! A KISS FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD ! : MASTER GLOBAL ESSAY

 

' ODE TO JOY ' - giving goosebumps for 200 years. Beethoven's beaming finale inspires a vision that shifts in the eye of each beholder.

Even if you don't know Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, you probably know its finale, the famous '' Ode to Joy.''

Written 200 years ago, the ''Ode'' is crafted like the best of pop songs, with easily hummable, simple phrases that use the same techniques you hear in Taylor Swift hit today.

But the 'Ode'' is more than pop. It's a supranational anthem that aspires to a world in which ''all men become brothers,'' as its lyrics say. Its message, taken from a poem by Friedrich Schiller, is so broad and welcoming, sound specific, that it has been taken up by an extraordinarily broad array of people and political causes.

Since its premiere, the ''Ode'' has become shorthand for unity and hope, whether sincere or ironic. Sunny lyrics like '' Be embraced, oh you millions!'' and '' Here's a kiss for the entire world '' have made it a fixture of the Olympics.

It has been adopted by both oppressive regimes and the people who protest them. It sarcastically accompanies terror in '' A Clockwork Orange '' and '' Die Hard,'' but innocently entertains infants on '' Baby Einstein '' albums and in a sketch by the Muppets.

Why does this song still have such a hold on the world?

The answer starts with the music. Beethoven didn't always write tuneful melodies, but he certainly knew how. He arranged popular songs and composed memorable themes like the four-note opening of the Fifth symphony. Nothing, though is as brazenly catchy as the ''Ode to Joy.''

Beethoven composed it to be easily sung and hard to forget. It is in common time, with four beats per measure, and unfolds in neat, four-bar phrases. Often, there is one note for each syllable of text, and, crucially, the range is an octave, with the melodic line either up.

More often than not, the 'Ode' signifies hope. Women In China sang a version while protesting the Pinochet regime's role in the disappearance and deaths of their loved ones.

In Japan, the piece has traditionally been programmed on New Year's Eve as a symbol of rebirth, with choirs made up of thousands of amateurs; for the opening of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Seiji Ozawa led a performance that brought in singers from around the world.

But because the music is so familiar, if not overexposed, it can be used cynically. About a decade ago, there was a wave of ostensibly inspiring ''Ode to Joy'' flash-mob videos on YouTube, including one that has been viewed nearly 100 million times.

In the end, though, that feel-good performance was just dubious viral marketing for a Spanish bank.

It's no wonder that some critics have viewed the '' Ode to Joy '' as too accessible for its own good.

Yet that very quality is what keeps it so present and ever changing. We still recognize, and hear, this music because it's an earworm for the ages and it's something to believe in.

What that belief is, we may not always get right. But Beethoven must have known, as he kept putting his theme through variations and insisting that '' ALL MEN BECOME BROTHERS, '' that Elysium will forever be a work in progress.

The World Students Society thanks The New York Times.