Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)

The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 is the last complete symphony composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, it includes part of the ode An die Freude ("Ode To Joy") by Friedrich Schiller, with text sung by soloists and a chorus in the last movement. It is the first example of a major composer using the human voice on the same level with instruments in a symphony.

The symphony is one of the best known of all works of European classical music, and is considered one of Beethoven's greatest masterpieces, composed whilst he was completely deaf. It plays a prominent cultural role in modern society. In particular, the music from the fourth movement (Ode to Joy, without words) is used as the official anthem of the European Union.

History

Writing of the symphony

The Philharmonic Society of London (later the Royal Philharmonic Society) originally commissioned the symphony in 1817. Beethoven supposedly started work on his last symphony in 1822 and finished it early in 1824. This was about ten years after his eighth symphony. However, Beethoven started working on this piece much earlier. Beethoven wanted to put the An die Freude to music as early as 1793. He did that as a piece, but unfortunately that piece has been lost forever. The theme for the scherzo can be traced back to a fugue written in 1815.

The introduction for the vocal part of the symphony caused a lot of headaches for Beethoven. Beethoven's friend, Anton Schindler, later said: "When he started working on the fourth movement the struggle began as never before. The aim was to find an appropriate way of introducing Schiller's ode. One day he [Beethoven] entered the room and shouted 'I got it, I got it!' Then he showed me a sketchbook with the words 'let us sing the ode of the immortal Schiller'". That introduction did not make it into the final product, however, and Beethoven spent a lot of time rewriting the part until it had reached the form recognizable today.

Premiere

Beethoven was eager to get his work played in Vienna as soon as possible when he finished writing. He was equivocal, however, thinking also that the musical taste in Vienna was stricken by Italian composers such as Rossini. When his friends and financiers heard this they urged him to premiere the symphony in Vienna. (In Vienna, there was a learning group called the Vienna circle.)

The Ninth Symphony was premiered on Friday, May 7, 1824 in the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna. The work was premiered along with the overture Die Weihe des Hauses and the first three parts of the Missa solemnis. This was the composer's first on-stage appearance in twelve years; the hall was packed. The soprano and alto parts were interpreted by two famous young singers: Henriette Sonntag and Caroline Unger.

Although the performance was officially directed by Ignaz Umlauf, the theater's Kapellmeister, Beethoven shared the stage with him. However two years earlier, Umlauf had watched as the composer's attempt to conduct a dress rehearsal of his opera Fidelio ended in disaster. So this time, he instructed the singers and musicians to ignore the totally deaf Beethoven. At the beginning of every part, Beethoven, who sat by the stage, gave the tempos. He was turning the pages of his score and was beating time for an orchestra he could not hear.

There are a number of anecdotes about the premiere of the Ninth. Based on the testimony of the participants, there are suggestions that it was under-rehearsed (there were only two full rehearsals) and rather scrappy in execution. On the other hand, the premiere was a big success. In any case, Beethoven was not to blame, as violist Josef Bohm recalled, "Beethoven directed the piece himself, that is: he stood before the lectern and gesticulated furiously. At times he raised, at other times he shrunk to the ground, he moved as if he wanted to play all the instruments himself and sing for the whole chorus. All the musicians minded his rhythm alone while playing".

When the audience applauded, testimonies differ over whether at the end of the scherzo or the whole symphony, Beethoven was several measures off and still conducting. Because of that, the contralto Caroline Unger walked over and forcibly turned Beethoven around to accept the audience's cheers and applause. According to one witness, "the public received the musical hero with the utmost respect and sympathy, listened to his wonderful, gigantic creations with the most absorbed attention and broke out in jubilant applause, often during sections, and repeatedly at the end of them." The whole audience acclaimed him through standing ovations five times; there were handkerchiefs in the air, hats, raised hands, so that Beethoven, who could not hear the applause, could at least see the ovation gestures. The theatre house had never seen such enthusiasm in applause.

At that time, it was customary that the imperial couple be greeted with three ovations at their entrance in the hall. The fact that a private person, who wasn’t even employed by the state, and all the more, was a musician (class of people who had been perceived as lackeys at court), received five ovations, was in itself inadmissible, almost indecent. Police agents present at the concert had to break off this spontaneous explosion of ovations. Beethoven left the concert deeply moved.

The repeat performance on May 23 in the great hall of the Fort was, however, poorly attended.

