What if the world's most famous and uplifting melodies harbour surprisingly dark histories? A new book, A History of the World in 50 Pieces by Tom Service, argues that music's universal appeal makes it a potent tool, easily twisted for political ends far removed from its creators' original intentions.
The Double-Edged Sword of Beethoven's Ode to Joy
Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, culminating in the Ode to Joy, was conceived as a hymn to universal brotherhood. Setting Friedrich Schiller's proto-revolutionary text, Beethoven crafted a simple, powerful melody designed for a new world to sing. Yet, this very simplicity became its curse, allowing the tune to be annexed by wildly opposing ideologies.
In 1989, it became a soundtrack for hope, blared by students in Tiananmen Square and sung as Ode to Freedom at the fallen Berlin Wall. Conversely, the Nazis perverted its message of joy into one of hate and extermination. It served as the national anthem for apartheid Rhodesia and won praise from Joseph Stalin. Today, it is the anthem of the European Union, embodying a dream of unity that remains perpetually vulnerable to co-option.
Happy Birthday: From Classroom Tune to Corporate Asset
The journey of Happy Birthday reveals a different kind of appropriation: corporate rather than political. Sisters Mildred and Patty J Hill composed the melody as Good Morning to All for their kindergarten class in the 1890s. A spontaneous decision to sing it for a friend's birthday transformed it into a global phenomenon.
However, this tune of communal celebration became embroiled in legal battles. In 1988, publisher Warner Chappell bought the rights for $22 million, earning an estimated $2 million annually from its use. It was only in 2016, after filmmaker Jenn Nelson's successful lawsuit, that the melody was returned to the public domain, fulfilling the Hill sisters' wish for it to be common property.
Shostakovich's Leningrad: A Symphony Weaponised
Perhaps the most stark modern example is Dmitri Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, the Leningrad. Composed during the Nazi siege of the city, its first movement features a terrifying, repetitive march based on a tune from Franz Léhar's The Merry Widow, a favourite of Hitler's. Shostakovich stated the music was about all forms of terror, slavery, and bondage of the spirit, criticising not just Nazism but any totalitarian regime.
Today, the symphony is fiercely contested. In August 2022, Vladimir Putin invoked it at an 80th-anniversary performance, telling the Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra it inspired love for the Motherland and readiness to defend it, effectively enlisting the music in his war effort. Globally, however, the piece is performed as a monument of resistance to the very autocracy Putin represents.
These case studies demonstrate that music which aims for universal connection inevitably reflects humanity's full complexity. The melodies we share can unite us in joy or solidarity, but their power also makes them irresistible instruments for propaganda, greed, and control. The history of these 50 pieces, therefore, becomes a history of our best intentions and their most unforeseen consequences.
