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Beethoven: Sparks of Joy – No.2

Part 1: The Eroica Symphony
Notes by Fred Haight

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 “Eroica”: 1st mvt (Furtwängler)

Beethoven lived in a time of great hope and optimism. The world was changing, and the future looked bright.

The poet Friedrich Schiller, expressed this in “The Artists”:

How beautifully, O man, with your branch of palm,
You stand on the century’s slope
In proud and noble manliness,
With open mind, with spirits high,
Stern yet gentle, in active stillness,
The ripest son of time.”

Schiller further said to his fellow artists that they must be leaders:

“The dignity of Man into your hands is given,
Its proctector be!
It sinks with you! With you it will be risen!”

It seems that Beethoven heeded Schiller’s words. In his admiration for the success of the American Revolution and the ideals of the French Revolution, Beethoven dedicated his 3rd symphony, “The Eroica” (Heroic), to Napoleon Bonaparte, at a time when it seemed he might actually liberate mankind. When Napoleon crowned himself Emperor in 1804, Beethoven ripped out the title and said ” Now, he too will trample on the rights of mankind.” He rededicated it to “The memory of a Great Man.”

You can hear that heroic and inspiring quality in the first movement: The crisis-ridden middle (development section) of the movement, was the longest ever written up to that point. In this recording, it lasts a full 6 minutes from 3:12 to 9:12. The Coda, or ending, is also magnificent. If the main theme, reminds us of a hero on horseback, the last minute and a half sounds more like Pegasus, the horse with wings!


Beethoven: Sparks of Joy – No.1

Beethoven Piano Sonata “Pathetique” in C minor
Notes by Fred Haight

Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata, in 3-PARTS (the second of the C-Minor Series)

Part One: Why is this work called “Pathetic”?

Beethoven’s electrifying Piano Sonata #8 in C minor, op.13, known as the “Pathetique”, was composed in 1798, when he was 28 years of age. It shook the musical world. Nothing like it had ever been heard. Today, we often listen passively, like it is old hat. Put yourself in the shoes of someone hearing it for the first time, and imagine the shock they felt.

Though it was his publisher who chose to call it “Grand Sonate Pathetique”, Beethoven approved of the title! Why would he approve of his work being called pathetic? Perhaps the word meant something different back then than it means today. Throughout this series, we will identify how the kindred spirits of Beethoven and the great poet Friedrich Schiller collaborated, though they never met. We have to consult Schiller in order to understand what pathetic actually means.

In his essay, On the Pathetic Schiller wrote:

“Representation of suffering (pathos)-as mere suffering-is never the end of art, but, as a means to that end, it is extremely important. The ultimate end of art is the representation of the super-sensuous, and the tragic art in particular effects this…in that it makes sensuous, our moral independence from the laws of nature, in a state of emotion.

“Only the resistance, which it expresses to the power of the emotions, makes the free principle in us recognizable; that resistance, however, can be estimated only according to the strength of the attack…nature must have first demonstrated… its entire might before our eyes..

“It is not art, to become master of feelings, which only lightly and fleetingly sweep the surface of the soul. But, to retain one’s mental freedom in a storm, which arouses all of sensuous nature, belongs to a capacity of resisting that is above all natural power; that is infinitely sublime.”

Thus, the Pathetique sonata, is not born out of personal suffering, nor does it wish to make us feel sorry for the individual who suffers—a feeling which, however heartfelt, cannot change anything. Rather, it demonstrates to us the potential to bring about change, by summoning something deep within, that rallies us to: “take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them.”

We provide a recording of the first movement, by the late Claudio Arrau, who resisted an overly-rushed tempo. We will discuss the scientific aspect, in the next episode.

Stay tuned.


Schiller Institute Website Inaugurates Beethoven Celebration Postings

December 16, 2020 marks the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven.  As part  of the international celebrations this year and next year,  in honor of Beethoven, the Schiller Institute  is happy  to inaugurate a new feature on our website. We will regularly post selections of Beethoven’s music with short discussions of the pieces. 

