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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 {Link without Title} 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 fast 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 Tempo s. 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 at the end, 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 Ovation s 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. 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 Flute s, 2 Oboe s, 2 Clarinet s (in C, A and B flat), 2 Bassoon s, Contrabassoon , 4 Horns (in D, E flat, B flat and bass B flat), 2 Trumpet s (in D, B flat), 3 Trombone s, 2 Timpani , Triangle , Cymbal s, Bass Drum , a String section consisting of the usual first and second Violin s, Viola s, Cello s, Double Bass es, 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: # Allegro Ma Non Troppo , un poco Maestoso # Molto Vivace # # : "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 Trombone s 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 Measure s 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 Trombone s 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. Trombone s 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:
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:
=Text of fourth movement Words written by Beethoven, not Schiller, are shown in italics. 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 " 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. {Link without Title} 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:
NOTABLE RECORDINGS OF THE NINTH SYMPHONY
MEDIA REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINKS
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