Anthem - Intellect

Anthem
on top. The last variation is extended in an exalted frenzy, which suddenly quiets
down around six minutes into the movement.
B. Bar 208–330. The sounds from the d-minor introduction reappear for a
minute, again with chaotic drums being interrupted by the same recitative as before,
this time sung by a baritone on lyrics by Beethoven: ‘O Freunde, nicht diese Töne! /
sondern lasst uns angenehmere anstimmen, / und freudenvollere. / Freude! Freude!’
(‘Oh friends, not these tones! / Rather, let us raise our voices in more pleasing / and
more joyful sounds! / Joy! Joy!’). 374 At bar 241, this opens up the D-major vocal ‘Joy’
variations 4–6, with the Schiller lyrics of verses 1–3, starting with ‘Freude, schöner
Götterfunken, / Tochter aus Elysium, / wir betreten feuertrunken, / Himmlische, dein
Heiligtum!’ (‘Joy, beautiful spark of divinity / daughter of Elysium, / We enter, drunk
with fire, / into your sanctuary, heavenly (daughter)!’). The first time, a solo voice is
accompanied by the choir in the last eight bars of the tune, like a chorus. Each of these
variations adds voices, creating a climactic process. The second repetition involves a
polyphonic solo song ensemble and a chorus in full choir like before; the third varies
the melody so that it almost sounds like laughter. It ends with a transitory extension.
The introduction to the movement thus presents three different musical ideas
that each time ends in chaos (A). They echo each of the preceding three movements,
so that the finale starts by summing up what has come before, but it is also easy to
interpret them as symbolising three failed efforts to live together or build a society.
This interpretation is particularly invited by the words ‘Oh friends, not these tones!’,
and not least by the following ‘Ode to Joy’ lyrics that immediately forces the listener to
hear this melody as the only successful way out of the compositional impasse—as well
as of the interactional impasse for humanity which it has signified (B). At this point,
the ‘Ode’ tune has the role of a jubilant and in many ways is a simple solution after so
many efforts to integrate deeply divided forces: a strong and accessible hymn which
lifts the whole symphony to a new—higher and more solemn but also more basic and
popular—level.
In Greek mythology, the virtuous heroes had the privilege to rest in the Elysian
fields of the Underworld. 375 Schiller’s ‘Ode to Joy’ constructed joy as a ‘beautiful spark
of divinity’ and ‘daughter of Elysium’, that is happiness as a personification of a divine
spark to humanity from the paradise of eternal rest. This is already a quite complex
picture. On the one hand, this joy is described as an elevating energy from the gods,
parallel to how Prometheus stole fire to humanity. This is reinforced by the next line
that depicts how ‘we enter, drunk with fire’ into the holy place or ‘sanctuary’ of joy. On
the other hand, the dimension of eternity also makes death and the dead present in
this joy, and the fire-drunkenness is also not without its dangers: this joy is obviously
sublime rather than just pleasantly relaxed. The joy could remind of the intense
desire in Europa and the bull, but surviving fire may also recall the resurrection of
the Phoenix. The cathartic release is further emphasised by the next lines that talk
165