To Joy

The title of this article is ambiguous. See also: To Joy (disambiguation) .

Autograph

To Joy is one of Friedrich Schiller's most famous poems . It was written in the summer of 1785 and was set to music by Ludwig van Beethoven in the 4th movement of his 9th symphony .

content

This ode describes with great pathos the classic ideal of a society of equal people who are bound by a bond of joy and friendship .

Early version (1785)

The early version of the poem consists of 9 stanzas of 8 verses each, followed by a chorus with 4 verses, which is called “ C ho r. “And was published in Thalia as such.

Joy, beautiful spark of the gods,
Daughter from Elisium,
We enter, drunk with fire
Heavenly, your sanctuary.
Your spells bind again
what Schwerd shares in fashion;
Beggars become brothers of princes,
where your gentle wing rests.
Choir.
Be embraced, millions!
This kiss for the whole world!
Brothers - over the stars
a dear father must live.

Who succeeded in the big hit,
to be a friend's friend;
Whoever has won a devoted wife,
mix in his cheers!
Yes - whoever even has a soul
 his calls on the earth!
And if you never could, steal
weeping from this covenant!
Choir.
What inhabits the big ring
pay homage to simpathy!
She leads to the stars
Where the unknown tronet.

All beings drink joy
on the breasts of nature,
All good, all bad
follow their rose trail.
She gave us and R kisses,
a friend tried in death.
Pleasure was given to the worm,
And the cherub stands before God.
Choir.
Are you falling down, millions?
Do you sense the Creator, world?
Look for him above the starry canopy,
he must live above the stars.

The strong pen is called joy
in eternal nature.
Joy, joy drives the wheels
in the great world clock.
She lures flowers from the bud,
Suns from the firmament,
She rolls spheres in the rooms,
which the seer's pipe does not know!
Choir.
Glad how his suns fly
by the heavenly plan,
Brothers run your course
happy as a hero to win.

From the truth, the mirror of fire
she smiles at the researcher.
To the virtue of a steep hill
she directs the sufferer's path.
On the mountains of the sun of faith
you can see their flags waving
Through the crack of blasted coffins
 they stand in the choir of angels.
Choir.
Courageously tolerate millions!
Tolerate for the better world!
Up above the starry canopy
will reward a great god.

Gods cannot be repaid
it is nice to be like them.
Sorrow and poverty should report
rejoice with the happy.
Resentment and vengeance be forgotten,
our mortal enemy be forgiven.
No tear shall press him,
no regrets gnaw him.
Choir.
Our debt register be destroyed!
reconciled the whole world!
Brothers - over the stars
judges God as we judge.

 Joy gushes in cups,
in the cluster of golden blood
drink meek cannibals,
Despair heroism - -
Brothers flies from your seats
when the full Roman eats,
Let the foam spurt to the sky:
This glass to the good spirit.
Choir.
Praise the vortex of stars,
the hymn of the seraph,
This glass to the good spirit
over the starry sky up there!

Strong courage in grave suffering
Help where innocence weeps
Eternal sworn oaths,
Truth against friend and foe,
Man's pride before royal crowns,
Brothers, if it were good and blood -
His crowns to merit,
Downfall of the brood of lies!
Choir.
Closes the sacred circle more closely,
swears by this golden wine:
To be faithful to the vow
swears it by the judge of the stars!

Rescue of tiranne chains,
Generosity to the villain too,
Hope in the deathbeds
Mercy on the high court!
Let the dead live too!
Brothers drink and join in
Forgive all sinners
and hell no longer be.
Choir.
A cheerful farewell hour!
sweet sleep in the shroud!
Brothers - a gentle saying
From the mouth of the death judge!

Late version

Schiller judged his own work rather critically, which was also reflected in several changes to the poem.

The variant of the poem published posthumously in 1808 was shortened by the last stanza and showed a different choice of words in the first stanza:

Joy, beautiful spark of the gods,
Daughter from Elisium,
We enter, drunk with fire,
Heavenly, your sanctuary.
Your spells bind again
What fashion strictly divides
All people become brothers,
Where your gentle wing rests.

analysis

All the verses of the poem are four-part trochies without a prelude. In the 8-verse stanzas, male and female rhymes alternate in cross rhyme , while the refrain consists of an embracing rhyme .

