Chœur de Radio France - Symphonie n°9: « Ode à la joie » (Beethoven/Kara…

The European Union Hymn by Ludwig Van Beethoven (1824)



“Ode to Joy” is best known for its use by Ludwig van Beethoven in the final (fourth) movement of his Ninth Symphony, completed in 1824. Beethoven’s text is not based entirely on Schiller’s poem, and introduces a few new sections. His tune[1] (but not Schiller’s words) was adopted as the Anthem of Europe ealier in 1972.
The ninth symphony was chosen to be the EU hymn because what historically represents Europe is culture. Much more than elsewhere in the world. What is special in the European continent is literature, music, philosophy, architecture, painting, all those unmatched things that have existed for centuries and, stand out above the rest like if they always have been there from time immemorial.

Nowadays we talk about the European Union in term of the economic point of view. Of course the EU traces its origins to the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC, 1951 Treaty of Paris) and the European Economic Community (EEC in 1957 Treaty of Rome). But just remember that when the presidents François Mitterrand (France) and Helmut Kohl (West Germany) began to build the European Communities, the original members were the Inner Six countries: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany - the EU and European citizenship were established when the Maastricht Treaty came into force in 1993. One of the first things the founders did was to create a common television channel which is Arte. The word “arte” is very clear about culture. Today, all of this seems left out because of the surge in the global economic context, interests and, challenges. Year over year Arte has seen its budget cuts have an impact on its European cultural content creation

It appears sometimes like when we talk about Europe, we talk about the Euro currency. Back then this wasn’t the idea gaining ground in the first place when the founders enabled European Union of 6 countries to get off the ground, even though now the economy could be considered like the backbone of growth for this young political and economic European Union of 28 member states. Read more of what Daniel Barenboim has to say about European continent core cultural identity




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