Symphony No. 9
Choral symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven
A page (leaf 12 recto) from Beethoven's manuscript
Key	D minor
Opus	125
Period	Classical-Romantic (transitional)
Text	Friedrich Schiller's "Ode to Joy"
Language	German
Composed	1822–1824
Dedication	King Frederick William III of Prussia
Duration	about 70 minutes
Movements	Four
Scoring	Orchestra with SATB chorus and soloists
Premiere
Date	7 May 1824 (1824-05-07)
Location	Theater am Kärntnertor, Vienna
Conductor	Michael Umlauf and Ludwig van Beethoven
Performers	Kärntnertor house orchestra, Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde with soloists: Henriette Sontag (soprano), Caroline Unger (alto), Anton Haizinger (tenor), and Joseph Seipelt (bass)

The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is a choral symphony, the final complete symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, composed between 1822 and 1824. It was first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1824. The symphony is regarded by many critics and musicologists as a masterpiece of Western classical music and one of the supreme achievements in the history of music.^[1][2] One of the best-known works in common practice music,^[1] it stands as one of the most frequently performed symphonies in the world.^[3][4]

The Ninth was the first example of a major composer scoring vocal parts in a symphony.^[5] The final (4th) movement of the symphony, commonly known as the Ode to Joy, features four vocal soloists and a chorus in the parallel key of D major. The text was adapted from the "An die Freude (Ode to Joy)", a poem written by Friedrich Schiller in 1785 and revised in 1803, with additional text written by Beethoven. In the 20th century, an instrumental arrangement of the chorus was adopted by the Council of Europe, and later the European Union, as the Anthem of Europe.^[6]

In 2001, Beethoven's original, hand-written manuscript of the score, held by the Berlin State Library, was added to the Memory of the World Programme Heritage list established by the United Nations, becoming the first musical score so designated.^[7]

History

Composition

The Philharmonic Society of London originally commissioned the symphony in 1817.^[8] Preliminary sketches (rough outlines) for the work were also made that year, with the key set as D minor and vocal participation also forecast. The main composition work was done between autumn 1822 and the completion of the autograph in February 1824.^[9] The symphony emerged from other pieces by Beethoven that, while completed works in their own right, are also in some sense forerunners of the future symphony. The 1808 Choral Fantasy, Op. 80, basically a piano concerto movement, brings in a choir and vocal soloists near the end for the climax. The vocal forces sing a theme first played instrumentally, and this theme is reminiscent of the corresponding theme in the Ninth Symphony.

Going further back, an earlier version of the Choral Fantasy theme is found in the song "Gegenliebe" (Returned Love) for piano and high voice, which dates from before 1795.^[10] According to Robert W. Gutman, Mozart's Offertory in D minor, "Misericordias Domini", K. 222, written in 1775, contains a melody that foreshadows "Ode to Joy".^[11]

Premiere

Although most of his major works had been premiered in Vienna, Beethoven was keen to have his latest composition performed in Berlin as soon as possible after finishing it, as he thought that musical taste in Vienna had become dominated by Italian composers such as Rossini.^[12] When his friends and financiers heard this, they urged him to premiere the symphony in Vienna in the form of a petition signed by a number of prominent Viennese music patrons and performers.^[12]

Beethoven was flattered by the adoration of Vienna, so the Ninth Symphony was premiered on 7 May 1824 in the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna along with the overture The Consecration of the House (Die Weihe des Hauses) and three parts of the Missa solemnis (the Kyrie, Credo, and Agnus Dei). This was the composer's first onstage appearance in 12 years; the hall was packed with an eager and curious audience and a number of musicians and figures in Vienna including Franz Schubert, Carl Czerny, and the Austrian chancellor Klemens von Metternich.^[13][14]

The premiere of Symphony No. 9 involved the largest orchestra ever assembled by Beethoven^[13] and required the combined efforts of the Kärntnertor house orchestra, the Vienna Music Society (Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde), and a select group of capable amateurs. While no complete list of premiere performers exists, many of Vienna's most elite performers are known to have participated.^[15][16]

The soprano and alto parts were sung by two famous young singers: Henriette Sontag and Caroline Unger. German soprano Henriette Sontag was 18 years old when Beethoven personally recruited her to perform in the premiere of the Ninth.^[17][18] Also personally recruited by Beethoven, 20-year-old contralto Caroline Unger, a native of Vienna, had gained critical praise in 1821 appearing in Rossini's Tancredi. After performing in Beethoven's 1824 premiere, Unger then found fame in Italy and Paris. Italian composers Donizetti and Bellini were known to have written roles specifically for her voice.^[19] Anton Haizinger and Joseph Seipelt sang the tenor and bass/baritone parts, respectively.