In the first stanza the context of the poem is created by addressing joy directly as an allegory and portraying it as divine in relation to the Elysion from Greek mythology . Through “Your magic bind again ...” joy is assigned a property that unites people. Brothers can be understood in terms of the masculine meaning, but since everyone is spoken of, this interpretation lies in the eye of the beholder. Nevertheless, the text in Ludwig van Beethoven's setting is also sung by women.

The second stanza speaks of the "great litter", which consists of "being a friend" or "having won a wife". The social “bond”, or rather interpersonal relationships, is to be understood as the culmination of life. The “Earth Round” is understood as the covenant of all people.

The third and fourth stanzas refer to nature: joy is an important part of the natural way of life and the driving force of the world.

Emergence

The first version of the Ode to Joy was created in the summer of 1785 in today's Schillerhaus in Leipzig .

The Schillerhäuschen in Dresden-Loschwitz on the Körnerisches Weinberg.
Schiller lived here from autumn 1785 to summer 1787. ( Location )

Schiller was friends with the Freemason Christian Gottfried Körner , who published a complete edition of Schiller's works from 1812 to 1816. As a poetic declaration of friendship to Körner, Schiller wrote the Ode to Joy in the summer of 1785 . Contrary to popular belief, Schiller did not intend his poem to a Dresden Masonic lodge, but this dedication comes from Johann Christian Müller, who set the ode to music early on. Time Schiller lived in a converted farmhouse in the nearby Leipzig village Gohlis , a modern district of Leipzig, from 13 September 1785 in the vineyard house Korner in the former village and present-day Dresden district Loschwitz . His life, which had been very changeable until then, mainly due to financial worries, changed a lot thanks to the patronage friend Körner. Inspired by this and by Dresden and the Waldschlösschenwiesen , he completed the Ode to Joy in November 1785 and sent it to the bookseller Georg Göschen in Leipzig on November 29 for printing for the second issue of Thalia . In Schiller's letter it says: “The poem to joy is very beautifully composed by Körnern. If you think, we can have the notes, which are only ½ page, engraved? ”That Schiller received back in printed form on February 13th and 23rd, 1786 with his poem.

It should be noted, however, that years later, after the pre-revolutionary euphoria of the 1780s had evaporated, Schiller by no means described the Ode to Joy as a masterpiece on his part. Rather, it is turned away from reality. In a letter to Körner on October 21, 1800, Schiller wrote:

"Your inclination to this poem may be based on the epoch of its creation: But this also gives it the only value it has, and only for us and not for the world , nor for poetry."

- Schiller : October 21, 1800

The ode was already extremely popular when it was first created , as the multiple changes in the student record books prove. Even today the song is sung many times by student associations , but with a different melody.

Aribert Reimann assesses the fact that Ludwig van Beethoven decided at a time of political restoration (in 1824) to end his Ninth Symphony with choral singing with Schiller's text :

After all the political confusion and the horrors of the time, which Beethoven himself experienced, this work is in the end an appeal, a longing for brotherhood, for joy and jubilation, for the utopia of world peace, for a world without war and destruction.

Dieter Hildebrandt points out that the Hamburg poet Friedrich von Hagedorn wrote another poem entitled To Joy as early as 1744 - four decades before Schiller . Reinhard Breymayer names pietistic influence particularly on the verses "Brothers - above the stars / a dear father must live" by the astronomer and pastor Philipp Matthäus Hahn . His theology of love emphasized the fatherly love of God extremely.

In 2011, the poem manuscript was auctioned in Basel to an anonymous telephone bidder for half a million francs. The Weimar Classic Foundation bid unsuccessfully.

Settings

(simplified)

Beethoven's Joy Theme (oboes parts)

The last movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th symphony is based on the ode “To Joy” . Beethoven used the complete 1st and 3rd stanza as well as some parts of the 2nd and 4th stanza. Although the intention of setting Schiller's hymn to music accompanied most of Beethoven's life, it was not clear to him from the start whether a choir or a purely instrumental finale should really complete the work. A decision in favor of the choir was probably not made until the end of 1823.