Friedrich Schiller’s beautiful words from his poem “Ode To Joy” are magnificently memorialized in the last movement of  Beethoven’s  9th Symphony. 

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, den Heiligtum.
Deine Zauber binden wieder,
Was die Mode streng geteilt,
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

Seid umschlungen Millionen!
Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt!
Brüder – überm Sternenzelt
Muß ein lieber Vater wohnen. 

English Translation

Joy, thou beauteous godly lightning,
Daughter of Elysium,
Fire drunken we are ent’ring
Heavenly, thy holy home!
Thy enchantments bind together,
What did custom stern divide,
Every man becomes a brother,
Where thy gentle wings abide.

Chorus.
Be embrac’d, ye millions yonder!
Take this kiss throughout the world!
Brothers—o’er the stars unfurl’d
Must reside a loving Father.

Schiller’s words and Beethoven’s music speak to us even more passionately and powerfully today, in these times of pandemic disease,  famine, economic crisis social unrest, and the threat of war.  Let us take Schiller and Beethoven to our hearts and minds and forge a new paradigm of peace and development for all humanity.  Listen, and let Beethoven instruct us!


Statement to Form The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites (Coincidentia Oppositorum)

Statement to Form The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites (Coincidentia Oppositorum)

To offer solutions through a new global health initiative.

By Helga Zepp-LaRouche, The Schiller Institute, Founder and Chair

(To add your name to endorse the Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites click here.)

The combination of crises we are now facing has reached such unprecedented proportions that it seems to exceed the psychological limits of what is bearable. Health experts throughout the world are warning that it may take another nine months before all nations can be supplied with a vaccine — and even then, the availability is not guaranteed. In the meantime, another one million people may lose their lives due to COVID-19.

But a much greater number of lives are threatened by the famine now spreading in developing countries, as a result of the decline in agriculture, and the collapse of the so-called informal sector of the economy. Many countries are already torn apart by preexisting social tensions that the pandemic has now exacerbated. This dynamic could massively grow in the coming months.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) has reported a huge drop of 10.7% in global labor income in the first nine months of this year, which amounts to 3.5 trillion dollars, and a loss of up to 500 million jobs by the end of the year. In the advanced economies, the bankruptcies, short-hours, and layoffs that jeopardize the existence of so many, were at least temporarily attenuated by government relief programs. But most developing countries are totally unable to fund similar programs. In the so-called “lower-middle income” countries, the income loss amounted to 23.3% in the second quarter, and 15.6% in the third quarter, and the forecasts for the fourth are much more pessimistic.

Considering that more than half the population in sub-Saharan African countries did not have well-balanced and sufficient nourishment even before the outbreak of COVID-19, the news reported by Vice.com that food prices in all of Africa have risen by 250%, is truly catastrophic. As the head of the World Food Program (WFP) David Beasley has warned for months now, a famine of “biblical proportions” threatens to kill up to 300,000 people per day. Phillip Tsokolibane, Schiller Institute collaborator in South Africa, has issued an urgent appeal for an international mobilization to fight starvation in Africa. “It is not a matter of what will happen – IT IS ALREADY HAPPENING.”

It is clear that faced with such a tragedy, only governments working together can implement the emergency programs needed to save the lives of many millions. However, unfortunately, the past months have shown that geopolitical confrontation with Russia and China is on the West’s agenda, and not cooperation, and, to name just one example, of the 5 billion dollars that the WFP urgently requires, it has only received 750 million. What is to be done? Shall we stand by, and watch the tragedy play out before our eyes?

In response to the 14th century Dark Age, which was characterized by catastrophes similar to those of today, Nicholas of Cusa, the inventor of modern science and the sovereign nation-state, and the great thinker of the 15th century, developed a new method of thinking, the Coincidentia Oppositorum, which represented, as he emphasized, an entirely new approach to solving problems. It was the idea that the human mind, in the living image of the Creator, is able to define the higher level on which all seemingly unsolvable contradictions can be resolved. According to Nicholas, the human mind is able to think of the One, which is of a higher power than the Many. In a similar way, Albert Einstein observed that problems cannot be solved on the level on which they were created.

