One of my favorite Sunday morning Treasures is the arrival of The Marginalian in my email box. This vibrant publication is the work of Maria Poplova who weekly researches a topic and then finds all the associations in literature and science that impinge on it. Indeed, there have been days when I just followed links through a topic and found myself in a world of magic and mystery.
I think this is the topic of this post today as I was reminded to look up from my focus on the anthill of politics in America to the broad heavens above and the depths of the human heart. Rx: I highly recommend you subscribe.
A second influence today is a Substack writer, Elizabeth Wainwright, a young mother and writer from England. On March 27 she posted the most beautiful and profound writing “following bees, starlings, coral, Mary, and justice.”
“I have been thinking about community, and the non-human world, and Mary mother of Jesus, and change, and new life.”
I have learned and relearned through Elizabeth what it means to live a committed life, to follow your heart no matter the consequences and to be forever a Traveller or Storyteller.
Until today I did not understand that it was the ideas of the Enlightenment that inspired Ludwig von Beethoven to write the now best loved “Ode to Joy” in the final movement of his second symphony -Symphony No. 9.
I can thank an amazing intellectual, Maria Popova. who writes a weekly treasure of curated ideas and art on a subject in her newsletter, The Marginalian.
That year, he began — though he did not yet know it, as we never do — the long gestation of what would become not only his greatest creative and spiritual triumph, not only a turning point in the history of music that revolutionized the symphony and planted the seed of the pop song, but an eternal masterwork of the supreme human art: making meaning out of chaos, beauty out of sorrow.
The masterwork’s libretto contains a message to the world that seems perfect to revisit in another time when chaos threatens to overcome humanity:
Oh friends, no more of these sounds! Let us sing more cheerful songs, More full of joy! Joy, bright spark of divinity, Daughter of Elysium, Fire-inspired we tread Thy sanctuary! Thy magic power reunites All that custom has divided; All men become brothers Under the sway of thy gentle wings. Whoever has created An abiding friendship, Or has won A true and loving wife, All who can call at least one soul theirs, Join in our song of praise! But any who cannot must creep tearfully Away from our circle. All creatures drink of joy At nature’s breast. Just and unjust Alike taste of her gift; She gave us kisses and the fruit of the vine, A tried friend to the end. Even the worm can feel contentment, And the cherub stands before God! Gladly, like the heavenly bodies Which He set on their courses through the splendor of the firmament; Thus, brothers, you should run your race, As a hero going to conquest. You millions, I embrace you. This kiss is for all the world! Brothers, above the starry canopy There must dwell a loving Father. Do you fall in worship, you millions? World, do you know your Creator? Seek Him in the heavens! Above the stars must He dwell.
Now read the Libretto translated by Tracy K. Smith and performed in 2020 at a Carnegie Hall performance, All Together: A Global Ode to Joy.
O friend, my heart has tired Of such darkness. Now it vies for joy. Joy, bright God-spark born of Ever Daughter of fresh paradise— Where you walked once now walk rancor, Greed, suspicion, anger, fright. Joy, the breeze off all that’s holy, Pure with terror, wild as flame. Make us brothers, give us comfort, Bid us past such fear and hate. If you’ve loved another’s beauty If you’ve craved the warmth of flesh, If your spirit is invested In another’s sense of worth, Lift your voice to touch my voice now, Let our song bring joy to earth. Lift your voice to touch my voice now, Let our song bring joy to earth. Joy like water, milk of mothers. Kind and wicked all deserve Joy’s compassion freely given, Joy which can’t be sold or earned. In the depths of blackest soil In the lightless atmosphere In the atom and the ether, Animating all that is. Let us feel it, let us heed it, Let us seek its deepest kiss. Let us live our brief lives mining That which joy alone can give. Battered planet, home of billions, Our long shadow stalks your face. All we’ve fractured, all we’ve stolen, All we’ve sought blind to your grace. Earth, forgive us, claim us, let us Live in humble thanks and joy. Let our hearts wake from our stupor, Let us praise you in one voice.
Ode to Joy Adaptation by Tracy K. Smith (b. 1972) for the culminating concert of All Together: A Global Ode to Joy at Carnegie Hall on December 6, 2020
Here is a superb performance of the Symphony No. 9 by the Chicago Symphony.
For the last movement, Ode to Joy, start at about 59:00
Susan Feathers 