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WHAT BEETHOVEN’S NINTH TEACHES US  
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Daniel Barenboim
May 6, 2024
New York Times
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_ I don’t believe that Beethoven was interested in everyday
politics. He was not an activist. He was a deeply political man in the
broadest sense of the word. He was concerned with moral behavior and
the larger questions of right and wrong.... _

A Chinese student at the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, where
speakers playing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony were rigged up to drown
out government broadcasts., Photo credit: Battle Hymns Productions /
NPR

 

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was first performed exactly
200 years ago Tuesday and has since become probably the work most
likely to be embraced for political purposes.

It was played at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin; it was performed in
that city again on Christmas 1989 after the fall of the Berlin Wall,
when Leonard Bernstein replaced the word “Joy” in the choral
finale with “Freedom”; the European Union adopted the symphony’s
“Ode to Joy” theme as its anthem. (These days the Ninth is being
played in concert halls worldwide in commemoration of the premiere.
The classical music world loves anniversaries.)

Beethoven might have been surprised at the political allure of his
masterpiece.

He was interested in politics, but only because he was deeply
interested in humanity. The story goes that he originally wanted to
dedicate his “Eroica” symphony to Napoleon — it was to be called
“Bonaparte” — but he changed his mind after Napoleon abandoned
the ideals of the French Revolution and was crowned emperor.

I don’t believe, however, that Beethoven was interested in everyday
politics. He was not an activist.

Instead, he was a deeply political man in the broadest sense of the
word. He was concerned with moral behavior and the larger questions of
right and wrong affecting all of society. Especially significant for
him was freedom of thought and of personal expression, which he
associated with the rights and responsibilities of the individual. He
would have had no sympathy with the now widely held view of freedom as
essentially economic, necessary for the workings of the markets.

The closest he comes to a political statement in the Ninth is a
sentence at the heart of the last movement, in which voices were heard
for the first time in a symphony: “All men become brothers.” We
understand that now more as an expression of hope than a confident
statement, given the many exceptions to the sentiment, including the
Jews under the Nazis and members of minorities in many parts of the
world. The quantity and scope of the crises facing humankind severely
test that hope. We have seen many crises before, but we do not appear
to learn any lessons from them.

I also see the Ninth in another way. Music on its own does not stand
for anything except itself. The greatness of music, and the Ninth
Symphony, lies in the richness of its contrasts. Music never just
laughs or cries; it always laughs and cries at the same time. Creating
unity out of contradictions — that is Beethoven for me.

Music, if you study it properly, is a lesson for life. There is much
we can learn from Beethoven, who was, of course, one of the strongest
personalities in the history of music. He is the master of bringing
emotion and intellect together. With Beethoven, you must be able to
structure your feelings and feel the structure emotionally — a
fantastic lesson for life! When we are in love, we lose all sense of
discipline. Music doesn’t allow for that.

But music means different things to different people and sometimes
even different things to the same person at different moments. It
might be poetic, philosophical, sensual or mathematical, but it must
have something to do with the soul.

Therefore, it is metaphysical — but the means of expression is
purely and exclusively physical: sound. It is precisely this permanent
coexistence of metaphysical message through physical means that is the
strength of music. It is also the reason that when we try to describe
music with words, all we can do is articulate our reactions to it, and
not grasp music itself.

The Ninth Symphony is one of the most important artworks in Western
culture. Some experts call it the greatest symphony ever written, and
many commentators praise its visionary message. It is also one of the
most revolutionary works by a composer mainly defined by the
revolutionary nature of his works. Beethoven freed music from
prevailing conventions of harmony and structure. Sometimes I feel in
his late works a will to break all signs of continuity.

The Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci said a wonderful thing in
1929, when  Benito Mussolini had Italy under his thumb. “My mind is
pessimistic, but my will is optimistic,” he wrote to a friend from
prison. I think he meant that as long as we are alive, we have hope. I
try to take Gramsci’s words to heart still today, even if not always
successfully.

By all accounts, Beethoven was courageous, and I find courage an
essential quality for the understanding, let alone the performance, of
the Ninth. One could paraphrase much of the work of Beethoven in the
spirit of Gramsci by saying that suffering is inevitable, but the
courage to overcome it renders life worth living.

Therefore, it is metaphysical — but the means of expression is
purely and exclusively physical: sound. It is precisely this permanent
coexistence of metaphysical message through physical means that is the
strength of music. It is also the reason that when we try to describe
music with words, all we can do is articulate our reactions to it, and
not grasp music itself.

The Ninth Symphony is one of the most important artworks in Western
culture. Some experts call it the greatest symphony ever written, and
many commentators praise its visionary message. It is also one of the
most revolutionary works by a composer mainly defined by the
revolutionary nature of his works. Beethoven freed music from
prevailing conventions of harmony and structure. Sometimes I feel in
his late works a will to break all signs of continuity.

The Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci said a wonderful thing in
1929, when Benito Mussolini had Italy under his thumb. “My mind is
pessimistic, but my will is optimistic,” he wrote to a friend from
prison. I think he meant that as long as we are alive, we have hope. I
try to take Gramsci’s words to heart still today, even if not always
successfully.

By all accounts, Beethoven was courageous, and I find courage an
essential quality for the understanding, let alone the performance, of
the Ninth. One could paraphrase much of the work of Beethoven in the
spirit of Gramsci by saying that suffering is inevitable, but the
courage to overcome it renders life worth living.

_[DANIEL BARENBOIM is a pianist and conductor, co-founder of the
West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and founder of the Barenboim-Said Academy
in Berlin.]_

* Beethoven
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* Ludwig van Beethoven
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* Ninth Symphony
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* Ode to Joy
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* Music
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* Culture
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* art
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* Daniel Barenboim
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* humanity
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* Antonio Gramsci
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