"While reporting on the Eurovision Song Contest, the New Yorker 's Anthony Lane asked a man named Seppo, from the seven-hundred-strong Eurovision Fan Club of Norway, what he loved about Eurovision. 'Brotherhood of man,' he said - a slightly ambiguous answer, because that was the name of a British group that entered, and won, the contest in 1976. And the concept has a longer history in European music than that:"
"Friedrich Schiller claimed to be celebrating it when he wrote his poem "An die Freude," or "To Joy," which Ludwig van Beethoven adapted a few decades thereafter into the final movement of his Symphony No. 9. Later still, in 1972, that piece of music was adopted by the Council of Europe as the continent's anthem; in 1985, the European Union made it official as well."
"In a sense, "Ode to Joy" is a natural choice for a musical representation of Europe, not just for its explicit themes, but also for the obvious ambition of the symphony that includes it to capture an entire civilization in musical form. Its complexity and contradiction may be easier to appreciate through these videos, which constitute a visualization by Stephen Malinowski, creator of the Music Animation Machine, previously featured here on Open Culture"
Seppo, a member of a seven-hundred-strong Eurovision Fan Club in Norway, expressed that he loved 'Brotherhood of man' about Eurovision, a phrase which also names the British group that won in 1976. Friedrich Schiller celebrated joy in his poem 'An die Freude,' which Beethoven adapted into the final movement of his Ninth Symphony. 'Ode to Joy' was adopted as the Council of Europe's anthem in 1972 and later made official by the European Union in 1985. The Ninth Symphony's ambition aims to capture an entire civilization in musical form. Stephen Malinowski's Music Animation Machine provides visualizations that clarify the symphony's complexity and contradictions.
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