Overture Magazine 2013-2014 May-June 2014 | Page 37

Program Notes }
Beethoven appends a huge coda that
even touches on a ghostly funeral march
before the orchestra shouts the principal
theme one last time.
The Scherzo second movement —
Beethoven’s greatest example of the fierce
dance form he refashioned from the
3/4-time minuet — is built out of another
descending motive, consisting of just two
pitches and a dotted rhythm. From that
dotted rhythm and the potential it offers
to the timpani to become a major player
instead of an accompanist, Beethoven
creates a witty, infectious movement of
relentless intensity. And if the Scherzo is
the apotheosis of a rhythm, the succeeding slow movement is the apotheosis of
melody. Here Beethoven builds a double
variations movement out of two melodies,
one slow and noble, the other like a flowing stream: a musical representation of a
heavenly utopia.
The key of D major finally triumphs
over D minor in the exhilarating choral
finale, famed for making the cellos and
basses speak like human voices as they review the events of the previous movements

and then dismiss them in favor of the
sublimely simple “Joy” theme. The
remainder of the finale then becomes a
series of extraordinary variations on this
heart-stirring melody, sung by chorus, the
solo quartet, and orchestra.
The other major theme of this huge
finale is sung in unison by the tenors and
basses at the words “Seid umschlungen,
Millionen”: “Be embraced, ye millions.”
It opens an extended, awe-struck episode
in which the chorus hails the loving
Father, creator of the universe, and
concludes in a magnificent double fugue
in combination with the “Ode to Joy”
theme. At the end, Beethoven drives his
voices almost beyond their capacities to
express his glorious vision of a new world
just beyond human reach.
Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two
oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three
trombones, timpani, percussion, strings, solo
vocal quartet and mixed chorus.
Notes by Janet E. Bedell, Copyright ©2014

Ch r is Lee

unprecedented choral finale: a setting of
Friedrich Schiller’s poem “Ode to Joy,” in
which joy is defined as a state in which
“All men are made brothers.”
The Ninth Symphony comes from the
visionary last years of Beethoven’s life
during which he also created the Missa
solemnis and his celebrated late string
quartets. He had not written a symphony
since the Eighth in 1812. The years that
followed had been a period of emotional
struggle and artistic stasis. Only when
Beethoven resolved the battle for custody of his nephew Karl in 1820 did his
creative powers flow freely again. Now
virtually stone deaf, he had, in biographer
Maynard Solomon’s words, “reached a
stage where he had become wholly possessed by his art.”
Since at least the early 1790s, Beethoven
had loved Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” (written
in 1785 as a drinking song!) and considered setting it to music. When he made
the bold decision to risk a vocal finale,
he edited the poem to make it express a
higher joy for mankind than could be
found in any tavern.
Premiered at Vienna’s Kärtnertor Theater on May 7, 1824, the first performance
reportedly moved its audience to tears as
well as cheers. Beethoven was on the podium, but the real conductor was Michael
Umlauf; the musicians had been instructed to follow only his beat and ignore
the deaf Beethoven’s. The performance
would probably have sounded terrible to
us today: orchestra and singers had had
onl H