ODE TO JOY — by Steve Nadis
Ode to Joy is a poem written by Friedrich Schiller that is famous because Beethoven incorporated it in the fourth and final movement of his Ninth Symphony. I’ve heard the piece many times–my daughter is learning to play it on the piano–but never found it especially joyful. At 3 p.m. yesterday afternoon, however, I did hear a pure expression of joy–shrieks or squeals of delight emitted by, I’m guessing, many dozens of King and Amigos students (the schools being a block from my house) who’d just been released for the summer. I heard that spontaneous, gleeful cry for a few seconds and then it all quieted down just as fast, everyone evidently having already settled into their summer routines.
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05:28:53
