Ode to Revolution?

Ridding the house of Rock and Roll music is a worthy endeavor, I can assure you. But apparently, you even have to be careful and discerning with some classical music as well. How many of you knew that the Beethoven classic, the Ninth Symphony, was written as an anthem to Freemasonry?

From an online encyclopedia:

The Ode to Joy was adopted as Europe's anthem by the Council of Europe in 1972, with an official arrangement for orchestra written by Herbert von Karajan.

In 2003, the European Union chose Beethoven's music for the poem as the EU anthem, without German lyrics, because of the many different languages used within the European Union. Therefore, the EU anthem is in effect the Beethoven theme (or melody) rather than Schiller's poem, although its connection with the ideal of human brotherhood in the text is understood. This ideal is stated in much more universal terms in Beethoven's adaptation ("All human beings become brothers") than in Schiller's original, which states that "beggars become the brothers of princes."

Interesting, isn't it?

The lyrics are quite interesting:

Joy, thou shining spark of God,
Daughter of Elysium,
With fiery rapture, goddess,
We approach thy shrine.

Your magic reunites
That which stern custom has parted;
All humans will become brothers
Under your protective wing.

Even the Rosicrucian movement gets a tip-of-the-hat:

Joy is drunk by every creature
From Nature's breast;
Every good one, every bad one
Follows her rosy pathway

Revolution in music. Amazing what you can learn in a day.