Franz Schubert set the ode to music as early as 1815 - i.e. before Beethoven's 9th Symphony - as a song for solo voice and piano. The work bears the number 189 in the German directory . The text has also been shortened here.

Before the two better-known settings, Carl Friedrich Zelter , who is best known for his settings of Goethe texts in the style of the second Berlin Liederschule, had already composed a setting for mixed choir and accompaniment (in D major) in 1792. He has subsequently converted them into many different occupations, e.g. B. for trio and four-part male choir.

There are also settings by the following composers:

• Christian Gottfried Körner (1786)
• Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1796)
• Johann Friedrich Hugo von Dalberg (1799)
• Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg (1803)
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1865), for solo voices, choir and orchestra, in Russian translation.
• Be embraced, millions! (1892), a waltz, Op. 443 by Johann Strauss II
• This kiss for the whole world! (1892), Carl Michael Ziehrer , a Waltz, Op. 442 in continuation of the one composed by Strauss
• Z. Randall Stroope (2002), for choir and piano four hands

reception

The Freemason and founder of the Pan-European Movement Richard Nikolaus Graf von Coudenhove-Kalergi proposed Beethoven's setting as a new European hymn as early as 1955 . The melody has been the Council of Europe's official anthem since 1972 . The piece is also played on other festive occasions (e.g. at the end of the year). At the request of the Council of Europe, Herbert von Karajan arranged three instrumental versions: for piano, for wind instruments and for orchestra. Its instrumental version has been the official anthem of the European Union since 1985 .

Before the third stanza of the Deutschlandlied was designated the German national anthem in 1952 , the ode often served as an unofficial anthem after the Second World War. At the Olympic Games between 1956 and 1964, the ode became the anthem of the all-German team and in 1968 the anthem of both German Olympic teams .

In 1967 the Seekers released the song under the title Emerald City .

In 1970 the song appeared under the name A Song of Joy in a recording by Miguel Ríos , which sold over six million times.

Christmas 1989, one month after the fall of the Berlin Wall , Beethoven's 9th Symphony was performed in the East Berlin concert hall on Gendarmenmarkt under Leonard Bernstein with a slightly different text: “ Freedom , beautiful spark of gods”.

In addition, the piece, albeit modified accordingly, found its recognition in the Christian and especially in the gospel area. For example, in 1907 Henry J. van Dyke wrote a Christian text on the melody of Beethoven under the title “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee”. This arrangement is particularly common in English-speaking countries as a Christmas carol. An improvisation about this occurs in the film Sister Act 2 .

The feminist linguistics takes the song offended by the alleged misogyny. The motto: “All people become brothers” suggests either that women are not human beings or that they have to masculinize themselves in order to be included in the “brotherhood” by becoming not “sisters” but “brothers” . One of the programmatic books on feminist linguistics by Luise Pusch has the title: "All people will be sisters".

In 1998 the cabaret “ Die Distel ” reversed Schiller's motto and named its current program: “All brothers become people”.

In November 2015, around 120 members of the Mainz State Theater sang the Ode to Joy on the balcony of the theater in order to counter an AfD demonstration in front of the theater with their own message. The choir members received a criminal complaint from the Mainz police headquarters with the reason: "Anyone who grossly disturbs an approved meeting is liable to prosecution."

literature

• Friedrich John Böttner: Schiller's hymn to joy. In: Quatuor Coronati. Masonic Research Yearbook. ISSN  0171-1199 , Vol. 26 (1989), pp. 35-64.
• Otto W. Förster: Fritz Schiller. A biographical story. Postreiter-Verlag, Halle / Saale 1988 (illustrated by Annette Fritzsch).

