Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)

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Composer Ludwig van Beethoven
Composer Ludwig van Beethoven
4th movement (European Union anthem) samples:

The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 "Choral" is the last complete symphony composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, it incorporates part of the Ode an die Freude ("Ode To Joy"), a poem 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. This was a controversial move at that period, but after that, using voices became popular in symphonies.[citation needed]

The symphony was first published with the German title Sinfonie mit Schlusschor über Schillers Ode “An die Freude” für großes Orchester, 4 Solo und 4 Chorstimmen componiert und seiner Majestät dem König von Preußen Friedrich Wilhelm III in tiefster Ehrfurcht zugeeignet von Ludwig van Beethoven, 125 tes Werk; however, a more common official name is Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125. The work is referred to as the "Choral" symphony.

This symphony is one of the best known of all works of Classical music, and is considered one of Beethoven's greatest masterpieces, composed while he was completely deaf. It plays a prominent cultural role in modern society.

In particular, the music from the fourth movement (Ode to Joy) was rearranged by Herbert von Karajan into what is now known as the the official anthem of the European Union (the German lyrics have no official status). Further testament to its prominence is that an original manuscript of this work sold in 2003 for 3.3 million U.S. dollars at Sotheby's, London. The Head of Manuscripts Department, Dr Stephen Roe stated "it is one of the highest achievements of man ranking along side Shakespeare's Hamlet and King Lear." Due to the universal appeal of this symphony, it is now part of the UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] 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 1818 and finished it early in 1824. This was roughly twelve years after his eighth symphony. However, Beethoven started working on this piece much earlier. Beethoven wanted to put the Ode 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 many difficulties 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 just got it!' Then he showed me a sketchbook with the words 'let us sing the ode of the immortal Schiller'". However, that introduction did not make it into the final product, and Beethoven spent a great deal of time rewriting the part until it had reached the form recognizable today.

[edit] Premiere

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Beethoven was eager to get his work played in Berlin as soon as possible when he finished writing. He was thinking 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.

The Ninth Symphony was premiered on Monday, 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 Sontag and Caroline Unger.

Although the performance was officially directed by Michael 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 "dissonances" at the time.

[edit] Orchestration

The orchestration for the Ninth Symphony is as follows:

Woodwinds
Piccolo (used only in fourth movement)
2 Flutes
2 Oboes
2 Clarinets in B-flat, C, A
2 Bassoons
Contrabassoon (used only in fourth movement)
Brass
2 Horns (Hns. 1, 2) in D, B-flat
2 Horns (Hns. 3, 4) in B-flat (bass), B-flat, E-flat
2 Trumpets in D, B-flat
3 Trombones (Alto, Tenor, and Bass) (used only in second and fourth movements)
Percussion
Timpani
Triangle (used only in fourth movement)
Cymbals (used only in fourth movement)
Bass Drum (used only in fourth movement)
Voices
(used only in fourth movement)
Soprano Solo
Alto Solo
Tenor
Baritone
Choir in four parts:
Soprano
Alto
Tenor (Part divides briefly into Tenor I and Tenor II)
Bass
Strings
1st, 2nd Violins
Violas
Violoncellos
Double Basses

Note: 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.

[edit] 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 - Adagio cantabile/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!"

Beethoven adopts the slightly unusual pattern of Classical symphonies in performing the scherzo movement before the slow movement, as he did in his Eighth symphony and other previous works (including the quartets Op. 18 nos. 4 and 5, the "Archduke" piano trio Op. 97, the "Hammerklavier" piano sonata Op. 106).


[edit] Second movement

The second movement, a scherzo, is also in D minor, with the opening theme bearing a passing resemblance to the opening theme of the first movement, a pattern also found in the Hammerklavier piano sonata, written a few years earlier. It uses propulsive rhythms and a timpani solo. At times during the piece Beethoven directs that the beat should be one downbeat every three bars with the direction ritmo di tre battute ("rhythm of three bars"), and one beat every four bars with the direction ritmo di quattro battute ("rhythm of four bars").

The contrasting trio section is in D major and in duple time. The trio is the first time the trombones play in the work.