Thinking in terms of the coincidence of opposites is the method that must be applied to solve the crisis that threatens all mankind today. We have to define a solution that meets the existential needs of all relevant individuals and interest groups on an equal basis. Concretely, this approach is readily applicable in regard to the pandemic.

It is the young people of this world whose future is most threatened by the combination of the pandemic and the economic crisis, although they were in no way responsible for them. Therefore, we need to develop prospects for them that both address the real problem, and give them a concrete task. We will only be able to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, and similar future pandemics, if a modern healthcare program is established in every single country of the world, one which corresponds, in principle, to the Hill-Burton standard in the U.S., the German and French healthcare systems before their privatization drives, or the system which proved to be so successful in Wuhan, China.

The first step in that direction could be taken by setting up partnerships between, for example, university clinics, hospitals, and medical faculties in the U.S. and European nations, and similar institutions in Africa. To build a modern healthcare system, not only medical capacities, such as hospitals, infrastructure, water, electricity, etc. are needed, but also a large number of well-trained medical personnel.

In that regard, such partnerships should train young people in the U.S., Europe and African countries, some of whom are unemployed, firstly, to become, medical auxiliaries, and then medical personnel, on the model of Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The very first step is to train young people so they can be deployed into the communities, or villages, and show the population the public health measures needed to fight the pandemic. In Tuskegee (Alabama), Tennessee, St. Louis (Missouri), and other places in the U.S., such cooperation with local institutions is already in place, which also involves clinics and local police forces in the various confidence-building measures, such as home visits, which is of extraordinary importance, given the overall uncertainties of the population, and the (often massive) campaigns against wearing masks, the rejection of vaccines, etc.

In the African partnership projects, the joint training and deployment of American and European youth aid workers with African youth, also requires confidence-building measures that can be carried out by medical personnel, as well as representatives of churches, or disaster-control organizations. Such programs should first focus on the distribution of medical supplies, and easily transportable food, such as powdered milk, dried and canned meat, etc., and then be expanded, as quickly as possible, to include training in infrastructure building, farming and industrial projects.

In the social flashpoints in American cities or European suburbs, where violent street fights have recently occurred for various reasons, and where young people are exposed to a wide array of dangers, such as drugs, alcohol, gang crime, internet addiction and a degraded counterculture, such training opportunities would be just the alternative they need to find a socially necessary and future-oriented task. In the U.S., such creative non-violent direct action would be in the historic tradition of the civil rights movement of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It should be remembered that Amelia Boynton Robinson, the civil rights activist who had brought Dr. King to Selma, Alabama, and who was beaten up by the police, and left for dead on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, during the infamous “Bloody Sunday” in March 1965, was the Vice President of the Schiller Institute for 25 years.

This is not the place to discuss the complexity of the social flashpoints, be it in the American cities where violence has broken out, in particular in the aftermath of the murder of African-American George Floyd, or in the French suburbs, where the effects of the pandemic dramatically exacerbated the long-standing social unrest. Although those social conflicts are undoubtedly instrumentalized by certain forces for their own political ends, it is nonetheless urgent to eliminate the real causes of the despair and uprooting of the young generation. Such an initial training to become medical auxiliaries, in many cases, can be the entry point for further professional training as a nurse, doctor or medical scientist.

In this moment of extreme polarization and violence in the streets the Committee of Coincidence of Opposites will also reconnect to the nonviolent tradition of Mahatma Gandhi, who defeated the British Empire in India, with that method and the Civil Rights Movement of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who were able to bring otherwise totally opposed political forces together in direct civil action.

This committee should bring together people with various qualifications, who can demonstrate in an initially small, but well-designed, example, how to approach the problem, in such a way that it can also be used as a pilot project for the large-scale government programs, that will hopefully follow soon after.

