Ode to Joy
How cliche to write while listening to music but something about this piece just makes me stop and let out a sigh that could blow down any house or out any fire. It is the Pavlovian effect in reverse. There are crescendos that lift my spirit like no other piece of music. How sad that it is abused in every manner possible and more than likely laid across the alter of poor taste more than once. It was definitely used in the movie "Die Hard" with Richard Donner directing. Richard Donner, Ha!, that man is a pompous cunt. I'm sure it was in a Kubrick film but more than likely surrounded by bombs exploding to show some sort of irony.
Ode to joy -- should only be used in the finest of things and a person like me should never define that. But it should be a selfish piece of music moving you to appreciate everything from the green of the trees to the masonry of a building. It is the one piece of music that I could most aptly define as "pure love".
In the middle it has a small part that I don't really like. It sounds like a leaf falling onto a pond. It doesn't sink but lays there and then some fierce wind comes along and blows that leaf into the mouth of the opera singer that start in with the German and the light timpani. I remember this part, at about the 4 minute mark, as part of Clockwork Orange. Our young Alex is walking through the record store but the music isn't played on oboe and violin. It is made by some Seussian object like a soozaphoneamonogram. It is still quite beautiful.
The German languag the chorus is sung in seems to fit the hearty weight of the piece. I don't think Italian could have captured the moment the way the German dialect does. German almost sounds like you are spitting gravy at a wall. It sounds disgusting, but with eyes closed and no disposition to the gravy actually splattering, it sounds, well it sounds really soothing. It sounds like a kitten licking itself in a grandmother's singing arms.
At about the 7 minute mark there is a peak that could break any man into dance. I feel as though I just had a child. There is a crescendo. There is a single oboe. There is a joining violin. There is a growing trumpet in the back. Then the mountain slide.
THE WHOLE CHOURS break into it with words "Alle Menschen werden Bruder,". And from high school German I understand this to be "All men are Brothers". There is beauty that I can't even fathom coming out of the music now. There is such uncontrolled love that pours out of my speakers that I can't help but want to hug them and thank them.
There is German brown turkey gravy flying now. There are balloons falling form the sky. It is everyone's birthday and I am under them all jumping up and down with platinum blonde hair from my youth. I am smiling and rejoicing. I am splashing water on my face and wrestling with a dog.
There is now, to my dismay, some crazy requiem piece which I wish would go away. Its right at the 8 minute mark and for some reason, despite it's beauty, it really depresses me and sort of hurts the song. So I put the metaphorical needle back to the beginning to hear the smooth cello that let's me into my own happy world. I always put the needle back at the 8 minute mark. I'll always do it too...
And then there it is again...it starts over for me once again. It starts playing with it's beautiful scales and I just can't really keep my smile in check. I close my eyes and picture blonde headed boys playing in water while somewhere there is gravy being thrown and people are laughing at it. I salute this day with Ode to Joy indeed. Thank you Lud...you truly are and would have been respected as a pure Mensch...Ode to You - you fucking genius.
You can get it here if you want.
