ODE TO JOY

Music is joy.

No matter the moment... from the music that nourishes to the farewell lament.

The sound that nourishes transports us beyond the barrier of our dramas and dilemmas; fulfils the spirit. However, in farewell, the musical atmosphere can change.

The concept of loss has different aspects: we can feel the material loss of something, the absence of someone, a memory, something we do not know at times; of longing, of a taste..., however, the metaphysical sense of loss is always a profit! If losses affect us it is because we are always attached and handcuffed to our concepts, or rather, preconceptions. We are born free, but wherever we go, we carry fastened handcuffs. Our ways of life, habits, customs and traditions resist change, or when they "change", are to follow the vast multitude of those who live the emptiness of a very busy life, for we live most of the time looking after our peripheries, travelling the world attentive to exteriorities, as in a centrifuge, forgetting the unique and profound being that dwells within ourselves.

In this context, Sufism, this mystical branch of Islam, says that: "When the ego grieves for what it has lost, the spirit rejoices over what it has gained" or for what it has found.

We live in a comfort zone that is nothing more than a nuisance for the spirit that struggles to free itself from the ego's prisons, but the mind and dictatorship exercised by our bodies bind us to the shackles that we stubbornly refuse to open and making us free. We forget the centripetal journey - which Huberto Rohden talks about so much in his messages – which leads us to meet our inner selves, awakening the consciousness of the Self, so strongly covered by the veil of the tyrannical ego.

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But, returning to our musical journey, we can make of music, a silence that only our spirit can hear. And this voice, this melody of silence that echoes within us - when receptive to that voice - leads us to meet the vast unknown. "Silence is spiritual intuition - and in the zenith of an intimate experience, silence reigns absolute, fecund, creative silence prevails, fullness-silence". However, for the encounter of this receptive channel to materialize, it demands the handcuffs release, it requires the attunement with the waves of this vast unknown, where joy is permanent and unchanging...

The excerpt of the poem below, written by Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) is an ode, a poetic composition that we can acknowledge as a hymn to joy. Schiller shared his time, friendship and philosophical dilemmas with Goethe, this mystic poet and the greatest expression of German literature. The importance of this particular poem is that Beethoven used it in its Ninth Symphony. Other works by Schiller were also arranged by Brahms, Schubert, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Donizetti, Rossini, Klebe.

ODE TO JOY - Friedrich von Schiller

O friends no more this sound!

Let us sing more cheerful songs,

fuller of joy!

Joy, bright spark of divinity,

daughter of Elysium,

fire-inspired we tread

thy sanctuary.

Thy magic power re-unites

all that custom has divided,

all men become brothers

under the sway of thy gentle wings.

Whoever has created

an abiding friendship,

or has won

a true and loving wife,

all who can call at least one soul theirs,

join in our song of praise;

but any who cannot creep tearfully

away from our circle.

All creatures drink of joy

at nature's breast.

Just and unjust alike

taste of her gift;

she gave us kisses and the fruit of the wine,

a tried friend to the end.

Even the worm can feel contentment,

and the cherub stands before God!

Gladly, like the heavenly bodies

He set on their courses

through the splendour of the firmament;

thus, brothers, you should run your race,

as a hero going to conquest.

You millions, I embrace you.

This kiss is for all over the world!

Brothers, above the starry canopy

there must dwell a loving Father.

Do you fall in worship, you millions?

World, do you know your Creator?

Seek Him in the heavens!

Above the stars, He must dwell.