Beethoven ultimately modified the above text to read: “O friends, no more these sounds! Let us sing songs that are more cheerful and full of joy!” Both these lines, and the beginning of Schiller’s Ode, are given to the solo bass vocalist. Even after Beethoven made the final decision to employ Schiller’s text, the question remained of how to effect the appropriate transition to this new and daring path.Īnd then one day (according to the composer’s friend and biographer, Anton Schindler), Beethoven exclaimed: “I’ve got it, I’ve got it.” Beethoven had sketched the following words: “Let us sing the song of the immortal Schiller.” This text was to be performed by the basses of the chorus, with the soprano then presenting Schiller’s Ode. As late as the summer of 1823, Beethoven considered ending his Symphony in traditional fashion with a purely instrumental fourth movement. 1806, 1814), looks forward to the finale of the Ninth.īeethoven composed the Ninth Symphony during a period between the spring of 1823 and January 1824. And the sublime writing for the vocal soloists and chorus in the final scene of Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio (1805, rev. An even more startling premonition of the Ninth Symphony may be found in Beethoven’s 1808 Fantasia in C minor for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra, Opus 80. A version of the melody first appears in a song Beethoven composed in the mid-1790s, entitled “Gegenliebe” (“Mutual Love”), based upon a poem by Gottfried August Bürger. Likewise, Beethoven’s melodic setting of Schiller’s Ode in the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth was the product of an extended genesis. The text of the Symphony’s finale, based upon the 1785 Ode “To Joy” by the great German writer, Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805), held a lifelong attraction for the composer. The revolutionary introduction of vocal soloists and chorus in the finale was a bold masterstroke that forever expanded the potential of symphonic expression. ![]() ![]() The Ninth is by far the most epic of Beethoven’s Symphonies, both in terms of length and performing forces. ![]() Soprano, alto, tenor, and bass soloists, mixed chorus, piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, and strings.īeethoven’s Ninth and final Symphony (“Choral”) represents, on a number of levels, a summit of the immortal composer’s artistic life. 9 in D minor, Opus 125, “Choral” (1824) 65 minutes Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Symphony No.
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