{"id":3660,"date":"2024-05-16T08:49:10","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T12:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3660"},"modified":"2024-05-16T08:49:10","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T12:49:10","slug":"ode-to-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/16\/ode-to-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Ode to Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

Ludwig van Beethoven is back in the news \u2013 an impressive feat, given the fact that he died almost 200 years ago.

Historians have long wondered why the composer was afflicted by so many chronic illnesses. During the last half of his life he suffered the gradual loss of his hearing \u2013 arguably the worst possible thing that could befall a musician \u2013 and battled a variety of severe gastro-intestinal disorders.\u00a0

Columnist Gina Kolata, writing in last week\u2019s New York Times<\/em>, reported the stunning results of recent analysis of five locks of the artist\u2019s hair that had been snipped as he lay dying.

Researchers discovered that Beethoven had 380 micrograms of lead per gram of hair. A normal \u201chealthy\u201d reading would be less than 4 micrograms per gram. \u201cThese are the highest values in hair I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d said Paul Jannetto, who directs the lab where the tests were conducted.

The composer\u2019s hair also revealed arsenic levels 13 times what is considered normal, and mercury levels about four times greater than expected. The presence of such heavy metals is consistent with all of Beethoven\u2019s maladies, including his hearing loss.\u00a0

Does this mean the 19th<\/sup> century\u2019s greatest composer was poisoned?

Historians believe it\u2019s more likely that Beethoven simply imbibed an astonishing amount of lead. He drank at least one bottle of wine every day, believing it was good for his health, during a period when sweet-tasting lead acetate was often added to low quality vintages to make them go down easier.\u00a0\u00a0

Kolata suggests that Beethoven\u2019s Ninth Symphony<\/em> \u2013 widely considered the most influential composition in music history \u2013 was probably \u201ca way to reconcile his grief with his art.\u201d

Here we should pause and admit that it\u2019s hard to generate enthusiasm for classical music in a culture that embraces such subtle masterpieces as Vanilla Ice\u2019s Ice Ice Baby.\u00a0<\/em>

But the Ninth <\/em>speaks to timeless human longings and hopes. Is there a reason to believe that tomorrow will be better than today?

The first of its four movements, according to Beethoven, represents despair. The second movement begins with loud kettledrums \u2013 an attempt to break through life\u2019s tragic sadness. The third reveals a \u201ctender\u201d world where despair is set aside. In the fourth and final movement, as Beethoven puts it, we have a chance to \u201csearch for something that calls us to life.\u201d

For him that is represented by Ode an die Freude <\/em>(\u201cOde to Joy\u201d), the signature melody of the fourth movement that still has the capacity to move human hearts after two centuries. Churchgoers recognize it as the tune of the classic hymn Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee<\/em>.\u00a0

The glum, irascible composer \u2013 widely known for his emotional tantrums and clashes with authorities \u2013 imagined a utopian future in which all of humanity might be united in joy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0

The miracle is that the 53-year-old Beethoven wrote this symphony while almost completely deaf. He decided he would personally direct the premiere of his masterpiece in Vienna on May 7, 1824.\u00a0

It was the first time he had been on stage in a dozen years.\u00a0\u201cHe stood before the lectern and gesticulated furiously,\u201d recalled violinist Joseph Brohm.\u00a0\u201cAt times he rose, at other times he shrank to the ground; he moved as if he wanted to play all the instruments himself.\u201d

The musicians simply ignored him.

Not because they were rude.\u00a0Concertmaster Michael Umlauf had quietly spoken to the singers and instrumentalists beforehand, instructing them to follow his baton instead of Beethoven\u2019s thrashings.

When the symphony was over, it was clear that Beethoven had fallen a few measures behind.\u00a0The music had stopped, but the composer was still looking for his place in the score.

That\u2019s when a 20-year-old rising star, contralto Caroline Unger, performed what historian Rick Beyer calls \u201cone of the most endearing acts in music history.\u00a0[She] walked up to the old master and gently turned him around, so he could see what he could not hear:\u00a0a jubilant audience exploding in applause and cheers over the extraordinary piece that they had just heard, but Beethoven never could.\u201d\u00a0

What was all the excitement about?\u00a0

It was the first time in musical history that a choir sang as part of a symphony. We can listen to studio recordings of the Ninth Symphony<\/em>, or watch videos of concert hall presentations. But there\u2019s nothing quite like watching human faces as they react in tender surprise to \u201cOde to Joy.\u201d Here\u2019s a\u00a0symphonic flash mob<\/a> a dozen years ago in Catalonia, Spain. Perhaps you should keep a few tissues nearby.

We must never become deaf to the sorrows of our time.\u00a0Today our world may seem farther than ever from Beethoven\u2019s utopian vision.

But underneath the noise there is a soundtrack of hope.\u00a0

Helen Keller, who was both deaf and blind, could \u201chear\u201d the magnificence of Beethoven\u2019s vision by pressing her hand against a radio:

As I listened, with darkness and melody, shadow and sound filling all the room, I could not help remembering that the great composer who poured forth such a flood of sweetness into the world was deaf like myself. I marveled at the power of his quenchless spirit by which out of his pain he wrought such joy for others \u2014 and there I sat, feeling with my hand the magnificent symphony which broke like a sea upon the silent shores of his soul and mine.<\/em>

As one of the Hebrew prophets put it:\u00a0\u201cAnd the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God, as the waters cover the sea\u201d (Habakkuk 2:14).\u00a0

One day \u201cOde to Joy\u201d will reflect not just a deep yearning, but the reality of the New Heavens and New Earth that God has promised from the beginning.

And all of us will be invited to join the chorus.\u00a0
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here Ludwig van Beethoven is back in the news \u2013 an impressive feat, given the fact that he died almost 200 years ago. Historians have long wondered why the composer was afflicted by so many chronic illnesses. During the last half of his life he suffered the gradual loss of his hearing… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[735,555,299,377],"class_list":["post-3660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-beethoven","tag-joy","tag-music","tag-new-creation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3662,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3660\/revisions\/3662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}