Beethoven's Ninth Symphony: history, analysis, meaning and playlist

The Ninth Symphony or Symphony No. 9 It is one of the most emblematic compositions of Ludwig van Beethoven, who carried it out between 1818 and 1824 on behalf of the London Philharmonic Society. The importance of it is such that it was declared a World Heritage Site in 2002.

When the play opened, Beethoven was deaf. They say that he directed the Ninth Symphony using his stupendous reading, though when the last movement was over, he was unable to hear the applause from the audience, he had to be alerted by the musicians of the orchestra to give the return.

This, which was his last public appearance, was also the birth of a legend: the man who changed the history of music had gone deaf, and being deaf - this was indeed an act of genius - he wrote the Ninth Symphony that constituted, without any reservation, an authentic musical revolution. Let's understand why.

Analysis of the Ninth Symphony

To understand the revolutionary character of the Ninth SymphonyIt is necessary to know what the symphonies were like before this work, what was the symphonic tradition to which the composers adhered to that moment.

The symphony as a genre

We call a symphony a musical work conceived for an orchestra that, in its classical form, consists of four movements. Each movement has its own characteristics. In Beethoven's time, symphonic movements used to be structured as follows:

• First movement: Allegro.
• Second movement: Adagio.
• Third movement: Scherzo.
• Fourth movement: Allegro.

This structure usually developed in a period of approximately thirty minutes or little more. As for the format, normally the symphonies were composed for the string section, the brass section and the woodwind section. Therefore, it was an absolutely instrumental genre.

Although Beethoven had already shown signs of serious and important transformations of the genre, especially taking advantage to the extreme of the timbral development, the dynamics (agogic), in addition to the harmonic changes and tonal, in the Ninth Symphony introduces real news.

The Ninth Symphony and its innovations

On the surface, Ludwig van Beethoven develops the Ninth Symphony following the conventional structure: four movements. However, these movements are developed in such a way that they open the way to a new phenomenal perception of music and extend their duration to a few sixty minutes roughly, a noticeable change in the customs of music and entertainment.

Changes in structure

The structure of the Ninth Symphony It is as follows:

• Allegro ma non troppo, a little maestoso
• Scherzo: Molto vivace - Presto
• Adagio molto e cantabile - Andante Moderato - Tempo Primo - Andante Moderato - Adagio - Lo Stesso Tempo
• Recitative: (Presto - Allegro ma non troppo - Vivace - Adagio cantabile - Allegro assai - Presto: Or 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, semper ben marcato: (Freude, schöner Götterfunken – Seid umschlungen, Millionen!) - Allegro ma non tanto: Freude, Tochter aus Elysium! - Prestissimo, Maesteoso, Prestissimo: Seid umschlungen, Millionen!

As can be seen, Beethoven develops rhythmic transformations throughout the structure that are absolutely contrasting, and break with the sense of balance and measure of the classicism.

Regarding the first movement, the researcher Josep Pascual, in his book Universal Guide to Classical Music, argues that "The symphony begins with a series of perfect fourths and fifths, emerged as out of nowhere (...)", and attributes to its development "an almost violent climate". To this, he adds:

... in the whole composition the contrasts dominate and the drama of the first movement becomes vitality in the second, which has sometimes been rightly defined as a passage from obscurity to the light.

The third movement, says the researcher, is dominated by a lyrical spirit, prelude to the fourth movement, in which the Hymn to joy. The researcher classifies it as "an emotional hymn to universal brotherhood." Josep Pascual concludes by stating that the fourth movement can be considered a complete work in itself, that is, “a whole symphony”.

But we have to say that not everyone saw Beethoven's fourth movement favorably. The composer's audacity in this movement earned him criticism from characters such as Giuseppe Verdi, to whom it seemed a convulsive and disastrous move that broke with the excellence of the first three.