While it is urgent to train enough medical personnel worldwide to build a world health system, it must go hand in hand with overcoming the hunger pandemic. It is a crime against humanity that, as a result of the hunger crisis, massively compounded by the pandemic, literally many millions of people in developing countries are at risk of starvation (one of the most excruciating forms of death, according to former UN commissioner for Human Rights Jean Ziegler), while in the U.S. and Europe, farmers are struggling for their economic survival. Some have had to kill their herds, because the cartels have created slave labor-like conditions in the meat processing industry, leading to the repeated emergence of COVID-19 clusters. It is also unacceptable that the farmers, who produce vital sustenance for the entire society, are driven into bankruptcy by the maximum-profit policy of the banks and cartels, and by ideological, so-called “green” constraints.

Farm representatives should therefore join these medical teams to organize the emergency delivery of appropriate foodstuffs to crisis zones, and to begin training other young people to develop agricultural capacities in developing countries. Together with African farmers, they could begin to set up modern agriculture, which, of course, requires the development of infrastructure, water and electricity supplies, etc. There are enthusiastic young and older farmers in the U.S., Germany, France or Italy, who, in such a crisis situation, would consider it part of their mission in life to help overcome an unprecedented emergency with such a program.

The U.S. and Europe need an association of retired medical workers, concerned individuals, and social and religious organizations, to work together on this committee, in order to set up this training project. Part of their task is also to raise the donations needed from international and medium-sized firms, from board members who understand not only that these projects are a humanitarian necessity, but that it is also in their own best interest to maintain a livable world.

As soon as these projects take on a concrete form, they will spark the kind of enthusiasm that all great pioneer projects can generate, despite the seriousness of the situation, and they will give future prospects to many young people who would otherwise be dragged into social revolts and violent activities.

As mentioned, such a private initiative (direct civil action) in the tradition of the non-violent actions of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. cannot, by itself, solve the gigantic challenge before us. But it can provide a practical example of how people of good will can intervene in an otherwise desperate situation, and point to the required solution. These concrete examples will then encourage governments, or put pressure on them, to join forces and create, through a new credit system, the framework to permanently overcome underdevelopment in the developing countries.

In that way, the idea of Nicholas of Cusa, that a solution can be found on a higher level that takes into account the interests of all those involved, would find a concrete application today. This initiative will contribute to the fight against the pandemic, it will define a meaningful task for young people, and it will help to improve acute emergency situations in economically disadvantaged regions in the U.S. and Europe, as well as African countries. It will also highlight the vital importance of agriculture in times of famine, and save people from starvation. In a situation where many people feel powerless in the face of the catastrophe of the century, the committee will give every individual the opportunity to contribute something to overcoming the crisis.

To add your name to endorse the Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites click here or for more information call 917-475-8828.


Video — Roundtable Discussion, Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites

A group of forty individuals, including medical professionals, farmers, musicians,  scientists, educators, clergy, civil rights leaders, community activists and concerned citizens, held a round table discussion on October 23rd, 2020, in response to the call issued by Schiller Institute chairwoman Helga Zepp-LaRouche to form The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites to address the COVID pandemic, now coupled with an extreme famine crisis. The discussion was begun with brief remarks from Zepp-LaRouche; Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former U.S. Surgeon General; and Mike Callicrate, farm leader, and owner of Ranch Foods Direct. A lively elaboration followed in which several medical professional detailed work which they have already been conducting in Africa, Asia and South America, as well as in the U.S., which would lend itself to the type of community healthcare worker (CCC program) that Zepp-LaRouche and Dr. Elders have been emphasizing. Farm leaders discussed their willingness and capability to produce enough food to stop starvation feed the world, if given the go ahead and parity prices to survive and continue producing.  The video below includes introductory remarks from Zepp-LaRouche, Dr. Elders and Mike Callicrate.

