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.
