To joy
(Poet's title: An die Freude)
Set by Schubert:
D 189
for solo voice, chorus and piano[May 1815]
Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum.
Deine Zauber binden wieder,
Was die Mode streng geteilt,
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
Chor
Seid umschlungen Millionen!
Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt!
Brüder, überm Sternenzelt
Muss ein guter Vater wohnen.
Wem der große Wurf gelungen,
Eines Freundes Freund zu sein,
Wer ein holdes Weib errungen,
Mische seinen Jubel ein!
Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele
Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!
Und wer’s nie gekonnt, der stehle
Weinend sich aus diesem Bund!
Chor
Was den großen Ring bewohnet
Huldige der Sympathie!
Zu den Sternen leitet sie,
Wo der Unbekannte thronet.
Freude trinken alle Wesen
An der Brüsten der Natur,
Alle Guten, alle Bösen
Folgen ihrer Rosenspur.
Küsse gab sie uns und Reben,
Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod.
Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben,
Und der Cherub steht vor Gott.
Chor
Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?
Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt?
Such ihn überm Sternenzelt,
Über Sternen muss er wohnen.
Freude heißt die starke Feder
In der ewigen Natur.
Freude, Freude treibt die Räder
In der großen Weltenuhr.
Blumen lockt sie aus den Keimen,
Sonnen aus dem Firmament,
Sphären rollt sie in den Räumen,
Die des Sehers Rohr nicht kennt.
Chor
Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen,
Durch des Himmels prächt’gen Plan,
Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn,
Freudig wie ein Held zum Siegen.
Aus der Wahrheit Feuerspiegel
Lächelt sie den Forscher an.
Zu der Tugend steilem Hügel
Leitet sie des Dulders Bahn.
Auf des Glaubens Sonnenberge
Sieht man ihre Fahnen wehn,
Durch den Riss gesprengter Särge
Sie im Chor der Engel stehn.
Chor
Duldet mutig, Millionen!
Duldet für die bess’re Welt!
Droben überm Sternenzelt
Wird ein großer Gott belohnen.
Göttern kann man nicht vergelten,
Schön ist’s, ihnen gleich zu sein.
Gram und Armut soll sich melden,
Mit den Frohen sich erfreun.
Groll und Rache sei vergessen,
Unserm Todfeind sei verziehn.
Keine Träne soll ihn pressen,
Keine Reue nage ihn.
Chor
Unser Schuldbuch sei vernichtet!
Ausgesöhnt die ganze Welt!
Brüder – überm Sternenzelt
Richtet Gott, wie wir gerichtet.
Freude sprudelt in Pokalen,
In der Traube goldnem Blut
Trinken Sanftmut Kannibalen,
Die Verzweiflung Heldenmut – –
Brüder, fliegt von euren Sitzen,
Wenn der volle Römer kreist,
Lasst den Schaum zum Himmel spritzen:
Dieses Glas dem guten Geist!
Chor
Den der Sterne Wirbel loben,
Den des Seraphs Hymne preist,
Dieses Glas dem guten Geist
Überm Sternenzelt dort oben!
Festen Mut in schweren Leiden,
Hülfe, wo die Unschuld weint,
Ewigkeit geschwornen Eiden,
Wahrheit gegen Freund und Feind,
Männerstolz vor Königsthronen –
Brüder, gält es Gut und Blut –
Dem Verdienste seine Kronen,
Untergang der Lügenbrut.
Chor
Schließt den heil’gen Zirkel dichter,
Schwört bei diesem goldnen Wein,
Dem Gelübde treu zu sein,
Schwört es bei dem Sternenrichter!
Joy, beautiful divine spark,
Daughter from Elysium,
Drunk with fire, we tread into
Your sanctum, heavenly one.
Your magics reattach
What convention powerfully separated;
All humans are going to become brothers,
Where your gentle wing offers protection.
Chorus
Be embraced, millions!
This kiss is for the whole world!
Brothers, over the canopy of stars
There must dwell a good father.
Whoever has made a success of the great challenge of
Being a friend to a friend,
Whoever has acquired a beloved wife,
Can join in with their jubilation!
Yes, that includes anyone who is able to say that a single soul
Is theirs anywhere on Earth!
And anyone who has never achieved this, let them creep away
Crying from this alliance!
Chorus
Let all that inhabit this circle
Accept the value of sympathy!
Sympathy leads to the stars
Where the unknown is enthroned.
All beings drink joy
From nature’s breast,
All things good or evil
Follow its rosy trace.
It gave us kisses and grapes,
A friend tested to the death.
A sense of pleasure was given to the worm
And the cherub stands before God.
Chorus
Are you abased, millions?
Do you have a sense of the creator, world?
Look for him over the canopy of stars,
He must dwell over the stars.
Joy is the name of the strong mechanism
In eternal nature.