There was much negative criticism of the symphony and its "disonnances" at the time.

Music

Naming

The official name is: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, opus 125, Chempei Miyagawa. The symphony is sometimes referred to as "Choral", pointing to the vocal end of the symphony. Beethoven had wanted to set Schiller's 'Ode to Joy' to music for many years and in fact later stated that he had wished to write an alternative instrumental ending to the Ninth Symphony, leaving an interpretation of the 'Ode to Joy' as a separate work.

Score

The Ninth Symphony is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in C, A and B flat), 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns (in D, E flat, B flat and bass B flat), 2 trumpets (in D, B flat), 3 trombones, 2 timpani, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, a string section consisting of the usual first and second violins, violas, cellos, double basses, four vocal soloists (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone), and a chorus singing in four parts (soprano, alto, tenor, bass). These are by far the largest forces needed for any Beethoven symphony; at the premiere Beethoven expanded them further by assigning two players to each wind part.

Form

The symphony is in four movements, marked as follows:

1. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso
2. Molto vivace
3. Adagio molto e cantabile
4. Presto/recitative - Allegro ma non troppo/recitative - Vivace/recitative - Adagiocantabile/recitative - Allegro assai/recitative - Presto/recitative: "O Freunde" - Allegro assai: "Freude, schöner Götterfunken" - Alla marcia - Allegro assai vivace: "Froh, wie seine Sonnen" - Andante maestoso: "Seid umschlungen, Millionen!" - Adagio ma non troppo, ma divoto: "Ihr, stürzt nieder" - Allegro energico, sempre ben marcato: "Freude, schöner Götterfunken" / "Seid umschlungen, Millionen!" - Allegro ma non tanto: "Freude, Tochter aus Elysium!" - Prestissimo: "Seid umschlungen, Millionen!"

This arrangement of movements adopts a slightly unusual Classical pattern, with the scherzo movement in second (rather than the normal third) position. Beethoven was familiar with this arrangement from Haydn's work and had used it on various occasions throughout his career (the quartets Op. 18 no. 4-5, the "Archduke" piano trio Op. 97, the "Hammerklavier" piano sonata Op. 106).

First movement

The first movement is in sonata form, following a formal model that had guided Beethoven throughout his career. The mood is generally bleak and stormy. A striking moment here is the onset of the recapitulation section, which instead of literally repeating the pianissimo opening bars in D minor, switches to fortissimo D major, a key change which has struck many listeners, paradoxically, as expressing terror or awe. The piccolo, contrabassoon, and trombones are not called for in this movement; however, this is the first appearance of the quartet of horns in a Beethoven symphony.

Second movement

The second movement, a scherzo, is likewise in D minor, with the opening theme a kind of echo of the theme of the first movement, a pattern found likewise in the Hammerklavier piano sonata, written a few years earlier. It is notable for its propulsive rhythm and timpani solos (for this purpose the two timpani are tuned, unusually, an octave apart). At one point Beethoven gives the direction ritmo di tre battute, meaning that the beats of three consecutive measures must form a single rhythmic unit, as if the music were in 9/4 instead of 3/4 time; this is later reverted with ritmo di quattro battute, with the typical four-measure beat.

The contrasting trio section is in D major and in duple time. The trio also marks the first arrival of the trombones in the work.

Third movement

The lyrical and deeply felt slow movement, in B-flat major, is written in a loose variation form, with each of the two variations dividing the basic beat to produce a more elaborate melodic configuration than what went before. The first variation, like the theme, is in 4/4 time, the second in 12/8. The variations are separated by more impassioned passages in 3/4, the first in D major, the second in G major. The final variation is twice interrupted by striking episodes in which loud fanfares for the full orchestra are answered by double-stopped octaves played by the first violins alone. Also worth noting is a virtuosic horn solo assigned to the fourth player. Trombones are tacet for the movement.

Fourth movement

The famous choral finale has struck many listeners as somewhat rambling. Some helpful clarification can be found in the description of Charles Rosen, who characterizes it as a symphony within a symphony, containing four movements played without interruption. This "inner symphony" follows the same overall pattern as the Ninth Symphony as a whole. The scheme is as follows:

• First "movement": theme and variations with slow introduction. Main theme which first appears in the cellos and basses is "recapitulated" with voices(see below).
• Second "movement": 6/8 scherzo in military style (begins at "Alla marcia", words "Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen"). Beethoven's older listeners at the premiere would have recognized this as so-called "Turkish music." Concludes with 6/8 variation of the main theme with chorus.
• Third "movement": slow meditation with a new theme on the text "Seid umschlungen, Millionen!" (begins at "Andante maestoso")
• Fourth "movement": fugato finale on the themes of the first and third "movements" (begins at "Allegro energico")

The movement differs from an independent symphony because of its thematic unity: every part is based on either the main theme, the "Seid umschlungen" theme, or some combination of the two.

