Ode to Joy

We act in the world, and we expect something to change.

Feb 10, 2024

We all desire to express, relate, and interact, regardless of our talents and abilities. When we get nothing back from our efforts, when we feel that nobody pays attention to us and our work, barely real—ghosted, is the current term—we feel terrible.

Because our desire to matter, to make a mark, to have an impact is part of our nature.

We act in the world, and expect something to change. And with it, that someone notices us.

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That’s how flash mobs work. One or two people do something, and slowly others join in. The people who happen to be there are part of the connection.

I challenge you not to be moved by what is possibly the most incredible Beethoven ‘Ode to Joy’1 flash mob by the Philharmonic Orchestra of Nürnberg and the Hans-Sachs-Choir in front of the St. Lorenz Church Nürnberg, Germany (organized by Evenord-Bank eG-KG.)

You can see the children and adults alike who join in the choir. It’s the power of music and art to draw us in and express our feelings—in this case spontaneous joy. I sang along just watching from home. Can you imagine the energy in loco?

I love to watch the expressions of children when they listen to classical music—they’re priceless. I grew up listening to symphonic music, and I can attest to its calming and meditative qualities. See them in a flash mob from Giuseppe Verdi’s ‘Aida.’2

It was a teaser for «Festival La Perla» in Zürich ten years ago. Soloist Barbara La Faro is in the second part of the video. There are many comments to the video in different languages. Music is a universal language—it responds to us as we respond to it.

“There are so many people recording and circulating all of the sad and tragic events of the world. These events are so wonderful, so full of heart. They are so much bigger than one moment. They bring joy and they inspire people to get out and participate and to want to see these amazing events live. They give people hope and light.”
Temple Green, comments

Here’s another example from the world of dance. Roberto Bolle and company organized several flash mobs throughout Italy. The one on the video below is in Piazza della Scala, Milano on the notes of ‘Fame.’

Joy, enthusiasm, energy are all around us, waiting for a step to activate. You can see the response from the people around the dancers. We respond to beauty, and dance is a very powerful means to build connection.

Here’s another flash mob playing an excerpt of the ‘Arlésienne’3 by Georges Bizet in the hall of Paris North station. It’s fantastic to see so many young musicians in the ensembles.

We act in the world, and we expect something to change. We seek human bonds to gain a sense of belonging, but also to ensure a response from someone. Any response will do. The worst that can happen is nothing.

Timeliness is also an issue. Responses that are delayed and very slow to come is one of the reasons why we dislike bureaucracy. I’ve been waiting more fifty days for a response to something that should be routine from an airline. I keep getting automatic messages that the case is open (but zero status updates.)

And we do take silence, ghosting, personally.

Twitter was fun in the hay-day of quasi-instant responses, even weird reactions where better than the ghost-town it’s become. It’s the strategy of bots and trolls—they use our need for response to gain momentum on the now limping platform.

Machines have no feelings that get hurt. They can keep going at infinitum because there’s no emotional energy to run out.

Asynchronous technology has become ubiquitous—social networks turned into social media, so forget interaction. Unless you tag people (appropriately) and often not even then, if a response to you strays from a carefully-planned social media strategy.

Every person seeks a response for their thing, yet is unwilling to participate in the response to someone else’s thing. What do you call a choir of voices each to a different tune? It’s a cacophony.

We use email instead of phone calls to drive efficiency. But expect speedy responses of some kind. Perhaps the ‘reply to all’ in email is an attempt at elicit a reaction from someone—anyone.

Newsletters are ‘emails to all’ with prompts designed to make it easy (and quick) to react. When nothing happens it’s disheartening. You’d be surprised how far a like or share goes, psychologically.

Texts (sms in Europe) have become the final frontier when it comes to our desire for immediacy. Technology has made it easier to react—we can like or heart everything. But it hasn’t diminished the human need for knowing why, the why behind the act.

Most of us find ways to temper our frustration with a lack of responsiveness. We develop copying to hacking strategies to get signal (and not just automatic or fake noise, otherwise called spam.)

All we’re after is a responsive universe

If we all gave people just a bit more of our energy than they bid for, we’d build an energy surplus in society. Because responsiveness can turn into useful feedback, friendships, happy neighbors, stronger communities and healthy outlooks.

Without this kind of social energy, we have isolation. Digital communication makes it harder to connect. The media have infected the message with their cold lack of friction. And nowhere is colder and more profit-driven than America.

I’ll leave you with a flash mob of Giacomo Puccini’s ‘Nessun Dorma’4 from the opera ‘Turandot’—sung by the WDR Radio Choir on the Prinzipalmarkt in Münster on September 2, 2021 under the baton of its chief conductor Nicolas Fink.

I find it extraordinary that people would sing in another language with such beauty and relish. ‘Nessun Dorma’ was Luciano Pavarotti’s favorite aria and his most exquisite performance.

References:

‘The Story Behind Ode to Joy’ by Ludwing van Beethoven, Exploring your Mind

A complete guide to Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida, SimpleOpera

Roberto Bolle’s biography

Here are the lyrics of Ode to Joy in German and English, in case you want to sing along.

Aida is an Ethiopian princess held captive in Egypt, in love with a General, Radames, and he with her. When he is chosen to lead a war with Ethiopia, we follow the conflict of Aida’s love for both Radames and for her country.

L’Arlésienne is incidental music composed by Georges Bizet for Alphonse Daudet's drama of the same name, usually translated as The Girl from Arles. The first performance was September 30, 1872 at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris.

An aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini’s ‘Turandot’ and one of the best-known tenor arias in all opera. It is sung by Calaf, il principe ignoto, who falls in love at first sight with the beautiful but cold Princess Turandot. Any man who wishes to wed Turandot must first answer her three riddles; if he fails, he will be beheaded. In the aria, Calaf expresses his triumphant assurance that he will win the princess.