Joy, joy propels the wheels
In the great world clock.
It lures flowers out of their buds,
The sun out of the firmament,
It rolls spheres in space
Even those unknown to the wands of seers.
Chorus
Happily, like its suns flying
Through the majestic chart of the sky,
Run your course brothers,
Joyfully, like a hero to victory.
Out of the fiery mirror of truth
Joy smiles on the researcher.
To the steep hill of virtue
Is where it leads, this path for those who suffer.
On the sunny mountains of faith
You can see its flags flying,
Through the cracks of coffins that have burst open
You can see it standing in the choir of angels.
Chorus
Suffer with courage, millions!
Suffer for a better world!
Up there over the canopy of stars
A great God will reward us.
Gods cannot be offered payment;
It is beautiful to resemble them.
Grief and poverty should make themselves known,
And take enjoyment with those who are happy.
Let resentment and anger be forgotten,
Let our deadly enemy be forgiven.
No tears should oppress him,
No repentence should gnaw at him.
Chorus
Let our book of debts be wiped clean!
Let the whole world be reconciled!
Brothers, over the canopy of stars
God judges as we will be judged.
Joy fizzes in goblets,
The golden blood of the grape allows
Cannibals to drink gentleness,
It allows doubt to drink the courage of heroes –
Brothers, fly up from your seats,
When the full wine glass comes around,
Let the froth bubble up to heaven:
This glass is for the good spirit!
Chorus
To anyone who praises the whirl of the stars,
To anyone who values the hymns of seraphs,
This glass is for the good spirit
Up there over the canopy of stars!
Firm courage in heavy sorrows,
Help, where innocence weeps,
Oaths sworn on eternity,
Truth against friend or foe,
Human pride before the thrones of kings, –
Brothers, at the cost of goods and blood,
Let crowns be given to those that merit them,
Downfall to the breed of liars!
Chorus
Complete the holy circle by coming closer,
Swear by this golden wine,
To be true to those taking this vow,
Swear it by the judge over the stars!
All translations into English that appear on this website, unless otherwise stated, are by Malcolm Wren. You are free to use them on condition that you acknowledge Malcolm Wren as the translator and schubertsong.uk as the source. Unless otherwise stated, the comments and essays that appear after the texts and translations are by Malcolm Wren and are © Copyright.
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Themes and images in this text:
Angels Arms and embracing Blood Brothers and sisters Chest / breast Circles Climbing Clocks Crowns Cups and goblets Daughters Drinking songs The earth Elysium Father and child Fire Flags Flowers Flying, soaring and gliding Friends Gold Graves and burials Heaven, the sky Heavenly choir Hills and mountains Joy Kissing Magic and enchantment Mirrors and reflections Money Mountains and cliffs Resurrection Roses and pink Soul Space Spheres Stars The sun Thrones Tears and crying Walking and wandering Wheels Wine and vines Wings Worms
According to Graham Johnson, Schubert’s source for his Schiller settings in 1815 was a Vienna edition of 1810. This included the revised version of An die Freude which appeared in 1808 as Schiller’s works appeared in collected editions. At some point the poet had modified two lines in the first stanza:
Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elisium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken
Himmlische, dein Heiligthum.
Deine Zauber binden wieder,
Was der Mode Schwerd getheilt;
Bettler werden Fürstenbrüder,
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
Joy, beautiful divine spark,
Daughter from Elysium,
Drunk with fire, we tread into
Your sanctum, heavenly one.
Your magics reattach
What the sword of convention separated;
Beggars will become the brothers of princes,
Where your gentle wing offers protection.
and deleted the final stanza in the 1785 version (which had been published in Thalia in 1786):
Rettung von Tirannenketten,
Großmut auch dem Bösewicht,
Hoffnung auf den Sterbebetten,
Gnade auf dem Hochgericht!
Auch die Toden sollen leben!
Brüder trinkt und stimmet ein,
Allen Sündern soll vergeben,
und die Hölle nicht mehr seyn.
Chor
Eine heitre Abschiedsstunde!
Süßen Schlaf im Leichentuch!
Brüder – einen sanften Spruch
Aus des Todtenrichters Munde!
Delivery from the chains of tyrants,
Magnanimity even for villains,
Hope at deathbeds,
Grace at the final judgement!
The dead shall also live!
Brothers drink and agree,
All sinners shall be forgiven
and there will be no more Hell.
Chorus
A pleasant hour of departure!
Sweet sleep in the shroud!
Brothers, a gentle saying
from the mouth of the judge of the dead!
This means that Schubert may have intended a total of eight strophes to be sung when D 189 was performed.