The first "movement within a movement" itself is organized into sections:

• An introduction, which starts with a stormy, chaotic Presto passage. It then briefly quotes all three of the previous movements in order, each dismissed in various ways by the cellos and basses, which play in an instrumental foreshadowing of the vocal recitative. The introduction eventually "discovers" the famous theme, which then becomes the subject of---
• A series of variations for orchestra alone.
• The introduction is then repeated from the Presto passage, this time with the bass soloist singing the recitatives previously suggested by cellos and basses, followed by---
• The variations again, this time for vocal soloists and chorus.

Text of fourth movement

Words written by Beethoven, not Schiller, are shown in italics.

German original O Freunde, nicht diese Töne! Sondern laßt uns angenehmere anstimmen und freudenvollere. Freude! Froh Freude! Freude, schöner Götterfunken Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum! Deine Zauber binden wieder Was die Mode streng geteilt; Alle Menschen werden Brüder, (Schiller's original: Was der Mode Schwert geteilt; Bettler werden Fürstenbrüder,) Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt. Wem der große Wurf gelungen, Eines Freundes Freund zu sein; Wer ein holdes Weib errungen, Mische seinen Jubel ein! Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund! Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle Weinend sich aus diesem Bund! Freude trinken alle Wesen An den Brüsten der Natur; Alle Guten, alle Bösen Folgen ihrer Rosenspur. Küsse gab sie uns und Reben, Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod; Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben, Und der Cherub steht vor Gott. Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen Durch des Himmels prächt'gen Plan, Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn, Freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen. Seid umschlungen, Millionen! Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt! Brüder, über'm Sternenzelt Muß ein lieber Vater wohnen. Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen? Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt? Such' ihn über'm Sternenzelt! Über Sternen muß er wohnen. Finale repeats the words: Seid umschlungen, Millionen! Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt! Brüder, über'm Sternenzelt Muß ein lieber Vater wohnen. Seid umschlungen, Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt! Freude, schöner Götterfunken Tochter aus Elysium, Freude, schöner Götterfunken

English translation Oh friends, not these tones! Rather let us sing more cheerful and more joyful ones. Joy! Glad joy! Joy, beautiful spark of the gods, Daughter of Elysium, We approach fire-drunk, Heavenly One, your shrine. Your magic reunites What custom sternly divides; All people become brothers (Schiller's original: What custom's sword separates; Beggars become princes' brothers) Where your gentle wing alights. Whoever succeeds in the great attempt To be a friend of a friend, Whoever has won a lovely woman, Let him add his jubilation! Yes, whoever calls even one soul His own on the earth's globe! And who never has, let him steal, Weeping, away from this group. All creatures drink joy At the breasts of nature; All the good, all the evil Follow her roses' trail. Kisses gave she us, and wine, A friend, proven unto death; Pleasure was to the worm granted, And the cherub stands before God. Glad, as his suns fly Through the Heavens' glorious plan, Run, brothers, your race, Joyful, as a hero to victory. Be embraced, you millions! This kiss for the whole world! Brothers, beyond the star-canopy Must a loving Father dwell. Do you bow down, you millions? Do you sense the Creator, world? Seek Him beyond the star-canopy! Beyond the stars must He dwell. Finale repeats the words: Be embraced, ye millions! This kiss for the whole world! Brothers, beyond the star-canopy Must a loving Father dwell. Be embraced, This kiss for the whole world! Joy, beautiful spark of the gods, Daughter of Elysium, Joy, beautiful spark of the gods

Trivia

Performing the symphony

Lasting over an hour, the Ninth was an exceptionally long symphony for its time. However, it has been exceeded in length by many later symphonies, most notably those of Bruckner and Mahler. Mahler's second, third and eighth, inspired by Beethoven, are very similar in conception and style due to their "grand" demeanors and extensive use of large choral and vocal forces.

