Didn't know the back story of Beethoven's Ode to Joy. This lovely #longread tells of the poem that inspired it, and the struggles faced by the composer at a time when joy was hard to grasp.
https://www.themarginalian.org/2022/05/17/beethoven-ode-to-joy/
h/t to whoever tooted this article, I cannot find you now but I thank you for it.