[edit] Third movement

The lyrical slow movement, in B-flat major, is in a loose variation form, with each pair of variations progressively elaborating the rhythm and melody. The first variation, like the theme, is in 4/4 time, the second in 12/8. The variations are separated by passages in 3/4, the first in D major, the second in G major. The final variation is twice interrupted by episodes in which loud fanfares for the full orchestra are answered by double-stopped octaves played by the first violins alone. A virtuosic horn solo is assigned to the fourth player. Trombones are tacet for the movement.

[edit] Fourth movement

The famous choral finale has been characterised by Charles Rosen as a symphony within a symphony, containing four movements played without interruption.[1] 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 later "recapitulated" with voices.
  • Second "movement": 6/8 scherzo in military style (begins at "Alla marcia", words "Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen"), in the "Turkish style." 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 has a thematic unity, in which every part may be shown to be 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 Presto passage. It then briefly quotes all three of the previous movements in order, each dismissed by the cellos and basses which then play in an instrumental foreshadowing of the vocal recitative. At the introduction of the main theme, the cellos and basses take it up and play it through.
  • The main theme forms the basis 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.
  • The main theme again undergoes variations, this time for vocal soloists and chorus.

[edit] 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! 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,
(Schillers 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! Joy!
Joy, thou glorious spark of heaven,
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

[edit] Influence on other composers

Bruckner used the chromatic fourth in his third symphony in much the same way that Beethoven used it in the first movement's coda.

In the opening notes of the third movement of his Symphony No. 9 (The 'New World' Symphony), Antonin Dvorak pays homage to the scherzo of this symphony with his falling fourths and timpani strokes.[2]

[edit] Curse of the ninth

Using modern numbering, several composers beside Beethoven completion of no more than nine symphonies. This has led certain subsequent composers, particularly Gustav Mahler, to be superstitious about composing their own ninth or tenth symphonies. This phenomenon has become known as the curse of the ninth.

[edit] Performing the symphony

Lasting more than an hour, the Ninth was an exceptionally long symphony for its time.

Like much of Beethoven's later music, his Ninth Symphony is demanding for all the performers, including the choir and soloists. This may partly be due to current concert pitch being higher now than it was in Beethoven’s day, although orchestras specialising in period performance often play at period pitch.

Beethoven's own metronome markings for his Ninth Symphony are controversial. Historically, conductors have tended to take a slower tempo than Beethoven marked for the slow movement, and a faster tempo for the military march section of the finale. Conductors in the historically informed performance movement, notably Roger Norrington, have used Beethoven's suggested tempos, to mixed reviews.

[edit] Ninth Symphony since the 19th century

See also: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in popular culture

The Ninth Symphony has frequently been incorporated into film scores, television, and popular music.

At most Olympic Games during the second half of the 20th Century, the fourth movement was 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 Albertville and the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona[citation needed].

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.[3]

Wendy Carlos makes an electronic version in 1971 for the Stanley Kubrick`s film A Clockwork Orange.

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. [1]

In 1985, the European Union chose Beethoven's music as the EU anthem [2], without German lyrics, because of the many different languages used within the European Union. The ideal of human brotherhood is stated in more universal terms in Beethoven's adaptation ("All persons become brothers") than in Schiller's original, which states that "Beggars become princes' brothers".

[edit] Notable recordings of the Ninth Symphony

[edit] 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).
  • Esteban Buch, Beethoven's Ninth: A Political History Translated by Richard Miller, ISBN 0-226-07824-8 (University Of Chicago Press) [3]
  1. ^ Rosen, Charles. "The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven". page 440. New York: Norton, 1997.
  2. ^ Steinberg, Michael. "The Symphony: a listeners guide". page 153. Oxford University Press, 1995.
  3. ^ Lockwood, Lewis. "Beethoven: The Music and the Life". page 412. New York: Norton, 2003.
  4. ^ Naxos (2006). Ode To Freedom - Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (NTSC). Naxos.com Classical Music Catalogue. Retrieved on 2006-11-26. This is the publisher's catalogue entry for a DVD of Bernstein's Christmas 1989 "Ode to Freedom" concert.

[edit] External links


Ludwig van Beethoven
Life and work • Musical style and innovations • Beethoven and his contemporaries • List of works
Symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven
First - Second - Third ("Eroica") - Fourth - Fifth - Sixth ("Pastoral") - Seventh - Eighth - Ninth ("Choral")
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