The Ode to Joy

Christ was born, and so was fulfilled the prophecy of Apollo which one of the learned scribes relates to us, saying: "In the last period before the Nativity a temple was built in Rome that was styled the Temple of Peace, in which the figure of Romulus was placed; and the god of peace assured the people that this temple would remain standing until a virgin should bear a child." From his words it was concluded that the temple was everlasting, and so a tablet was written and nailed upon its door: The Everlasting Temple of Peace. But what a distance between the temple and everlastingness! Jesus was born... and in the temple not one stone was left upon another.

Let us now ask: what bond ties the story of the Nativity to the story of music?

Did the compositions of Bach silence all who came before him — the likes of Monteverdi, Palestrina, Couperin, and others? Did he shatter the hopes of those who had played no small part in the sphere of the then-young art of music?

And if we cast a glance at those who came after them — the likes of Beethoven, Chopin, Wagner, Debussy — do we not observe that they stamped their compositions with the mark of the "star" of renewal? That star which the Magi followed, certain that it was guiding them to the truth, so that they believed before they saw. "Blessed are they who have believed and have not seen." Can we not picture them bent over their work, inclined to disputation, to clinging to what they set down — and yet we see them loving renewal, following in the footsteps of those who went before them so long as they lack a personality of their own come to ripeness; until, when they stumble upon that treasure, they smash the old and go, by the star of the Nativity, they know not where — the star of renewal leading them out beyond their personal bounds to wider horizons, to the grotto of the Nativity... And after that, thousands of people follow them, who once had walked behind others, fulfilling the saying of the proverb: The king is dead, long live the king.

So in these days of the Nativity, as we await the star of the new life, let us direct our hopes toward the muse — music, the music of the feast, the new music that breathes into souls a free spirit yearning for liberation and release. And let us know that such renewal finds its wellspring in the forming of personality. How many musicians have withdrawn into themselves and studied life in its sweetness and its bitterness, coming to look upon a happy life only from behind the veil of renewal; and they produced, and their production was, and their message was, a completion of the message of the feast: the message of truth, the message of spiritual rebirth. The Nativity says: unless you are born of the spirit, you shall not enter the kingdom of the Lord; and music answers: unless you believe in renewal, you are intruders upon music, not musicians in truth. We support these words of ours by reviving the memory of the musician who embraced the creed of renewal — he who, out of his sad and gloomy soul, floundering in the mires of injustice and doubt, brought forth a magnificent ode: the ode to joy, the ode of the soul's rebirth into a new world. That man is Beethoven, composer of the Ninth Symphony, the "Ode to Joy" of the famous German poet Schiller. It is a symphony divided into five movements. In the first and second you listen to the melodies of a soul finding its way to the new path. Then in the third and fourth we hearken to the choirs of mankind merging with the choirs of the orchestra to exult with delight and rapture in the Creator — harmony and peace be among the sons of man — chanting the soul's joy at its release from the fetters of ignorance and its escape into a wider world where peace and solidarity reign upon spiritual foundations laid down by Schiller and set to music by Beethoven.

Whoever hearkens to the third movement of the symphony, the Molto Vivace, knows how great the weight of the idea of renewal was with Beethoven. The composer pauses at the very summit of his ascent, as though the soul had need of rest to renew its powers and take up its work again with redoubled vigor and ardor. And this manner is worthy indeed of Beethoven — that striving soul which grasped the essence of the old struggle without any weariness or despair. For renewal is founded upon boldness and daring, joined to perseverance in the march toward the coveted goal.

O Nativity of God, give us struggle and steadfastness; and O music of Beethoven, deliver to us the message of the Nativity.