Today, could we find a quiet moment to close our eyes and listen to hope? Alice Sciscioli Pratt, an instructor at the Hochstein School of Music, shares her thoughts on Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony…
Hope never eludes me when I reach the fourth movement of the famous Ninth Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven. It was his last symphony before he died. Deaf at the time of its composition and first performance and having lived through such a tumultuous time in history, what was in his heart that, at the very end of his life’s work, propelled the vision of hope despite such bleakness?
The most famous section of this movement includes the setting of the poem “Ode to Joy”, by the German poet Friedrich von Schiller. There have been countless other lyrics put to Beethoven’s melody and it found its way into many a hymnal, suggesting that there is something inherent in those notes about the love of our God with or without the original poem. But the most thrilling version is the one from its source. Besides the melody, the orchestral writing is beyond what I can describe in words. One must listen. One must be open to feel. How could this suffering man end his work with such an uplifting and hopeful finale? Was his love of God so big that it overcame his own hardships to leave us with such an amazing work of art? Was God driving his hand as he wrote, hearing the orchestration only in his mind?
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