On certain days, I wake up humming the Ode to Joy. Or I find myself humming it in the course of the day. For me it's a reminder from the Powers That Be to remember, remember the great resonant joy of life and being that underlies everything, and try to re-connect. Sometimes that thread of song does the trick, reconnects me. No one really knows what Beethoven felt when he composed this beloved work, but what a gift he left us.
In the movie "Immortal Beloved" there is a wonderful scene where the Composer is remembering himself as a child as the Ode to Joy plays, escaping the brutality of his drunken father through a window, the young boy runs faster and faster through a darkened wood. Finally he leaps into a pool of water, illuminated by the moon and the stars. There the boy floats on his back gazing up at that vast starry sky, and it seems that the stars themselves come down to join him, and he is ever expanding with them, vast, and free, and one of them.
I could never forget that image...............the stars within the music, ever expanding in a great ripple.
PS: I just noticed that this is the 777 post in my blog. That's got to be a good omen!
I was delighted to visit Bill Moyers article about "Ode to Joy" flash mobs around the world:
http://billmoyers.com/2013/11/14/beethoven%E2%80%99s-flash-mobs/
Here's one of them:
Hong Kong Festival Orchestra Flash Mob 2013: Beethoven's "Ode to Joy"