Although the performance was officially directed by Michael Umlauf, the theatre'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 for a revision of his opera Fidelio ended in disaster. So this time, he instructed the singers and musicians to ignore the almost completely 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 beating time for an orchestra he could not hear.^[20]

There are a number of anecdotes concerning the premiere of the Ninth. Based on the testimony of some of the participants, there are suggestions that the symphony was under-rehearsed (there were only two full rehearsals) and somewhat uneven in execution.^[21] On the other hand, the premiere was a great success. In any case, Beethoven was not to blame, as violinist Joseph Böhm recalled:

Beethoven himself conducted, that is, he stood in front of a conductor's stand and threw himself back and forth like a madman. At one moment he stretched to his full height, at the next he crouched down to the floor, he flailed about with his hands and feet as though he wanted to play all the instruments and sing all the chorus parts. —The actual direction was in Louis Duport's^{[n 1]} hands; we musicians followed his baton only.^[22]

Reportedly, the scherzo was completely interrupted at one point by applause. Either at the end of the scherzo or the end of the symphony (testimonies differ), Beethoven was several bars off and still conducting; the contralto Caroline Unger walked over and gently turned Beethoven around to accept the audience's cheers and applause. According to the critic for the Theater-Zeitung, "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."^[23] The audience acclaimed him through standing ovations five times; there were handkerchiefs in the air, hats, and raised hands, so that Beethoven, who they knew could not hear the applause, could at least see the ovations.^[24]

Editionsedit

The first German edition was printed by B. Schott's Söhne (Mainz) in 1826. The Breitkopf & Härtel edition dating from 1864 has been used widely by orchestras.^[25] In 1997, Bärenreiter published an edition by Jonathan Del Mar.^[26] According to Del Mar, this edition corrects nearly 3,000 mistakes in the Breitkopf edition, some of which were "remarkable".^[27] David Levy, however, criticized this edition, saying that it could create "quite possibly false" traditions.^[28] Breitkopf also published a new edition by Peter Hauschild in 2005.^[29]

Instrumentationedit

The symphony is scored for the following orchestra. These are by far the largest forces needed for any Beethoven symphony; at the premiere, Beethoven augmented them further by assigning two players to each wind part.^[30]

Formedit

The symphony is in four movements. The structure of each movement is as follows:^[32]

I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso

---

II. Molto vivace

---

III. Adagio molto e cantabile

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IV. Finale

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Tempo marking	Meter	Key
Movement I
Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso = 88	2 4	d
Movement II
Molto vivace . = 116	3 4	d
Presto = 116	2 2	D
Molto vivace	3 4	d
Presto	2 2	D
Movement III
Adagio molto e cantabile = 60	4 4	B♭
Andante moderato = 63	3 4	D
Tempo I	4 4	B♭
Andante moderato	3 4	G
Adagio	4 4	E♭
Lo stesso tempo	12 8	B♭
Movement IV
Presto . = 96[33]	3 4	d
Allegro assai = 80	4 4	D
Presto ("O Freunde")	3 4	d
Allegro assai ("Freude, schöner Götterfunken")	4 4	D
Alla marcia; Allegro assai vivace . = 84 ("Froh, wie seine Sonnen")	6 8	B♭
Andante maestoso = 72 ("Seid umschlungen, Millionen!")	3 2	G
Allegro energico, sempre ben marcato . = 84 ("Freude, schöner Götterfunken" – "Seid umschlungen, Millionen!")	6 4	D
Allegro ma non tanto = 120 ("Freude, Tochter aus Elysium!")	2 2	D
Prestissimo = 132 ("Seid umschlungen, Millionen!")	2 2	D

Beethoven changes the usual pattern of Classical symphonies in placing the scherzo movement before the slow movement (in symphonies, slow movements are usually placed before scherzi).^[34] This was the first time he did this in a symphony, although he had done so in some previous works, including the String Quartet Op. 18 no. 5, the "Archduke" piano trio Op. 97, the Hammerklavier piano sonata Op. 106. And Haydn, too, had used this arrangement in a number of his own works such as the String Quartet No. 30 in E♭ major, as did Mozart in three of the Haydn Quartets and the G minor String Quintet.