1. We can all be brothers where joy offers shelter 2. Friends and souls can belong to each other through sympathy 3. All of creation is nourished by joy 4. The world is maintained and kept in its course by joy 5. Difficulties (in finding truth and living a virtuous life) will be rewarded 6. Economic and social life can be transformed 7. Raise your glasses and your spirits 8. We vow to uphold truth and humanity and to challenge lies and unearned crowns
Even if the final strophes are not performed, we need them to realise that this text is essentially a drinking song, a sort of secular Eucharist in which the assembled brethren affirm their communion with a greater being as they drink wine together.
Schiller was commissioned to write the Ode by his new friend Christian Gottfried Körner (1756 – 1831)[1] in the summer of 1785 for a Freemasons’ Lodge in Dresden[2]. The author was still feeling the thrill of his escape from the court at Stuttgart, where the Duke of Württemberg had dictated the whole of his career path as a boy and a young man. He had managed to become a published author while studying medicine and working as a military doctor, and he used literature as a means of asserting his freedom of action and thought, in a direct challenge to the unquestioning authoritarianism that had dominated his life hitherto. A physical escape to Mannheim had allowed him to take the risk of abandoning his work for the Duke and devoting himself full time to literature. He was quick to get in touch with freemasons and others who shared the principles of brotherhood and enlightenment.
Schiller’s own personal circumstances chimed with the age. In central Europe the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II was experimenting with enlightened Absolutism, in western and southern Europe the Jesuit order was suppressed in a campaign against ‘superstition’, while across the Atlantic the newly independent United States (with its Masonic founding fathers) was experimenting with a constitution beginning with the words ‘We the people’. France was on the brink and would soon issue its Declaration of Human and Citizen Rights (with its first article being that ‘Humans are born and remain free and equal in terms of rights’).
Or would it be more honest to translate the title and the first article (Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen: Les hommes naissent et demeurent libres et égaux en droits) as ‘The Declaration of the Rights of Men and of Citizens: Men are born free and equal in terms of rights’? After all, it was this restriction which led Mary Wollstonecraft to produce ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ in 1792. It did not take critics of the American Constitution long to point out that the ‘We’ in ‘We the people’ did not include slaves and native Americans. A similar tension (some people might see it as hypocrisy) is present in Schiller’s Ode to Joy. Written for a sort of initiation or bonding ceremony, the text, for all its universalism and appeals to brotherhood, is fundamentally exclusive. The circle or alliance that is coming together in singing these words explicitly excludes anyone who has not managed to show friendship to another individual or who cannot claim to have another soul truly belong to them. Princes and tyrants are condemned (crowns should actually be removed from liars and there is a clear assumption in the final stanza that blood will have to flow in the process). The text seems to assume that only men will belong to the blessed circle (‘Whoever has acquired a beloved wife’ can belong, and there is no reference to sisters, just to brothers).
We have to remember, of course, that Schiller’s Ode is not a political or legal document (like the US Constitution or the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens) but a poem. Its aim was not to argue the case for liberty, equality and fraternity but to inspire sympathetic readers and reinforce their convictions that a fairer world could come into being. It would be a category error to focus on logical inconsistencies or to treat it as an unrealistic or unrealisable manifesto. It is that wonderful paradox, an emotive and stirring defence of a more rationally ordered world.
Joy is presented as something objective, not an inner state or a temporary mood; in stanza one its devotees are said to be approaching joy’s sanctuary (joy is not an emotion that they are bringing with them, it is a state that we enter into). Joy has its own domain and its citizens have to take risks and overcome challenges in order to gain admittance (stanza 2). The third stanza underlines the point that joy is not just about pleasant feelings: it is available to all things both ‘good and evil’ and, as well as giving us kisses and the grape (sex and alcohol), it also gave us ‘a friend tested unto death’ (presumably Jesus Christ). As the later stanzas go on to stress the centrality of joy to the workings of nature and society (and therefore to any human understanding of the physical and social sciences) we are reminded that enjoyment follows from (it does not precede) effort and struggle. This is why the climax of the text (in the 1808 edition) exhorts the assembled brethren to prepare themselves for even greater challenges ahead, so that crowns will only be given to those who have earned them.
For Friedrich Schiller this view of joy as something more than a superficial emotion grew out of his experience of applying himself to two onerous and personally unpalatable courses of study (law and medicine) whilst also managing to begin a career as a writer (both a dramatist and a historian). We can also be sure that his contemporaries shared his view of joy as bound up with struggle (both personal and political). There is evidence that Beethoven wanted to set the text even before he left Bonn for Vienna, yet the more he suffered as he got older (with his increasing deafness, melancholy and loneliness) the more determined he became to do justice to Schiller’s words. The disillisionment (or even cynicism) that might have followed the collapse of the French revolutionary programme into Terror and then into Napoleon’s Empire did not get in the way of contemporaries (or even members of the following generation such as Schubert) from taking the Ode to heart and committing themselves to its principles of brotherhood and truth.