New tools and resources

This creative and creative freedom of Beethoven is not only expressed in the structural changes of the sonata form, but also in the configuration of the orchestra, that is, in the instruments participants. This configuration would be the following:

• Woodwind section:
  • Piccolo;
  • 2 flutes;
  • 2 oboes;
  • 2 clarinets (in A, B flat and C);
  • 2 bassoons;
  • 1 contrabassoon;
• Metal wind section:
  • 4 horns (2 in D and 2 in B flat);
  • 2 trumpets (in B flat and E flat);
  • 3 trombones (alto and tenor);
• String section:
  • Violins;
  • Violas;
  • Cellos;
  • Double basses.
• Percussion:
  • timpani,
  • drum,
  • saucers,
  • triangle;
• Voices:
  • Chorus,
  • Soprano, alto, tenor and bass soloists.

In the Ninth, Beethoven introduced the percussion for the first time in the history of the symphony. In fact, percussion was not even considered a regular section of orchestras in that generation.

The inclusion of percussion would print a new character that would raise the emotional power. From the first movement we can feel the strength of the percussive section, which contrasts with the delicacy of the strings carried to the pianissimo.

With this, Beethoven manages to raise the power, intensity and expressiveness of the sounds achieved by the whole orchestra, until reaching truly impressive effects on the experience auditory.

Another important Beethoven innovation was the inclusion of choir and solo singers, which he arranges in the fourth movement, the climactic moment of the work.

The text chosen by the composer was the famous Ode to joy by Friedrich Schiller, who wrote it in the year 1786. In time, the name Hymn to joy began to be used to refer to the musicalized work.

With this gesture, Beethoven gave the voice the same dignity that musical instruments enjoyed, that is In other words, he made the voice an instrument of the orchestra that brought new textures, timbres and effects to the composition.

But he also valued the poetic word, raised to the form of the symphony. Certainly, poetry had been vindicated in the genre of lied German long before, but now, he was making his triumphant entry into the symphony which, by then, was considered the highest form of academic music.

All this made it possible for Ludwig Van Beethoven to establish himself as the predecessor of the so-called choral symphony, opening the way to such emblematic figures of this genre as Hector Berlioz.

See also Hymn to joy: analysis and meaning.

The expression of a new sensibility

Beethoven develops various rhythmic concepts and intensities that elevate the emotion to a truly climatic point. The work acquires a deep dramatic, emotional, moving sense. Music itself becomes a cathartic, liberating spectacle.

This new sensibility, which seeks "ecstasy" through creative activity, which proclaims emotion in the face of proportionate and symmetrical classical forms, is not strange in its time.

Beethoven drinks from the spirit that emerged in Germany towards the end of the 18th century with the movement Sturm und Drang, the starting point of the romantic revolution that forever transformed the visual arts, literature and music, and which was particularly prolific in the latter two.

In fact, in the 19th century, music gained greater importance compared to the plastic arts and architecture. The researcher Matías Rivas Vergara, in an essay entitled Beethoven's Ninth Symphony: History, Ideas and Aesthetics he argues that:

... Romantic musical aesthetics is essentially a conception of music as a "metaphysical language" capable of express the ineffable and the Absolute - both topos, poetic and metaphysical, which constitute the essence of the Romanticism.

The end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century were turbulent, revolutionary times. It is well known that Beethoven was in communion with the modern values ​​of the French Revolution, so much so that he believed he saw Napoleon Bonaparte as a hero, even realizing his imperialist intentions.

Use this as an example to show the extent to which Beethoven was committed to the ideals of equality, liberty and fraternity, far above the deification of individuals. For this reason, this work, his last symphony, ends with the glorification of the Ode to joy of Schiller.

It was Beethoven who, in academic music, opened the space for creative freedom, subjectivity, and one's own emotional expression, values ​​consistent with the romanticist aesthetic. It records the dominance of the classical tradition in its early years, and the thirst for freedom and creativity in the latter. Beethoven was the key to a door that gave the entrance to a new musical universe.

Play list

References

• Pascual, Josep: Universal guide to classical music. Barcelona: Robinbook editions. 2008.
• Rivas Vergara, Matías: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony: History, Ideas and Aesthetics. Recovered at Academia.edu. 2013.