Beethoven, his 250th birthday, a Tribute. Catholic Music Tradition
Beethoven: Beset, besieged, but never beaten...
This year celebrates the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven -17th November 1770. I have an admiration for him because he composed creatively through personal trials, self-doubt and the dawning reality of his gradual hearing loss that would lead to total deafness.
His deafness did not doom him as a composer. It energised him! He would sit at the piano, put a pencil in his mouth and then by touching the other end of it to the soundboard of the instrument, he felt the vibration of the note. Imagine if Beethovan lived in today’s world of instagram, youtube and blogging - where he could promote, publish and perform instantly!! Yet, he listened intently with an inner hearing mechanism - which for him then and for us today has a relevant message, as this is also the heart of all prayer.
Beethoven was baptised into the Catholic Church. His Missa Solemnis is saturated with a distinctive Catholic faith. He called it ‘his crowning glory.’ At a recent concert to celebrate his birth, I read on the programme notes that it was time to ‘de-catholicise’ Beethoven. Such crass statements should not go unchallenged. What is it about tawdry revisionism today? Beethoven wrote at the top of his Missa Solemnis in 1824: FROM THE HEART - MAY IT RETURN TO THE HEART. It echoes the motto of Saint John Henry Newman( 1801-1890), HEART SPEAKS TO HEART - Cor ad cor loquitur. For Beethovan - his soulful music was his heartfelt prayer to God.
Beethovan died in 1827. His best known work, apart from Moonlight Sonata, is a melody that comes from his Ninth Symphony. This music was set to the 1785 lyrics - Ode to Joy - composed by the German poet, Friedrich von Schiller.
In 1972, the Council of Europe adopted Beethovan’s Ode to Joy as its anthem. In these Brexit days the melody is not heard in the United Kingdom - except in Scotland! I will leave the last word to Beethovan:
“To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable.
Fr John Cullen, Diocese of Sligo, Ireland
