If you didn’t know it before, I am a Beethoven nerd.
The music from the video in the last post is from the final movement of Beethoven’s last symphony, number 9.
It is often called the Choral Symphony because he added a choir singing a famous German poem by Friedrich Schiller to the last half of this last movement.
The meaning, like Beethoven’s music in general, is up for interpretation, meaning it allows for the listener to interpret its meaning for one’s self.
It’s interesting as well, and this shows Beethoven’s genius, that the symphony is written in a minor key and yet is about joy, celebration, and the brotherhood of man.
True, it has been co-opted by horrible regimes like the Nazi party, but was also played on loud speakers during the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989; the same year as the fall of the Berlin Wall where it was used as an anthem there as well. It is described by many as a secular anthem for the brotherhood of man.
At the time of its performance it was not permitted by the ruling class to mix secular and religious music together in a concert. To be clear, Beethoven wrote many religious works to include masses and requiems throughout his life.
The melody is also used in the famous and still popular hymn Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee.
Another angle that adds to my amazement is that by the time it was composed and performed (1824) Beethoven was completely deaf.
Also I love the videography of this symphonic flash mob beginning with a lone bassist, and how it captures the people, young and old, as they are drawn into the music and musicians - even though, most likely, most of them are probably not listening to classical music as their first choice.
May this be but one of many ways you are surprised by joy today.
Not that it matters really, I accidentally published Restoring Sanity. It was retracted and will come out later. Oh well.