"Hallelujah" from Beethoven's Christ On The Mount Of Olives

the young Beethoven, by Joseph Willibrord Maehler

   The composer Beethoven was born into a Catholic family, but does not seem to have been devout as an adult.  It is known that he did not attend Mass regularly, and scholars are reluctant to assign to him any religious affiliation at all.  At the same time, it is also clear from his letters and his few religious compositions that, in his stubborn and idiosyncratic way, he retained a strong belief in God and His Providence.

Beethoven’s best-known and by far most successful religious composition is the Missa Sollemnis, which he completed just a few years before his death.  He did make other forays into sacred music earlier in his career, however.  In 1802, for instance, he produced the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, a revision of which he published in 1811.  The dramatic action of the piece focuses on Christ’s “Agony in the Garden” after the last supper, shortly before his arrest.  Beethoven’s piece reaches its climax not with the Resurrection, but at the moment in which Jesus decisively sets aside his human fears and says, “Not my will, but Yours!”

Christ on the Mount of Olives was not one of Beethoven’s more successful endeavors.  The composer himself was sharply critical of Franz Xaver Huber’s libretto; critics did not consider most of the music up to Beethoven’s usual standards.  The oratorio as a whole has not been performed as often as many other Beethoven pieces over the past two centuries, except for one passage: the triumphant “Hallelujah” that rings out at Our Lord’s moment of decision.  It’s a glorious musical acknowledgment of Christ’s self-sacrificing act of redemption, and a glorious way to celebrate the Easter Season.

Kyrie From Beethoven's Missa Solemnis

    When we think of Beethoven, Sacred Music might not be the first thing that comes to mind. Sacred music wasn't Beethoven's main interest,but he was a Catholic composer and what he did compose was, as we might expect, moving, powerful . . . and simply beautiful.  His Missa Solemnis is from the same time period as his magnificent 9th Symphony, at which point he was almost completely deaf (which is to say he probably never actually heard a note of it).
     My only complaint about this particular performance, which is conducted by Leonard Bernstein and features some of the best operatic singers of the time, is that it is in a concert hall and not a church. No matter, the few minutes you take to listen to this magnificent Kyrie from one of the all-time greats will be abundantly rewarded.

Sir Gilbert Levine conducts Beethoven Missa Solemnis, 2. Gloria

The "Gloria": another selection from Beethoven's glorious Missa Solemnis.  It's a mystery to me why I haven't heard this composition more often, or heard more about it.  Perhaps because Sacred Music puts off those who are suspicious of the Sacred . . . a double loss for them.

Beethoven: Kyrie (Missa Solemnis)

Sacred music wasn't Beethoven's main interest,but what he did compose was,as we might expect, moving and powerful . . . and simply beautiful.  His Missa Solemnis is from the same time period as his magnificent 9th symphony, at which point he was almost completely deaf (which is to say he probably never actually heard a note of it).




My only complaint about this particular performance is that it is in a concert hall and not a church (well, also that the men are dressed like Soviet apparatchiks). No matter, the few minutes you take to listen to this magnificent Kyrie from one of the all-time greats will be abundantly rewarded.

Abortion Myth # 9

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 MYTH: “It is cruel to bring children into the world when they will be unwanted and abused.  Every child should be a wanted child.”

TRUTH:

There is no logical or moral argument for killing an unborn child to save him or her from potential abuse; there are actually quite a few fallacies in the statement above:

-          What is truly cruel, and always wrong, is to take an innocent human life.  Killing is the most extreme form of abuse.

-           We are all “brought into the world” when our life begins, at conception; it’s too late to prevent it well before the earliest abortions.

-          It is also wrong to place a value on someone’s life because of how much another person, even their mother, wants them.

-          Accordingly, it is no more “compassionate” to kill an unborn child than it is a two year old, or for that matter, a ten year old. If a parent truly doesn’t “want” their child, the child can be put up for adoption because . . .

-          Every child is “wanted” by somebody: there are over a million families waiting to adopt at any given time.  There are lists of families who will gladly adopt babies with any sort of medical condition and from any ethnic background.

-          “Everyone agrees that children should be wanted . . . When it comes to the unborn, the pro-choice position is captured in a different slogan: ‘Every unwanted child a dead child.’” (Randy Alcorn, Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments)

-          Countries that legalize abortion report sharp increases in child abuse.  In the first ten years after the legalization of abortion in America, child abuse increased over 500%.  (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services Report, National Study on Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting, the American Humane Association, 1981 & 1991; 1977 Analysis of Child Abuse and Neglect Research, Us Dept. of H.E.W., 1978)

      

-          Moreover, it makes no sense to destroy someone now because of a lesser hurt that may never happen, or whose actual impact is impossible to predict.

-          Many people experience abuse or other forms of deprivation in childhood and still have happy and successful lives.  The above statement implies that only comfortable lives are worth living.

-          Do a Google search of “famous people not aborted” or a similar phrase and you will find lists of well-known people who were born into neglect, deprivation or abuse, such that many people would have considered it more prudent to abort them.  On these lists you will find names such as Beethoven, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jazz singer Ethel Waters, Steve Jobs, even, oddly enough, pro-abortion stalwarts such as Cher and Barack Obama.  Was it “cruel” to allow these people to live?

DON’T BUY THE LIE!

Essential Pro-Life Resources:

Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments (link)  

The Elliot Institute (link)  

National Right To Life Committee (link) 

Care-Net (link)

The Nurturing Network (link)

To See The Entire Abortion Myths Series Click HERE

Beethoven - Quartet in A minor for Strings, Op. 132, Mvt. 3 - Escher Str...

I'm posting this beautiful piece at the insistence of my son.  Beethoven composed it to thank God after the composer had recovered from a serious illness, hence the name "Heiliger Dankgesang" (Holy Song of Thanks).