[1] The father (and editor) of the poet Theodor Körner, whose work Schubert set to music in 1815 (e.g. D 166, D 169, D 170, D 172)
[2] The name of the lodge was Zu den drei Schwerten (At the sign of the three swords), which is presumably referred to in the original version of the first strophe, where ‘Was der Mode Schwert getheilt’ contrasts the sword of convention with the new dispensation in the lodge of the three swords.
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Original Spelling and notes on the text An die Freude Freude, schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elisium, Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligthum. Deine Zauber binden wieder, Was die Mode streng getheilt; Alle Menschen werden Brüder, Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt. Chor Seid umschlungen Millionen! Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt! Brüder - überm Sternenzelt Muß ein guter1 Vater wohnen. Wem der große Wurf gelungen, Eines Freundes Freund zu seyn, Wer ein holdes Weib errungen, Mische seinen Jubel ein! Ja - wer auch nur eine Seele Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund! Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle Weinend sich aus diesem Bund! Chor Was den großen Ring bewohnet Huldige der Simpathie! Zu den Sternen leitet sie, Wo der Unbekannte thronet. Freude trinken alle Wesen An der Brüsten der Natur, Alle Guten, alle Bösen Folgen ihrer Rosenspur. Küße gab sie uns und Reben, Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod. Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben, Und der Cherub steht vor Gott. Chor Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen? Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt? Such ihn überm Sternenzelt, Ueber Sternen muß er wohnen. Freude heißt die starke Feder In der ewigen Natur. Freude, Freude treibt die Räder In der großen Weltenuhr. Blumen lockt sie aus den Keimen, Sonnen aus dem Firmament, Sphären rollt sie in den Räumen, Die des Sehers Rohr nicht kennt. Chor Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen, Durch des Himmels prächt'gen Plan, Laufet Brüder, eure Bahn, Freudig wie ein Held zum Siegen. Aus der Wahrheit Feuerspiegel Lächelt sie den Forscher an. Zu der Tugend steilem Hügel Leitet sie des Dulders Bahn. Auf des Glaubens Sonnenberge Sieht man ihre Fahnen wehn, Durch den Riß gesprengter Särge Sie im Chor der Engel stehn. Chor Duldet muthig Millionen! Duldet für die bess're Welt! Droben überm Sternenzelt Wird ein großer Gott belohnen. Göttern kann man nicht vergelten, Schön ist's ihnen gleich zu seyn. Gram und Armuth soll sich melden, Mit den Frohen sich erfreun. Groll und Rache sey vergessen, Unserm Todfeind sey verziehn. Keine Thräne soll ihn pressen, Keine Reue nage ihn. Chor Unser Schuldbuch sey vernichtet! Ausgesöhnt die ganze Welt! Brüder - überm Sternenzelt Richtet Gott, wie wir gerichtet. Freude sprudelt in Pokalen, In der Traube goldnem Blut Trinken Sanftmuth Kannibalen, Die Verzweiflung Heldenmuth - - Brüder fliegt von euren Sitzen, Wenn der volle Römer kreist, Laßt den Schaum zum Himmel spritzen: Dieses Glas dem guten Geist! Chor Den der Sterne Wirbel loben, Den des Seraphs Hymne preist, Dieses Glas dem guten Geist Ueberm Sternenzelt dort oben! Festen Muth in schweren Leiden2, Hülfe, wo die Unschuld weint, Ewigkeit geschwor'nen Eiden, Wahrheit gegen Freund und Feind, Männerstolz vor Königsthronen, - Brüder, gält es Gut und Blut - Dem Verdienste seine Kronen, Untergang der Lügenbrut! Chor Schließt den heil'gen Zirkel dichter, Schwört bei diesem goldnen Wein; Dem Gelübde treu zu seyn, Schwört es bei dem Sternenrichter! 1 Schubert changed 'lieber' (loving) to 'guter' (good) 2 Schubert changed 'in schwerem Leiden' (in heavy sorrow) to 'in schweren Leiden' (in heavy sorrows)
Confirmed by Peter Rastl with Friedrich Schillers sämmtliche Werke. Neunter Band. Enthält: Gedichte. Erster Theil. Wien, 1810. In Commission bey Anton Doll. [korrigierter Druck] pages 280-284; with Gedichte von Friederich Schiller, Zweiter Theil, Zweite, verbesserte und vermehrte Auflage, Leipzig, 1805, bei Siegfried Lebrecht Crusius, pages 121-127; and with Thalia. Herausgegeben von Schiller. Erster Band welcher das I. bis IV. Heft enthält. Leipzig, bey Georg Joachim Göschen. 1787, pages 1-5 of Heft II [1786].
To see an early edition of the text, go to page 280 [286 von 292] here: http://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO_%2BZ207858202