I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestosoedit

The first movement is in sonata form without an exposition repeat. It begins with open fifths (A and E) played pianissimo by tremolo strings, steadily building up until the first main theme in D minor at bar 17.^[35]

The opening, with its perfect fifth quietly emerging, resembles the sound of an orchestra tuning up.^[36]

At the outset of the recapitulation (which repeats the main melodic themes) in bar 301, the theme returns, this time played fortissimo and in D major, rather than D minor. The movement ends with a massive coda that takes up nearly a quarter of the movement, as in Beethoven's Third and Fifth Symphonies.^[37]

A typical performance lasts about 15 minutes.

II. Molto vivaceedit

The second movement is a scherzo and trio. Like the first movement, the scherzo is in D minor, with the introduction 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. At times during the piece, Beethoven specifies one downbeat every three bars—perhaps because of the fast tempo—with the direction ritmo di tre battute (rhythm of three beats) and one beat every four bars with the direction ritmo di quattro battute (rhythm of four beats). Normally, a scherzo is in triple time. Beethoven wrote this piece in triple time but punctuated it in a way that, when coupled with the tempo, makes it sound as if it is in quadruple time.^[38]

While adhering to the standard compound ternary design (three-part structure) of a dance movement (scherzo-trio-scherzo or minuet-trio-minuet), the scherzo section has an elaborate internal structure; it is a complete sonata form. Within this sonata form, the first group of the exposition (the statement of the main melodic themes) starts out with a fugue in D minor on the subject below.^[38]

For the second subject, it modulates to the unusual key of C major. The exposition then repeats before a short development section, where Beethoven explores other ideas. The recapitulation (repeating of the melodic themes heard in the opening of the movement) further develops the exposition's themes, also containing timpani solos. A new development section leads to the repeat of the recapitulation, and the scherzo concludes with a brief codetta.^[38]

The contrasting trio section is in D major and in duple time. The trio is the first time the trombones play. Following the trio, the second occurrence of the scherzo, unlike the first, plays through without any repetition, after which there is a brief reprise of the trio, and the movement ends with an abrupt coda.^[38]

The duration of the movement is about 11 minutes, but this may vary depending on whether two (frequently omitted) repeats are played.

III. Adagio molto e cantabileedit

The third movement is a lyrical, slow movement in B♭ major—a minor sixth away from the symphony's main key of D minor. It is in a double variation form,^[39] with each pair of variations progressively elaborating the rhythm and melodic ideas. 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 third in E♭ major, and the fourth in B major. The final variation is twice interrupted by episodes in which loud fanfares from the full orchestra are answered by octaves by the first violins. A prominent French horn solo is assigned to the fourth player.^[40]

A performance lasts about 16 minutes.

IV. Finaleedit

The choral finale is Beethoven's musical representation of universal brotherhood based on the "Ode to Joy" theme and is in theme and variations form.

The movement starts with an introduction in which musical material from each of the preceding three movements—though none are literal quotations of previous music^[41]—are successively presented and then dismissed by instrumental recitatives played by the low strings. Following this, the "Ode to Joy" theme is finally introduced by the cellos and double basses. After three instrumental variations on this theme, the human voice is presented for the first time in the symphony by the baritone soloist, who sings words written by Beethoven himself: ''O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!' Sondern laßt uns angenehmere anstimmen, und freudenvollere.'' ("Oh friends, not these sounds! Let us instead strike up more pleasing and more joyful ones!").

At about 24 minutes in length, the last movement is the longest of the four movements. Indeed, it is longer than some entire symphonies of the Classical era. Its form has been disputed by musicologists, as Nicholas Cook explains:

Beethoven had difficulty describing the finale himself; in letters to publishers, he said that it was like his Choral Fantasy, Op. 80, only on a much grander scale. We might call it a cantata constructed round a series of variations on the "Joy" theme. But this is rather a loose formulation, at least by comparison with the way in which many twentieth-century critics have tried to codify the movement's form. Thus there have been interminable arguments as to whether it should be seen as a kind of sonata form (with the "Turkish" music of bar 331, which is in B♭ major, functioning as a kind of second group), or a kind of concerto form (with bars 1–207 and 208–330 together making up a double exposition), or even a conflation of four symphonic movements into one (with bars 331–594 representing a Scherzo, and bars 595–654 a slow movement). The reason these arguments are interminable is that each interpretation contributes something to the understanding of the movement, but does not represent the whole story.^[42]

Cook gives the following table describing the form of the movement:^[43]