STURM UND FREUDE

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,

Tochter aus Elysium,

Wir betreten feuertrunken,

Himmlische, dein Heiligtum.

Daine Zauber binden wieder,

Was die Mode streng geteilt,

Alle Menschen werden Brüder

Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

That pure verbal passion was Friedrich Schiller. Yet it was none other than the subject of this entry Beethoven who wrought Schiller’s An die Freude into his defining musical-verbal masterpiece. The truly sublime greatness of Beethoven is the subject of this short entry.

Whereas Bach, in my representation, is the epitome of the Divine Mind, and Mozart is the epitome of the Divine Spontaneity, Beethoven comes out here as the epitome of the Divine Passion, Sturm und Freude, as I have represented it in this entry’s title. In a certain sense, Beethoven comes the closest, in my opinion, to the Schopenhauerian thesis of the objectification of Pure Will. In fact, Will and Passion are in many ways representing the very same thing, and the strength of the will correlates to the intensity of the passion. One may argue that the will is less visible, more behind the scenes than the passion and to such person we may concede that, in our usage of these two words, Will has indeed an almost invisible quality, whereas Passion is more likely to be seen in its fiery outbursts, but this does not change anything, except to acknowledge the absence of an easy interchangeability between these two terms.

Lenin once said: “I know nothing better than the Appassionata!” referring, of course, to Beethoven’s great Piano Sonata #23, in f minor. Lenin himself was a powerful embodiment of will and passion, and, as such, his special affinity to Beethoven comes as a convincing and unimpeachable witness for our thesis, linking the genius of Beethoven to passion incarnate.