CLICK HERE to endorse the call or become active in the Health Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites


Egypt’s East-West High-Speed Railway Project Launched with China Support

In an article draft for the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden, Hussein Askary of Executive Intelligence Review (EIR) reported that he has confirmed with senior officials of the Egyptian Ministry of Transportation, that the building of an East-West high-speed railroad across Egypt has been contracted. This will be only the second electrified, high-speed railroad in Africa, and longer than the one in Morocco, serving a larger population. Askary’s article will be on the subject of “The African Infrastructure Renaissance along the Belt and Road – Case Study: Egypt”.

He reports that in September, specialized railway websites that a consortium of the state- owned enterprise China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC and Egyptian companies Samcrete and the Arab Organization for Industrialization have won a $9bn contract to build a 543 km-long high-speed railway in Egypt. The line would link the Mediterranean coast at El-Alamein to the Red Sea at Ain Sokhna, at up to 250 km/h speed cutting the journey to three hours. “This is an unprecedented project in the history of Egypt connecting the east of the country to the west,” Askary writes, “rather than following the traditional centers along the Nile (south/north). This is major sign of the shift the current industrial and infrastructure revolution is creating in the demographics of the nation of 100 million people. The horizontal expansion of the population and its economic activities centers … is completely intertwined with the development projects defined by the current government.

“The new railway’s importance to Egypt was compared to the Suez Canal by the chief executive of Samcrete, Sherif Nazmy, who told Arab-language newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm that it would be the first new electric railway in Egypt since 1854. What is even more important is that not only Egyptian construction companies, engineers and workers will work shoulder to shoulder with their Chinese colleagues, but the project also will include technology transfer and industrial investment in Egypt. According to Nazmy, the trains would be manufactured in east Port Said, with Chinese technology transferred to Egypt. Furthermore, as in the case with the major Suez Canal tunnels, most of the building materials will likely be produced inside Egypt. This will give Egyptian companies a very important “foot in the door” in the international railway construction sector which will become significant for the African and West Asian markets.

“The railway will pass through and connect some of the most important new industrial zones and urban centers that are the flagships of the new Egyptian strategy such as Ain Al-Sokhna Port and industrial zone in the Gulf of Suez on the Red Sea, to the New Administrative Capital, and crossing the Nile River at the old capital Cairo to the new city of the 6th of October and further to Burj Al-Arab industrial and urban center (on the Mediterranean south of Alexandria), terminating in El-Alamein…. West of El-Alamein a new city is emerging, housing Africa’s largest nuclear power and technology complex, Al-Dabaa.”


The Way Out of the Crises – A New Paradigm for Civilization

(June 3, 2020) Schiller Institute Founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche commented on the situation in the USA, saying that the overall situation, with COVID 19, the famine pandemic, and the strategic tensions, on top of the instability in the streets, the solution requires the unique and different approach of the Schiller Institute. With 50 million people unemployed and underemployed, what is needed is the New Paradigm for civilization.

Reason, and a change in the thinking of citizens, organizations and government institutions is urgent to understand the British empire’s manipulation, and to defeat it. Their destabilization plan is not simply more Hong Kong style riots, but Malthusian genocide policy, and the elimination of sovereign cooperation among the United States, Russia, and China, in particular.

As in the 2014 Maidan coup in Ukraine, the ulterior motives of the City of London and Wall Street financial elites, who are actually running these operations, are mostly unknown to those who wish to stand up against injustice. The plans were spelled out in a banker’s meeting in September 2019 in Jackson Hole, and are now being played out in the USA. The oligarchy’s methods of creating chaos, and regime change, using “divide and conquer” strategy are nothing new.

“The LaRouche Plan to Reopen the U.S. Economy; The World Needs 1.5 Billion New, Productive Jobs” is designed to address the present national and global emergency.  50 million Americans must be given employment in truly productive jobs at wage levels commensurate with high living standards. This will also for the first time address the systemic unemployment, under-employment and mis-employment actually at the root of “the American urban crisis” for the past half-century and more. Training programs to qualify millions of persons from 17 to 30 years of age in machining, essential manufacturing skills, the medical field, construction, transportation and supplemental services, as well as in the frontier fields of space technology will prepare a new generation to shape the Earth’s next 50 years and more. Their creative reason applied to the labor process, developing new productive capability, is the true source of wealth.

