Ode to Joy explained

To joy
Author:Friedrich Schiller
Original Title:An die Freude
Original Title Lang:de
Written:1785
Language:German
Country:Germany
Form:Ode
Publisher:Thalia
Publication Date:1786, 1808

"Ode to Joy" (German: pronounced as /de/) is an ode written in the summer of 1785 by German poet, playwright, and historian Friedrich Schiller. It was published the following year in the German magazine Thalia. In 1808, a slightly revised version changed two lines of the first stanza and omitted last stanza.

"Ode to Joy" is best known for its use by Ludwig van Beethoven in the final (fourth) movement of his Ninth Symphony, completed in 1824. Beethoven's text is not based entirely on Schiller's poem, and it introduces a few new sections. Beethoven's melody,[1] but not Schiller's text, was adopted as the "Anthem of Europe" by the Council of Europe in 1972 and later by the European Union. Rhodesia's national anthem from 1974 until 1979, "Rise, O Voices of Rhodesia", also used Beethoven's melody.

The poem

Schiller wrote the first version of the poem when he was staying in Gohlis, Leipzig. In 1785, from the beginning of May till mid-September, he stayed with his publisher, Georg Joachim Göschen, in Leipzig and wrote "An die Freude" along with his play Don Carlos.[2]

Schiller later made some revisions to the poem, which was then republished posthumously in 1808, and it was this latter version that forms the basis for Beethoven's setting. Despite the lasting popularity of the ode, Schiller himself regarded it as a failure later in his life, going so far as to call it "detached from reality" and "of value maybe for us two, but not for the world, nor for the art of poetry" in an 1800 letter to his longtime friend and patron Christian Gottfried Körner (whose friendship had originally inspired him to write the ode).[3]

Lyrics

Revisions

The lines marked with * were revised in the posthumous 1808 edition as follows:

Original Revised Translation of original Translation of revision Comment
German: was der Mode {{Not a typo|Schwerd German: Was die Mode streng geteilt what the sword of custom divided What custom strictly divided The original meaning of Mode was "custom, contemporary taste".[4]
German: Bettler werden Fürstenbrüder German: Alle Menschen werden Brüder beggars become princes' brothers All people become brothers

The original, later eliminated last stanza reads

Ode to Freedom

Academic speculation remains as to whether Schiller originally wrote an "Ode to Freedom" (An die Freiheit) and changed it to "To Joy".[5] [6] Thayer wrote in his biography of Beethoven, "the thought lies near that it was the early form of the poem, when it was still an 'Ode to Freedom' (not 'to Joy'), which first aroused enthusiastic admiration for it in Beethoven's mind".[7] The musicologist Alexander Rehding points out that even Bernstein, who used "Freiheit" in two performances in 1989, called it conjecture whether Schiller used "joy" as code for "freedom" and that scholarly consensus holds that there is no factual basis for this myth.[8]

Use of Beethoven's setting

Over the years, Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" has remained a protest anthem and a celebration of music.

Other musical settings

Other musical settings of the poem include:

References

  1. The usual name of the Hymn tune is "Hymn to Joy" Web site: Hymnary – Hymn to Joy. 11 October 2013.
  2. Web site: History of the Schiller House . stadtgeschichtliches-museum-leipzig.de . 21 May 2017 . 10 May 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170510085339/http://stadtgeschichtliches-museum-leipzig.de/site_english/schillerhaus/geschichte.php . dead .
  3. Web site: [Untitled letter] ]. Friedrich . Schiller. 21 October 1800. wissen-im-netz.info. de. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304200958/http://www.wissen-im-netz.info/literatur/schiller/briefe/koerner/1800/571.htm. 4 March 2016. 29 May 2019.
  4. Book: Duden – Das Herkunftswörterbuch. 1963. Bibliographisches Institut. Mannheim. 3-411-00907-1. 446. The word was derived via French from ultimately Latin modus. Duden cites as first meanings "German: Brauch, Sitte, Tages-, Zeitgeschmack". The primary modern meaning has shifted more towards "fashion".
  5. Wacław. Kubacki.

    pl:Wacław Kubacki

    . Das Werk Juliusz Slowackis und seine Bedeutung für die polnische Literatur. de. Zeitschrift für Slawistik. 5. 1. January 1960. 545–564. 10.1524/slaw.1960.5.1.545. 170929661.
  6. Das 'Alle Menschen werden Brüder', das Schiller in seiner Ode an die Freude (eigentlich Ode an die Freiheit) formuliert, .... Alexander. Görlach. Alexander Görlach. Der Glaube an die Freiheit – Wen darf ich töten?. https://web.archive.org/web/20161026163222/https://www.theeuropean.de/alexander-goerlach/3925-der-glaube-an-die-freiheit. dead. 26 October 2016. The European. 4 August 2010.
  7. [Alexander Wheelock Thayer|Thayer, A. W.]
  8. Book: Rehding, Alexander. Alexander Rehding. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. 33, note 8 on p. 141. Oxford University Press. 2018. 978-0-19-029970-5.
  9. Web site: Following Beethoven's Ninth. Kerry Candaele. Al Jazeera. 6 May 2015. 20 September 2020.
  10. Web site: The Ode Heard Round the World: Following the Ninth Explores Beethoven's Legacy . The New York Times. Daniel M. Gold. 31 October 2013. 28 September 2014.
  11. Web site: Ode to Joy: 50 String Instruments That Will Melt Your Heart. The Atlantic. Megan Garber. 9 July 2012. 3 January 2020.
  12. Web site: Beethoven's Flash Mobs. billmoyers.com. 14 November 2013.
  13. News: Macron's victory march to Europe's anthem said more than words. Natalie. Nougayrède. The Guardian. 8 May 2017. 16 July 2017.
  14. Web site: Prom 9: War & Peace. BBC Music Events. 13 January 2019.
  15. http://www.daisakuikeda.org/main/profile/bio/bio-15.html Excommunication
  16. [Otto Erich Deutsch]

External links