Beethoven's Ninth makes extreme demands on the singers, partly because his vocal writing seems designed to evoke a sense of effort, and partly because concert pitch is higher now than it was in Beethoven’s day. Thus, it is fairly rare to find a performance that is suitably forceful but avoids any hint of shrieking or shouting. Specialists in authentic performance have experimented with performing the work at Beethoven’s concert pitch, which seems to help somewhat.

A delicate issue conductors must face is the fact that Beethoven left metronome markings specifying the tempo of each section. Historically, conductors have been very reluctant to respect these markings, preferring, for example, a slower tempo than Beethoven's for the slow movement and a faster tempo for the military march section of the finale. In general, Beethoven's metronome markings have proven unpopular among modern artists, and the possibility that Beethoven was (despite his unquestioned abilities as a composer) an inept metronome user should perhaps not be excluded. Conductors in the authentic performance movement, notably Roger Norrington, have experimented with adhering to Beethoven's tempos, to mixed reviews.

Ninth Symphony in the 20th century

The ode to joy portion of the symphony is an unofficial theme song for Nicaragua's Frente Sandinista de la Liberacion Nacional (FSLN).

In 1964 Maurice Béjart and his Ballet du XXe siècle gave an acclaimed performance of "IXe symphonie", a ballet based on the Ninth Symphony.

Among recorded performances, those conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler, especially those of 1942, 1951, and 1954, Herbert von Karajan, especially those of 1963 and 1976, Fritz Reiner, Leonard Bernstein, George Szell, and John Eliot Gardiner are highly regarded. Such judgments about musical performances are often biased or controversial. The musicologist Richard Taruskin has a detailed analysis and comparison of performances of Beethoven's 9th in his essay "Resisting the Ninth".

The Ninth Symphony has frequently been incorporated into film scores, television, and popular music. For a list of instances, see Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in popular culture.

At most Olympic games during the second half of the 20th Century, the fourth movement has been performed as part of ceremonial processions, and as the national anthem of the United Team of East and West Germany, at the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics. It was also used as the anthem for the Unified Team of the former USSR during the 1992 Winter Olympics in Alberville and the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

The symphony seems to have taken particularly deep root in Japan, where it is widely performed during December as part of the annual celebration of the new year. For example, in the Japanese anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, the character Kaworu states that "[The fourth movement] is the greatest achievement in the [human] culture."

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 von Karajan.

In 2003, the European Union chose Beethoven's music as the EU anthem, without German lyrics, because of the many different languages used within the European Union. The ideal of human brotherhood is stated in much more universal terms in Beethoven's adaptation ("All men become brothers") than in Schiller's original, which states that "Beggars become princes' brothers".

Beethoven's music was also adopted as a national anthem by the UDI regime of Rhodesia. In 1974 it was put to words. (See Rise O Voices of Rhodesia.)

Ritchie Blackmore's band Rainbow record the final Ode to Joy movement for their 1980 album Difficult to Cure, renaming it to be the title track.

Students in Beijing's Tiananmen Square protest broadcast the symphony through loudspeakers in 1989 as a statement against tyranny. A famous performance conducted by Leonard Bernstein on December 25, 1989 celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall. It substituted Freiheit ("freedom") for Freude ("joy") in the sung text.

It is widely believed that the playback time specifications of the Sony/Philips Compact Disc were influenced by a desire to accommodate performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on a single disc, without interruption. This requirement has been variously attributed to Herbert von Karajan (a Philips artist with access to Sony chairman Akio Morita), to Morita's wife, and to Sony president Norio Ohga. The urban legends investigators at snopes.com consider this to be "undecided." According to Philips, it was indeed Ohga to suggested extending the capacity enough to accommodate Beethoven's 9th. [1]

The Ninth Symphony in popular culture

Because the Ninth Symphony is perhaps the best known of all works of classical music, it has frequently been adapted for use in works of popular culture, particularly film scores, television, and popular music. The following is a partial list of such adaptations:

