Good evening, Kibitzers! This is another one of those “on this day” diaries, but this one has a narrow focus. Originally, I had picked just one event, but I can’t let May 7 pass without noting the 158th birthday of Rabindranath Tagore, Bengali poet (and writer in just about every form), composer, painter, and the first non-European winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1913. I have a snippet of one of his poems permanently attached to my kitchen table banner up there, and I’d like to share another poem of his before we go below the fold.
Who are you, reader, reading my poems an hundred years hence?
I cannot send you one single flower from this wealth of the spring,
one single streak of gold from yonder clouds.
Open your doors and look abroad.
From your blossoming garden gather fragrant memories of the
vanished flowers of an hundred years before.
In the joy of your heart may you feel the living joy that sang one
spring morning, sending its glad voice across an hundred years.
On May 7, 1824, Beethoven’s Symphony Number 9 in D minor, Opus 125, debuted in Vienna. It was his last complete symphony — he’d die three years later, at only 56. It was the first symphony by a major composer to use voices, but unlike many innovative works, it was well-received at the time, and it remains among the most popular symphonies today. He composed it mostly during a time when he was profoundly deaf, although he had apparently been kicking around the words, Schiller’s poem Ode to Joy (An die Freude; 1785) for many years, trying to find the right musical setting. “His notebooks indicate that he considered and rejected more than 200 different versions of the Ode to Joy theme alone.”
He hadn’t conducted publicly for some years, because of deafness and other ill health, when he appeared onstage for the last time at the opening performances of the 9th — he wasn’t conducting directly, but was giving tempo guidance to the guy with the baton. The May 7 premier of the piece is the concert about which the well-known story is told, that at the end, he stood facing the orchestra and had to be physically prompted to turn and see the ovation that he could not hear.
Here’s a fictionalized portrayal of that scene, from the movie Copying Beethoven, in which the maestro is himself holding the baton, but is taking cues from his (sadly fictitious) talented female assistant. Runtime: 12:37.
The final movement of the symphony, with the choral part, has often been arranged on its own, and has been a successful and charming flash-mob piece. Here’s one in Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Germany. Notice that the non-flashmob crowd is also singing. Runtime: 6:32.
On Christmas Day, 1989, when the Berlin Wall had just fallen, Leonard Bernstein presented a special concert of the 9th in Berlin, in which the word “Freude” (joy) was changed throughout to “Freiheit” (freedom). The L.A. Times reported at the time
The orchestra, composed of musicians from both East and West Germany, included members representing the four allied powers: the New York Philharmonic, Kirov Orchestra, London Symphony and Orchestre de Paris.
The concert was shown live on two 5x10 meter screens outside in the Berlin street, and was broadcast all over the world. Those were the days when uplifting stuff happened! Here’s the concert — the introductory material is only a couple of minutes long. Runtime: 1:33:51. If you just want to check out the “freedom” lyrics, the bass steps out and exclaims “O Freunde” (friends) at 1:06:07.
Finally, here’s a performance of the symphony, celebrating this very anniversary in May 2015. Riccardo Muti conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Runtime: 1:21:22. Dramatic bass entrance at 59:22. Vocals are subtitled.
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. |
Joy, bright spark of divinity,
Daughter of Elysium,
Fire-inspired we tread
Within thy sanctuary.
Thy magic power re-unites
All that custom has divided,
All men become brothers,
Under the sway of thy gentle wings. |
If you are in the New York City area, why not join us for DK’s Ian Reifowitz’s book-launch event on June 5th? Barnes & Noble Union Square, 33 E 17th St, New York, NY. (Between Broadway and Park Ave. South). More detail here.
Yet a third hurricane season starts June 1, and Puerto Rico is still struggling to recover.
It is Day 594 since Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico.
PLEASE FOLLOW Denise Oliver Velez and the SOS Puerto Rico group for the latest news about developments in Puerto Rico and the USVI (new diary here). Denise generally collects resonant tweets at the top of her comment threads, as well, and in the APR’s thread most mornings, to make it easy to retweet. If you tweet or FB, please share something about Puerto Rico and USVI regularly.
PUERTO RICO and USVI DISASTER RELIEF DONATION LINKS
The Daily Kos community has its own project: Puerto Rico resident Bobby Neary (newpioneer) leads a small team dedicated to helping a specific rural elder who was left by the storms without power, water, a roof, or any belongings but a moldy mattress. If you like to see concrete results, this is the project for you. See newpioneer’s diaries for ways to help. See this one in particular, and this comment with photos. See also his lovely and heartbreaking poem.
(🌅 = most recently recommended by Denise)
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