Power of Song
Power of Song
In 1785, a German poet composed a feverish celebration of joy that would become humanity's most universal anthem. Schiller's "Ode to Joy" distills the radical Enlightenment belief that all people are brothers, that nature sings with divine harmony, and that art possesses the power to transfigure the world. Written in stanzas of escalating rapture, the poem moves from the personal ecstasy of the individual drinker to a vision of universal brotherhood, where every mortal shall be embraced and the stars reward the virtuous with paradise. It is, in essence, a secular hymn to human dignity and cosmic optimism. When Beethoven, nearly four decades later, chose these words for the finale of his Ninth Symphony, he transformed a poem into the most recognized melody on Earth. The poem endures because it articulates something we desperately want to believe: that joy is a force powerful enough to unite all of humanity.
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Alan Mapstone, Brize C, Bruce Kachuk, dc +9 more