Further, those 50 million jobs are the fulcrum to leverage the greatest physical economic transformation in human history, involving 1.5 billion jobs worldwide. Globalist geopolitics must be immediately superseded. A new cultural and economic paradigm must be envisioned, designed and enacted. That can begin with the United States, China, Russia and India convening a “Four Powers”summit, and discussing how to work together to bring this New Paradigm employment program into being over the next months.


NASA: Cooperation Above Geopolitics

May 27 —This week’s pending launch of the NASA/SpaceX manned Crew Dragon flight to the International Space Station (ISS) has put “Launch America” optimism back into the everyday atmosphere in the U.S.—not only the vision of space travel once again, but the joy of science and technology. Today’s last- minute postponement of the take-off was due only to weather, not malfunction or a mystery glitch. President Donald Trump and Mrs. Trump, on hand in Florida this afternoon, will return Saturday to the Kennedy Space Center for the rescheduled launch May 30 at 3:22 pm EDT; if weather again intervenes, May 31 is the next launch date.

The additional dimension to the U.S. renewed space commitment is international cooperation. NASA Director Jim Bridenstine, speaking at a pre-launch briefing May 27, was asked about the U.S. relationship to Russia, and he replied, “our cooperation transcends above terrestrial geopolitics.” This is the same spirit of cooperation that Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche calls for in her petition, “Coronavirus Petition: Build a Global Health Infrastructure.”

Bridenstine stressed the importance of the SpaceX Dragon Crew launch, scheduled to take place from the historic pad 39 at the Kennedy Space Center, will be the first time since July 2011 that America, “will launch American astronauts, on American rockets, from American soil.” He reflected that, as this launch is taking place in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, one thing that will inspire our America is that “all of America can take a moment and look at our country do something stunning again.” Astronaut Nicole Mann emphasized that the flight is our first big step on our road map to the Moon for the Artemis mission and on to Mars. Bridenstine stressed great confidence in the mission, despite the fact that some of the media questions expressed certain doubts or fears of the agencies’ absolute preparedness.

Bridenstine reiterated that the safety of the astronauts was the number one priority of NASA. (In fact, at 4:18 p.m. today, Jim Bridenstine tweeted: “Cloud with lightning No launch for today – safety for our crew members Astro_Doug and @AstroBehnken is our top priority. We’ll try, try again to #LaunchAmerica on Saturday with liftoff at 3:22pm ET. NASA TV will begin coverage at 11 am. Join us again virtually: https://go.nasa.gov/2yqlIIQ.” He did make the point again that NASA is a customer of SpaceX and the commercial crew flights and that the hopes are that these flights would soon be taking place without NASA, to lower the cost and build up the presence of commercial space activities in low-Earth orbit.

He talked about the need to launch a future commercial space station and some of the technologies that would be expanded there, such as 3D printing of organs in space.

In response to a question on U.S.-Russia cooperation and negotiations on the commercial launches, Bridenstine reiterated regarding the ISS, to which the crew will be launching, that half of the station is Russian and the other half American. He said, if we are going to have the continued cooperation that we have had, the U.S. has to be willing to launch cosmonauts on the commercial crew, and Russia has to be willing to launch NASA astronauts on the Soyuz. He pointed to the U.S.-Russian partnership going back to 1975 with Apollo/Soyuz, followed by Shuttle/MIR and then the ISS. Most importantly, “our cooperation transcends above terrestrial geopolitics,” said Bridenstine.

He concluded by responding to a question about the efforts and credit that go to previous administrations for what is underway in the space program today. He said the space program stretches beyond one administration to another, and said space exploration unites people beyond geopolitical boundaries, unites not only Democrats and Republicans, but all nations. President Donald Trump has made a commitment to return American astronauts to the Moon for permanent presence with the Artemis mission and on to Mars. He reiterated the bipartisan support for Artemis.


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