Library and Archive Reading Rooms
View by appointment- Created by
- Else Meidner 1901–1987
- Title
- Poem by Else Meidner titled ‘Beethoven’s Symphony no 9 in D minor’
- Date
- 1949
- Format
- Document - writings
- Collection
- Tate Archive
- Acquisition
- Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate, 2006. Accrual presented by Annabel Hodin, 2020
- Reference
- TGA 20062/7/128/1/4
Description
[Transcription/translation]
Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 in D Minor
I stand as though on a sandbank
In an ocean of melodies
Of otherworldly beauty
And magical power!
The waves rush ever closer,
Foaming with force and bravura,
And the ether is richly suffused
With a wealth of oral harmonies.
The deluge rises, engulfs me,
I cannot breathe, my heart is filled
With blessed joy and desire profound!
Fanfares ring out, drumrolls resound!
Is the hour of the Last Judgement come?
But the waves gently recede,
Ebbing further and further away,
Just a few sweet melodic crests
Quietly, quietly ebb and flow —
I inhale deeply, and the life pulses
The more vigorously through my veins.
Again the tide rushes in,
Waves of sound amass,
Voices of angels rejoice on all sides:
‘Joy, beautiful spark of divinity!
Daughter of Elysium,
We now enter, drunk with fire,
Heavenly one, your sanctuary!’
EMM 1949
Archive context
- Papers of Josef Paul Hodin TGA 20062 (407)
-
- Working papers relating to artistic, cultural and historic figures TGA 20062/7 (106)
-
- Else Meidner TGA 20062/7/128 (29)
-
- Correspondence from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin TGA 20062/7/128/1 (8)
-
- Poem by Else Meidner titled ‘Beethoven’s Symphony no 9 in D minor’ TGA 20062/7/128/1/4