incredible, and.. VERY popular.
The Louisville Orchestra just played it a few weeks ago and SOLD OUT both shows.
However, I actually like the 3rd movement the best. It’s Ethereal.
I wonder if this author knows that ‘Ode to Joy’ was Mahatma Gandhi’s favorite piece of music.
Now that right there came from an effete virtue-signalling snob, I don't care who ya are.
It was great music for Die Hard II.
Try Roger Norrington's recording from 1987 which won a Grammy. He was the first outside of Leibowitz and Toscanini to take the metronome markings seriously. His conducting of the third movement is a revelation.
Thanks for that illuminating observation, FRiend Publius.
I recently added both the Norrington and Toscanini symphony cycles to my collection but haven’t listened to the Ninth in either. Usually, when evaluating a Beethoven cycle, I start with the Eroica, then the 7th, then the hugely underrated 8th.
It’s interesting you mentioned the Rene Leibowitz cycle, which I have read good things about but haven’t started collecting.
In the early 19th century, nationalism and (19th century classical) liberalism were closely tied together.
Beethoven might have had discontent with the repressive political environment of his day in the back of his mind.
But it wasn't in the front of his mind, nor was German nationalism.
I'm not aware that the ninth symphony was taken as a symbol of German nationalism, like the Haydn melody that became the Deutschlandlied ("Deutschland, Deutschland Über Alles").
The symphony's lyrics say "Alle Menschen werden Brüder" - All men become brothers. Not all Germans, but all people of all countries.
A fanciful, utopian aspiration to be sure, but very far from Hitler.
It's a great piece of music. Maybe one thing we could all agree on is that it shouldn't be wasted and degraded by being used in commercials.
I am a classical musician, and nothing by Beethoven has ever been my favorite.
I do not categorically presume to impose my informed opinions upon all of humanity and history; neither of you is entitled or empowered to do so either.
So much for independent thinking on an ostensibly conservative forum.
His Seventh is also a revelation. That symphony lacks a true slow movement. Norrington takes the allegretto at the posted metronome marking of quarter note = 76, while too many modern performances treat it like a dirge. The finale at half note = 72 is really, really fast, and it pays off at the coda.
I used to think that in the Ninth you had to put up with a lot to get to the finale. Then I heard Norrington.
The problem with the opening movement is that, ever since Wagner, we're been taking it too slowly. Conducted at Beethoven's metronome marking of quarter note = 88, the effect is electric. Beethoven drags you up mountains, down through valleys, through ravines, and 14 minutes later you're black and blue and covered with blood -- but you feel great!
The trio of the scherzo is conducted at half the speed we're used to, and with Norrington explaining why in the liner notes, it makes perfect sense. We've been misinterpreting Beethoven's markings.
The finale was a shocker when I first heard it. The "Turkish" music is marked at dotted quarter note = 84, which is much slower than we're used to hearing it. It's awkward at first, but when the triplets begin, it suddenly makes sense. At the traditional speed, the triplets are manic. At 84, they're a German country dance. Think of shepherds and shepherdesses dancing in circles inside a barn.
I had a sense of rightness when I first heard the whole symphony under Norrington. Things finally made sense.
Then you are at best a classical Philistine. Beethoven wrote the music that God whistles on His way to work.
The melody for “Deutschland Uber Alles” was written by Beethoven’s teacher, Joseph Haydn.
Actually, it's to "Freude." Like so many German words, the fullness of the term doesn't translate. It's generally translated as "joy," but it's actually so much more. It is the "bright spark of divinity, the daughter of the Heavens." It is French's "joie de vivre," the splendor the Italians command when they declaim "Volare!" It goes way beyond happiness or even ecstasy. It is the Life Force, the fire that God puts in all of us that makes us cling to tomorrow and to cherish our dreams like a rich dessert.
It is sublime. And Beethoven captured that "joy," that power, that heaven-sent magnificence in music. There can be no greater accomplishment for a composer.
Just amazes me how people can actually get a paycheck to write such crap. Guess anyone can be a “scholar” nowadays.
So here’s what I consider a wonderful take on this timeless treasure. From Rainbow’s final concert, March 14th 1984 at the Budokan in Tokyo. This is in my estimation the definitive version as done by this underrated guitar virtuoso. And yet another reason why Ritchie Blackmore deserves a lot more credit for his legacy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yzvZAtC5h4
And I can't hear 'Stuck in the Middle With You' without thinking of a guy getting his ear sliced off with a straight razor.
Beethoven’ 9th is the magnum opus of he human race; he ultimate artistic achievement of mankind.
This writer is on the vanguard of the militant cultural left, proclaiming to his bleating followers what is “decadent art,” unfit for the post-revolutionary age.
Virtually all art created by straight, white males is on their hit list.
BTW, the Ode to Joy isn’t so much about unity as it is equality.
There are superlatives in this world. Grow a pair and take a stand.
this is the way leftists tear down every organization and tradition we hold dear.
The response.
What a ridiculous limited view on some of the best music ever.
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