Ode to Freedom's Joy

"Joy, joy, joy.  
Beauteous godly spark, daughter of Elysium, drunk with fire.
Oh heavenly one, we come into your sacred shrine, 
your magic once again unites that which fashion sternly parted.  
All men are made brothers where your gentle wing abides."
Friedrich Schiller

December is the time of year when many of us have the chance to listen to our local city choir singing “Ode to Joy”.  It is an inspiring and uplifting piece, which is perhaps made even more inspirational by knowing that the original title and words were “Ode to Freedom”.

Censored!

At the time Friedrich Schiller wrote his masterpiece, which Beethoven later used in his 9th symphony, Germany was ruled by a tyrannical censorship.  Schiller was not allowed to print a hymn about the goodness of freedom.  If he wanted the world to read, and hear his words, he had to substitute the offending word for something acceptable to the authorities.

In Germany, freedom is a two-syllable word – freiheit.  The German word for joy is also a two-syllable word – freude.  Schiller needed a word starting with the letter “F” that had two syllables.  The word had to fit the metre of his hymn, and have a meaning that still made sense of the rest of his words.  He decided on freude – joy.

"I thought you knew!"

Friedrich Schiller’s faithful readers of his time were expected, however, to know that where they saw the word “freude” in his great work, they were to understand that the word should really have been “freiheit” - freedom.
 

"Freedom, freedom, freedom,
Beauteous godly spark, daughter of Elysium, drunk with fire.
Oh heavenly one, we come into your sacred shrine,
Your magic once again unites that which fashion sternly parted.  
All men are made brothers where your gentle wing abides."
Friedrich Schiller

 
Free to Fly
Carter, Eva
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