DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (August 4, 2020)
Today, we proceed to the "crux" of the matter. We have moved from Song 1, which discussed God's infinite goodness; to Song 2, which addressed the love of your neighbor. Now, we go to Song 3, which discusses death. Why have we moved from the beautiful ideas, such as God's Goodness and Love of your Neighbor, to ugly Death?
Here is the poem:
Meine Lebenszeit verstreicht,
Stündlich eil ich zu dem Grabe;
Und was ist′s, das ich vielleicht
Das ich noch zu leben habe?
Denk, o Mensch! an deinen Tod.
Säume nicht; denn eins ist not.
My lifetime is slipping away,
I rush to the grave every hour;
And what is it perhaps
That I still have to live for?
Think, oh man, upon your death
Do not delay, because that one thing is inevitable!
Beethoven's setting is unnerving, and in the piano postlude, we hear the bell tolling for us.
We have already seen how Brahms, almost a century later, followed up on the first song in his “Four Serious Songs” (“Vier ernste Gesänge”) with the question of love for your neighbor; of not just thinking about yourself, but other people. Brahms' third song, like Beethoven, addresses death—"O Tod, wie bitter bist du": "O Death, how bitter you are."
This cannot be a mere coincidence! Both artists, more than addressing the question of "Who is God?", are perhaps asking " What are our lives about?" People have widely varying answers for that question, which often ignore a fundamental reality: We are mortal! We are born-we live-we die. In between we get our one and only opportunity to make a difference.
Why does the poet say: "I rush to the grave every hour?" Are we in that big of a hurry? The truth is, our lives are short, and time does fly by, no matter what we do.
" What is it that I perhaps have left to live for?" Is that an existential question, as in, “what jaded pleasures are left to explore”? Or, is it more like, “what do I have left that I want to accomplish, and how do I organize my remaining time to get it done?”
Beethoven remarked that the wise person sees time as his most precious commodity, and does not waste it. He got up at 5 A.M. every day, to begin his creative work.
What makes for a successful life? The accumulation of wealth? The accumulation of knowledge? Dig up an unmarked grave and examine the bones. Can you tell if they are wealthy bones or wise ones? Surely propagating a family has far more meaning than money! Yet, this writer feels closer to Beethoven, who composed this work in 1801-1802, than his own ancestors from that time, whose names he does not even know.
The song poses a question: We have a short time on this earth. How do we use it wisely?
We call this the "crux" of the matter. Crux means Cross in German, and indeed, the question of the immortality of the individual soul was posed on the Cross as never before.
Beethoven answers this question by contributing his treasure trove of extraordinary work to the future. Songs 3 and 4 join as the Crux of the matter.
We discussed Kepler in the Posting of June 30, 2020. Kepler found the Mind of the Creator in the truth of how geometry and music are expressed in the proportions of the solar system. Do we know God only through Bible passages, or through the complex beauty of the universe?
The poem for song 4 is entitled: "Die Ehre Gottes aus der Natur". "The Glory of God in Nature.”
The poem is derived from Psalm 19:
"Die Himmel erzahlen die ehre gottes;
Und seine Hände Werk Zeigt ein das Firmament.
"The heavens declare the glory of God;
and the firmament sheweth his handywork."
As one might imagine, all of the musical settings express the glory of Creation. Gellert's Poem goes as follows:
Die Himmel rühmen des Ewigen Ehre,
Ihr Schall pflanzt seinen Namen fort.
Ihn rühmt der Erdkreis, ihn preisen die Meere,
Vernimm, o Mensch, ihr göttlich Wort.
Wer trägt der Himmel unzählbare Sterne?
Wer führt die Sonn' aus ihrem Zelt?
Sie kommt und leuchtet und lacht uns von ferne,
Und läuft den Weg gleich wie ein Held.
The heavens boast of eternal glory;
Your sound propagates its name.
The earth praises him, the seas praise him;
Hear, oh man, you divine word!
Who carries the sky countless stars?
Who leads the Sun out of her tent?
It comes and shines and laughs at us from afar?
And runs the way straight away as a hero.
Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach set Gellert's poem as follows:
Beautful! However, his father also got his hands on the idea. Here is Johann Sebastian Bach’s setting of the original Psalm:
The most magnificent setting of this Psalm, comes from Haydn, in his “Creation”. Before Baron von Swieten educated the young Mozart in the music of Bach and Handel, he wrote the libretto for this work. Haydn had been to England, and had heard Handel, who was fairly unknown in Europe. Von Swieten designed it so that it could be sung in English. This is the beginning of the Bach-Handel revival in Vienna.
Is it better than Beethoven? Perhaps yes, as a setting of the idea. But, Beethoven set Gellert's poetic rendition and he had a specific idea in mind of the song as a transition. One cannot judge it out of context. Here is the Beethoven setting. His tribute to Haydn in the same key of C major, is inescapable:
It is often set as a hymn for chorus and works quite well.
The meaning of our individual life as addressed in song 3, cannot be answered in an existential way. We are part of a beautiful, ordered, meaningful universe. Kepler proved that! Our positive contributions shall not perish, but live into eternity. That is the nature of a good Creator, a good universe, and the goodness that was instilled in our heart, before we were even born.
For more Daily Dose, go to our previous posts, or to www.ffrcc.org. You will find the index of past posts on https://www.ffrcc.org/daily-dose-of-beethoven