supporting documents

1. ^ Otto Baensch: Structure and meaning of the choral finale in Beethoven's ninth symphony. Berlin / Leipzig, Walter de Gruyter 1930.
2. ^ Günther, Georg: Early Schiller settings until 1825, in: Monuments of Music in Baden-Württemberg (On behalf of the Society for Music History in Baden-Württemberg eV in conjunction with the Musicological Institute of the University of Tübingen, edited by Manfred Hermann Schmidt ), Volume 18 Early Schiller settings up to 1825 (in collaboration with the German Literature Archive Marbach, Munich 2005, pp. XIX - LXXIX
3. ↑ cf. Friedrich Schiller's letter to Georg Göschen, November 29, 1785.
4. ↑ Erwin Mayer: Friedrich Schiller and Freemasonry and his hymn "to joy" based on materials from the Marbach literature archive. In: Quator Coronati. Yearbook 36, Freemason Research Society e. V. Bayreuth, 1999.
5. ^ Wiener Konzerthaus: Joy, beautiful spark of gods: Beethoven and Reimann .
6. ↑ Dieter Hildebrandt: The Ninth - Schiller, Beethoven and the story of a musical world success. Munich 2005, p. 64.
   Friedrich von Hagedorn: An die Freude (on Zeno.org).
7. ↑ See Reinhard Breymayer: Erhard Weigel's student Detlev Clüver and his influence on Friedrich Christoph Oetinger (1702–1782) […] In: Katharina Habermann, Klaus-Dieter Herbst (ed.), Erhard Weigel (1625–1699) and his students . Universitätsverlag Göttingen, Göttingen 2016, p. 269–323, here p. 317–322: Evidence of a connection between Franz Joseph Reichsgraf von Thun and Hohenstein , who was familiar with Mozart and Beethoven , the mechanic Philipp Gottfried Schaudt and the pastor Philipp Matthäus Hahn. Is there a trace of Hahn's theology in Schiller's ode "To Joy"? - Thun-Hohenstein was, like his uncle Joseph Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, the client for an astronomical machine from Hahn and the husband of Mozart's and Beethoven's patroness Maria Wilhelmina Countess of Thun and Hohenstein, née. Imperial Countess von Uhlfeld, as well as Mozart's father-in-law and Beethoven's temporary friend Karl Alois Prince von Lichnowsky .
   Reinhard Breymayer provides further detailed references to Schiller's suggestions: astronomy, calendar dispute and love theology. From Erhard Weigel and his student Detlev Clüver to Friedrich Christoph Oetinger and Philipp Matthäus Hahn to Friedrich Schiller, Johann Andreas Streicher, Franz Joseph Graf von Thun and Hohenstein, Mozart and Beethoven. In memory of the prominent Oetinger researcher Guntram Spindler (1940-2014) and the prominent Enlightenment researcher Reinhard Aulich (1947-2016). [Motto:] Brothers - a dear father must live above the stars. SCHILLER. Heck, Dußlingen 2016. ISBN 978-3-924249-58-8 .
8. ^ Joachim Güntner: Schiller's Ode: Too expensive for the public purse. , nzz.ch of October 22, 2011 , accessed on October 22, 2011.
9. ↑ Andrea Hammes: Dedicated to Brahms: a contribution to the system and function of the dedication in the second half of the 19th century . V&R Unipress GmbH, = Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8471-0437-7 , p. 312 .
10. ↑ Letter, PDF ( Memento of November 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
11. ↑ Deutschlandradio brings the day to a close with a motif from the Ode to Joy.
12. ^ "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee" ( Memento of October 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
13. ↑ Luise F. Pusch: All people become sisters. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / Main 1990, ISBN 978-3-518-11565-7 .
14. ↑ Konrad Kraatz: Premiere in the Distel: "All brothers become people". From Romeo, Juliet and "Hakle Feucht". In: Berliner Zeitung . April 15, 1998.
15. ↑ Esther Widmann: State theater drowns out AfD with Beethoven - police report. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. November 24, 2015, accessed January 11, 2017 . 

Web links

Commons : Schiller's Ode to Joy  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: To Joy (published 1786)  - Sources and full texts

Wikisource: To Joy (Version from Beethoven's 9th Symphony)  - Sources and full texts

• Ode “To Joy” - content, text, origin and interpretation in the Friedrich Schiller Archive
• To Joy: MIDI / MP3 version, with text and practice files for choristers
• The European anthem (also to listen to)