Nor is not moved by concord of sweet song
Is fit for treasons, strategems and spoils.
The motions of his spirit are dull as night
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted.
--Wm. Shakespere, The Merchant of Venice
-- used by Ralph Vaughan Williams in "Serenade to Music"
No matter what kind of music you prefer, I am totally unable to see how anyone could hear the final pages of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and fail to be dragged up, however unwilling, out of the depths of despair and into the redemptive light of a glorious dawn.
It happens, I'm told.
Not to me, though.
Let it load, then go to about 5:20 and listen to the end. Turn it up, Tookie-gettin'-busted loud! :)
Freude, schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium!
Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum.
Deine Zauber binden wieder, was die Mode streng geteilt,
alle Menschen werden Brüder, wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
Seid umschlungen, Millionen! Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt!
Brüder, überm Sternenzelt muß ein lieber Vater wohnen!
--F Schiller
As a freshman in college I first had the opportunity to perform this as part of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra's Beethoven Festival 1979. The Hartt College of Music Master Choir (or which I was a member) and one of the choirs from UConn sang. When we finished and the orchestra went roaring to the double bar, it was like being at a football game where an incredible play has just taken place. A moment of stunned silence, followed by an immense wall of sound, cheers, applause, shouts, coming back at we musicians who had just provided a wall of sound going the other way.
Dear God, it was glorious.
Now for some soul-searing Russian Orthodox chant, spiritual rebirth, and off to bed.
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