• The second and final movements are featured prominently in the novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, and Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation. The finale of Herbert von Karajan's 1963 Deutsche Grammophon recording is played over the final scene in the movie.
• The beginning of the second movement, the Scherzo, is used in the theme of Keith Olbermann's program Countdown on MSNBC.
• The final movement was adapted by Michael Kamen in his score for the 1989 thriller Die Hard.
• A portion of the final movement was used in Alan J. Pakula's movie Sophie's Choice from 1982.
• The opening measures of the second movement were used as the theme music for an American news broadcast in the 1960s, the Huntley-Brinkley Report.
• Satoshi Kon used the fourth movement in his anime film Tokyo Godfathers.
• The anime Neon Genesis Evangelion used the fourth movement as a thematic device in its 24th episode. The entirety of the fourth movement was also placed on the NEON GENESIS EVANGELION ADDITION soundtrack.
• The fourth movement is used as a "Death Symphony" in the Read or Die OVA.
• Billy Joel used the last several measures (the Prestissimo) to open his Millennium Concert on December 31, 1999 at Madison Square Garden.
• The anime Gunslinger Girl used the fourth movement at the climax of the 13th and final episode as the main characters watch a meteor shower.
• The music of the symphony was also used in the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's album Beethoven's Last Night (most specifically in the song "A Last Illusion").
• The Ninth Symphony is also heard in "Memory (Dead Winter Dead)", off Savatage's Dead Winter Dead album.
• A portion of the 4th movement is used in the opening of the song "Will you be there" by Michael Jackson.
• Portions of the first and second movements were used in Don Hertzfeldt's animated short film Rejected.
• A portion of the choral finale was used in the film Dead Poets Society, during the scene on the lawn.
• The first movement is played in the film Equilibrium.
• The fourth movement is the primary opening theme of the U.S. game show Win Ben Stein's Money.
• The Ode to Joy is sung in the Beatles film Help!.
• Ode to Joy is also used at the end of the 1986 movie The Money Pit.
• American telecasts of the Olympic Games often feature a portion of the Fourth Movement near the end of the telecast during the montage of video highlights from the Games.
• Song of Joy by Miguel Rios is a pop song adaptation of Beethoven's 9th. It was released in 1970 in the Spanish speaking world and 1971 saw its English translation. Song of Joy was a global hit.
• While the song has a generally religious theme, it is not specific to any religion. In 1907, Reverend Henry van Dyke wrote a specifically Christian hymn to the main theme music. Its first verse reads: Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee / God of glory, Lord of love / Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee / Opening to the sun above / Melt the clouds of sin and sadness / Drive the dark of doubt away / Giver of immortal gladness / Fill us with the light of day.
• Part of Ode to Joy was mixed in as a backbeat to End of the Century, one of the songs produced by Naoki Maeda (under the pseudonym "No. 9") for Dance Dance Revolution 3rdMIX.
• Both the fourth movement and a parody of Friedrich Schiller's title for it are used in the song 'Road to Joy' on Bright Eyes' album I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning.
• The fourth movement's main theme was used in the milk commercial to the lyrics of "Drink Milk, Love Life" in the 1990's.
• It appears in The Simpsons' episode Bart Has Two Mommies, when Rod and Tod Flanders discover the joys of the see-saw.
• German Neo-Medieval Folk/Industrial-Metal band Tanzwut did a rendition of "Ode to Joy" under the title "Götterfunken", with metal guitars, orchestra, and bagpipes. The song is featured on their LP "Labyrinth der Sinne".

Notable Recordings of the Ninth Symphony

• Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and the Lucerne Festival orchestra in the 1940s and 1950s.
• Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philmarmonic in 1962 and 1977, as part of complete Beethoven symphony cycles.
• Roger Norrington conducting the London Classical Players. Recorded with period instruments. Released in 1997 by Virgin Classics.
• Gunter Wand conducting the NDR-Sinfonieorchester (North German Radio Symphony Orchestra). Recorded in 1986 and released in 2001 by RCA Red Seal.

References

• Richard Taruskin, "Resisting the Ninth", in his Text and Act: Essays on Music and Performance (Oxford University Press, 1995).
• David Benjamin Levy, "Beethoven: the Ninth Symphony," revised edition (Yale University Press, 2003).

External links

• Free scores by 9th symphony (PDF) at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
• The William and Gayle Cook Music Library at the Indiana University School of Music's has posted a score for the symphony.
• Alcove Music Publications' simpler score.
• Sound samples and other info from the Classical Music Pages
• Text/libretto, with translation, in English and German
• EU official page about the anthem
• Analysis of the Beethoven Symphony No. 9 on the All About Ludwig van Beethoven Page
• A guided tour of Beethoven's 9th Symphony by Robert Kapilow on WNYC's Soundcheck
• Recording featuring Maximianno Cobra directing the Europa Philharmonia Budapest Orchestra & Choir